Operation Sow's Ear to Purse 2 : Cat chasing

[bunn]

Knowing that Duke was coming here, I bought a new book: STOP: how to control predatory chasing in dogs by David Ryan.

It's a thinnish book with large print so I should be able to go through the concepts pretty fast: going through the actual training however may be a tad fiddlier :-D 

Comments

[lil_shepherd]

For pity's sake, he's a sighthound.

Good luck.

[bunn]

He's a lurcher with a decent streak of collie from the look of him : a lurcher is supposed to be able to run through a herd of sheep to catch a rabbit. They work in conjunction with ferrets, which are like small mad cats on acid. He *should* be able to discriminate between small furry things and get his jollies from rabbits but not cats, for example.

A lot of them do retrieve well and you even get some doing agility and flyball, so it's worth a try. I think there's a brain in there somewhere, possibly even a good one: it's just a bit rusty at the mo.

I have two cat-safe sighthounds already and you don't get them without work: if this one doesn't make it reliably to that status then he'll still be much easier to find a really good owner for, if he has the training basics.

[puddleshark]

Someone recommended that book to me just last week, and I have it on order, so it's really interesting to hear some feedback on it.

If he's had no training at all in his entire life, poor lad, Duke is certainly going to test the effectiveness of the training methods...

[bunn]

I'm going to see if they can fit us in at the local training class - though he is picking things up pretty fast. I think he is going to be a really sensational big dog and I want him to have a great home, so I'm going to do my level best to make him as adoptable as I possibly can!

I think that David Ryan book will be really good for your springer. I am slightly less sure it will work so smoothly with to a sighthound, because I think he's used to quite drivy active dogs, and sighthounds are odd in that they can go from nap to chase mode with only about one change of gear. But it's worth a try...

[bunn]

Thanks!

[purple_witch]

oooooh - going to his seminars this weekend, will let you know if any more secrets!

Are you using clicker training with him? Tend to find its good at getting the brain engaged...

[bunn]

I intend to, but haven't started yet as I am finding that I seem to need rather a lot of equipment to manage him (normal lead, giant superstrong flexi, muzzle, bag of treats...) and don't seem to have a spare hand for clicking. But I am using 'good' as a marker (though now I think about it, maybe I should use another less common word). and probably should start thinking about clicker now...

He's doing the *best* sit for his dinner now after only a couple of days and his lead walking is getting better (thankfully: if he kept up the dragging me around the house approach, I was fearing he would fling me down the stairs!). There was a little accident after breakfast when I didn't whizz him outside fast enough, but he's getting to be clean in the house too.

Let me know if David Ryan says anything of particular application to ginormous sighthounds living in proximity with cats!