Vehicle Chasing...

[Ingrid]

This is a new behavior for my high energy Shepherd girl. When out on walks, she has (on two occasions recently) tried to chase passing school buses and semi-trucks. Nope, she doesn't bother with cars or pickups - just large vehicles. Granted, it's been hard to wear off some of her rambunctiousness outside with 2+ feet of snow on the ground. How do I convince her that "bigger isn't always better"?

[Jax's Mom]

How far does she chase them? Does she run into the street?

[Ingrid]

She's on a 6 foot leash on our walks and just does a quick lunge after the bigger vehicles (usually almost knocking me off my feet). I give her a leash correction and then she comes back to my side. She usually does this at the beginning of walks when she hasn't worn off much energy yet. The look on her face tells me she thinks this is a very exciting game. The kids on the buses waving and calling to her don't help either...She loves kids.

[DharmasMom]

Please keep a firm grip on her. I would hate for her to get hit. I am sure there are some people here that can give you some advice on how to train that out of her. When I was very young we had a miniature schnauzer that used to chase cars. He used to get out of the house and would chase cars going down the street or that were coming and going in our driveway. Needless to say this was back when it was not a bad thing to let your dog roam the neighborhood. Of course he was hit and killed one day. My parents learned a hard lesson that day and the dogs we had after that we kept a closer eye on and didn't allow out without being on a leash.

[Ingrid]

Having this Girl get hit by a vehicle is exactly the scenario I'm having nightmares about; I owe her very much as she has, in the past, saved my life. I'm definitely keeping a firm grip on her and thinking about shortening leads, double collaring her, etc. on walks. Outside our fenced yard, she is never off-leash.