Why does my sheepdog chase cars and bikes?

Why do dogs "misbehave" and what to do about it?

I have a 10.5-year-old sheepdog, Celyn, who came from a working farm. She’s my inspiration for becoming a dog trainer, but I’ll write more about that in a future post. When Celyn was about 14 months old she started chasing mountain bikes down the hill in the local woods. She was reasonably well trained at the time, and her recall was reasonably good.

She was an adolescent and at the time I didn’t understand how that would affect her behaviour. When she was chasing the mountain bike her brain had switched off, there was no way she was going to come back. It was extremely embarrassing! I should have stopped walking her in the woods so that she wasn’t rehearsing the behaviour, but she also suffered from fear aggression towards dogs (my post on sheepdogs will give you an incite as to why that might be) so my walking locations were limited.

Chasing is a common unwanted behaviour in sheepdogs. Sheepdogs are bred to chase, aren’t they? Well, no, they are not bred to chase. That wouldn’t be productive to have a sheepdog chasing sheep - they wouldn’t be controlling the sheep. The chase instinct has been modified to “flanking” in sheepdogs - they go from side to side behind the sheep, controlling the speed and direction that the sheep move.

So why do sheepdogs chase cars and bikes? It’s probably a confidence thing mostly; they’re chasing the car away and the dopamine hit they get from the chase is enough for them to want to repeat the behaviour. In the dog's mind, they chased the car and now the car has gone, so it worked! Fun fact - collies have the highest basal dopamine levels of any dog, along with the highest capacity for dopamine, which is why they quite easily get addicted to things.

I’m not saying that chasing isn’t ever related to the dog wanting to herd. Welsh sheepdogs are bred to work differently to border collies. They’re bred to be more independent from the shepherd and to work on the Welsh hills and mountains. I think Celyn was trying to herd the mountain bikes, rather than chasing them, but in the woods, she didn’t have the space to flank and the bikes won’t have reacted in the same way as a flock of sheep, anyway. A couple of weeks later she got into a field with 2 sheep and herded them into their pen. This obviously worried me greatly, but what I didn’t really appreciate at the time was that she was working the sheep, not chasing them. I felt I had to nip this in the bud very quickly so I got in touch with someone who I thought was going to “de-sheep” her. I had no idea how they were going to do that

. It turns out that the farmer taught you and your sheepdog to work sheep. This is Celyn’s very first go at working sheep and the farmer said she was a natural. I'll pop the video in the comments.

Working sheep became a hobby for us. But what is interesting is that after that first session, she stopped chasing mountain bikes! Amazing! Now and again we’ll meet stray sheep in the woods, and every time I’ve been able to call her away from the sheep.

So why did working sheep make so much difference? I think that when she got into the sheep field, she proved that she had a desire for herding. Working sheep gave Celyn an appropriate outlet for something that she was bred to do and wanted to do.

Working sheep gave my dog a confidence boost too.

I was lucky enough to find somewhere to work sheep, but there are other outlets such as sheep balls. I had a massive improvement in impulse control not long after I started doing agility with one of my collies. Hoopers is another great option.

If you’re having a problem with your dog, consider their breed. Is the behaviour something that’s been bred into them? It would be difficult to train out an instinctive behaviour. You’re much better off giving them a more appropriate outlet. For example, if you have a terrier that insists on digging up your flowers, you could get them a sand pit and bury their toys and make a fun game of digging them up. If you have a sighthound that likes to chase and catch squirrels, try playing the whip it game. The whip it game involves the dog chasing and catching a tuggy on something like a horse lunge line, but there are certain rules that the dog needs to figure out. You need to balance physical exercise with a hobby that requires brainwork.

If you’d like to learn more and set your puppy up for success, please message me to discuss training options.

Categories: : Dog Training Tips, Puppy Training Tips