Bunny chaser

[Doglover1988]

Lucy really really wants to eat my rabbits. When she goes outside the first thing she does is run over to the rabbit cage and bark at them and actually hurt her mouth by pulling at the wire of their cage. I of course grab her and put her back inside but I have no idea what to do with her! She doesn't go after any of my other animals just the rabbits.

[Ritz459]

The only thing I can think of is to keep her on leash when you take her outside and work drastically on "Leave it" around the bunnies.

When we first brought Chloe home she thought that Joey, my teil, was something to be eaten. Every time she showed interest in him or his cage she was corrected and then told to do something else (redirected to a toy mainly). Granted she is a puppy so is learning what is and isn't exceptable and doesn't have that chase instinct ingrained into her skull, but she now ignores the bird completely, even when he is flapping around like a spastic idiot.

Rose has a very high preydrive, but teaching her "Leave it" and also correcting her every time she showed interest in my critters and rewarding her everytime she ignored them she is now reliable, for the most part, around them while I am in the room with her.

[c0_re]

Originally Posted by Ritz459

Rose has a very high preydrive, but teaching her "Leave it" and also correcting her every time she showed interest in my critters and rewarding her everytime she ignored them she is now reliable, for the most part, around them while I am in the room with her.

I had a Husky\Lab X abused rescue with a similure "problem", we did alot of running\rollerblading together(when we met she was WAY overweight and had Zero training) alot of that time off leash.

It may seem harsh while your doing it but anytime we were out running if she even turned her head to look at a rabbit\dog\squirl\cat, whatever she got a stiff leash correction(She was a real BRUTE, 100+ lbs) once she turned back forward and snapped back into the zone she got treated(not every time though)

Eventually she learned to look out of the corner of her eyes at the creatures but as long as her nose pointed strait ahead thats the direction she kept moving.

We made alot of mistakes learning obedience together but she was my first really rock solid off leash dog. I mean she was a laser beam she was always so focused on the road in front of her it was like she was on a mission. RIP~~Katie~~

[Flutterby]

Definitely teach "leave it" to the "n"th degree! My Weims have major prey drive, and would happily chase down and grab any little critter. We have a couple of chickens that have adopted our yard (and ate everything out of my garden - Grrrr!!) and Akina would snap them up in a heartbeat (I mean come on, they're *birds*, right? LOL), so "Leave it" and "Here" are two commands I use when she's outside and the chickens (or whatever critter) are in the yard too. You can't break that desire to chase (and with some dogs, chase and catch), but you can keep the dog under control.