9-10 Month Old Puppy Hates (?) Motorcycles/scooters

[fainty_girl]

Just this past week or 2, i've noticed that if i'm walking Tilly (my 9-10 month old kelpie X coolie) on the lead and she hears/sees a motorcycle, she starts pulling on the lead heaps and gets all hyped up. I've been correcting her on the lead when she does this.

Now today we had the front door open because my brother is putting flooring in our house, so he needed the door open to go back and forth. When the postman went by on his motorbike, Tilly chased him on the bike, barking heaps.

I didn't see her run out there because I was in the bathroom, but went out to investigate when I heard barking. I obviously called her back to me in a gruff tone and she looked super guilty.

A short time later I took the dogs out to the park, and on the way in the car, a scooter was driving along behind us. Tilly sat there in the boot, watching the scooter intently, and after about 30 seconds she began to bark. I was the only one in the car, so all I could do was say "aaaah" in a really firm tone, because this is the way I normally let her know she is doing something wrong and she is generally very responsive to it. She wasn't this time though, and only stopped barking when the scooter went down another street.

What else can I do about this behaviour? Any suggestions?

[Kelpie_Pup]

Hi FG !

Nice to see you in here.

A couple of things come to mind for me.. its s kelpie thing? LOL Halle does the same thing.

Ok seriously now.

2nd fear period is about due now.. could be making tilly quite anxious?

The super guilty look she gave you wasn't guilt, it was confusion. Dogs don't feel guilt. She's confused about why you're upset.

I guess the only other thing I would do is confront it head on.. Halle sued to be scared OUT OF HER MIND by the lawn mower.. we eventually just kept her outside while we had it on, and continued doing our thing. We moved ur lawn in sections over about 2 weeks lol so that she could get used to it in small doses. It took us two lots of that, so over a month, but now she's fine.

Obviously, you can't just go get a motorbike and have someone drive it past your house at convenient times lol .. maybe find a dvd with those noises on it ? A BMX one perhaps? Put it on at home when you're there doing housework or something, softly at first, so she associates it with good, calm behaviour. It sounds like its the noise that is the problem, so that might help.

[Cosmolo]

Its either prey drive or fear and hard to know which without seeing whats happening. How does she repsond to your correction when she is on the lead?

[fainty_girl]

Thanks for your replies

Kelpie_Pup,

That is a good idea about playing the sound. Tilly is very responsive to sounds on TV and the computer, so I might look on youtube for videos with motorbike sounds.

I didn't know there was a 2nd fear period for dogs of Tilly's age. She is a confident pup and doesn't seem to be fearful of anything (maybe this is the problem ) . I don't think she's scared of motorbikes, I think she wants to chase them for fun.

Cosmolo,

When I correct Tilly on the lead she normally settles, but I suppose the motorbikes are normally driving past us for only a fleeting moment.

When she saw the scooter as I was driving, I tried to correct her with my voice but she did not settle.

[Kelpie_Pup]

Thanks for your replies

Kelpie_Pup,

I didn't know there was a 2nd fear period for dogs of Tilly's age. She is a confident pup and doesn't seem to be fearful of anything (maybe this is the problem ) . I don't think she's scared of motorbikes, I think she wants to chase them for fun.

I know, its hard to think these dogs would be scared of anything! Normally it happens at around 10-12 months, and then I think again at about 14 months? Yay..lol

[fainty_girl]

Thanks for your replies

Kelpie_Pup,

I didn't know there was a 2nd fear period for dogs of Tilly's age. She is a confident pup and doesn't seem to be fearful of anything (maybe this is the problem ) . I don't think she's scared of motorbikes, I think she wants to chase them for fun.

I know, its hard to think these dogs would be scared of anything! Normally it happens at around 10-12 months, and then I think again at about 14 months? Yay..lol

On second thoughts, maybe Tilly is in a fear period...my dad just got back from taking her on a long evening walk and he said Tilly was funny about cars, but started this about 10-15 mins into the walk! Apparently she tried to run at a car . The other day when I walked Tilly on the lead, she did look at the cars more-so than normal, and I mentioned it to my dad then, because my other dog Jessie has been like this towards cars in the past.