Free Tips on How to Stop a Dog from Chasing Cars

In this Council Bluffs dog training session, we shared tips on how to stop a dog from chasing cars. Dexter is a 2-year-old Australian Cattle Dog that has been trying to herd passing cars.

Dexter was excited when I knocked on the door, barking in an alerting sort of way. His guardian was on him right away, but since I was there to fix dog problems, I asked her to let him do his thing. However, on the walk from the front door to the upstairs living room, I counted over 20 corrections or commands that she made.

When I mentioned this to the guardian, she recounted how many issues Dexter had when they first adopted him from the Humane Society. Since she has done a great job with his other issues, it’s time for her to relax a bit and try a different approach.

How to Reinforce Good Dog Behavior

As a dog behavior expert, I often work with dogs that act in ways I don’t want. I try to recreate the situation to help the dog learn a new behavior.

I take away some distractions to help the dog choose the behavior I want. I break the activity into small steps.

I help the dog practice each step many times. This way, the dog learns to behave as I want for each step. Once the dog is behaving how I want on step one, I move to step two and repeat the process.

Once the dog has done all the steps correctly, I practice the situation many times. I keep practicing until the dog behaves the way I want in the simplest version of the scenario. At that point I start to add back in the distracting elements and work her way back to a real-world situation.

Next, I discussed the importance of turning desire into actions and behaviors. I call this Petting with a Purpose and Passive Training.

I have seen thousands of dogs do desired actions or behaviors only to be ignored by their humans. But as soon as the dog grabs the remote control, starts barking or does some other unwanted behavior, people are all over them. Attention can be validating for dogs. This often leads them to misbehave to get their human’s attention.

Creating a habit of rewarding your dog for good behavior is important. You can also ask for a behavior before you pet it.

This helps build a healthy leader-follower relationship. It teaches your dog how to make you happy. These will be a big part of Dexter’s rehabilitation.

How to Stop a Dog from Chasing Cars

Now we were ready to address Dexter’s habit of chasing after cars that pass by. Herding breed dogs often face this issue. When a dog chases or tries to correct a car, it usually ends badly for the dog.

I had one of Dexter’s guardians get into my car. He drove up and down the driveway. I showed his guardian how to use counter conditioning. This method can help stop a dog from trying to herd cars.

Working on how to train a dog not to chase cars or trying to bite the wheels is easy. Just follow the steps I explain in the video above. The key is to practice at a distance and speed where the dog is able to sit and take the treat and be calm while it watches the car.

Once the dog can sit and watch the car go by a few times, the guardian can move closer. Sometimes you need to change the speed of the car. You may also need to switch cars if the dog reacts more to trucks, tractors, motorcycles, or other types of vehicles.

I had the guardian practice this technique after we filmed the above video and she was equally successful. I’d like to see the guardians practicing this technique a couple of times a day on their driveway.

Because the street in front of their home has a lot of traffic, she could practice daily. She can do this when people are coming home or going to work.

We made a video to help the guardian remember the positive dog training tips from our session, like how to get a dog to stop chasing cars. You can watch the video below for free.