Tips to Teach a Pug to Stop Chasing Cars That Pass By

For this LA dog training session we worked with 5 year-old pug Heath, training him to stop chasing cars.

After chatting with his guardian about his behaviors, we covered some dog training fundamentals; introducing and use of marker words, when to introduce cues, dog consent, how to teach a dog manners and my secret to the easiest way to train a dog by celebrating desired actions.

We also discussed his diet and daily exercise regimen. He has an awesome dog walker that comes by a few days a week but because he’s a little bit overweight, I shared a number of tips with his guardian so that she can do some scent work, mental stimulation and diet (adding green beans to meals) so that he can achieve a healthy weight.

I also spent a couple of minutes discussing the problems that are often associated with using prong collars, a tool that was recently suggested to Keith’s guardian.

At Dog Gone Problems we are 100% force and punishment free and don’t believe that it is necessary or ethical to train a dog using force or punishment. Aversive forms of training often result in stress, anxiety, frustration as well as reducing motivation and confidence in dogs. Additionally, you never want to use a prong collar on a dog with a short snout such as a Bulldog or Pug because they have some difficulty breathing as it is.

Fortunately for Heath, his guardian is very interested in his well-being and was committed to change once she learned about the downsides of using that sort of training tool.

How to stop a dog from chasing cars

Next we headed outside so that I could show his guardian a decensation counter conditioning exercise that will help with his car chasing problem.

Stopping a dog from chasing cars isn’t hard if you use the right approach. It will be important for the guardian to find a location where the cars are passing by slowly and she can move away from the street if necessary.

It will take some patients and practice but if she goes at Heath‘s pace, it shouldn’t take long for him to learn to stop chasing cars and barking at them when they pass by.

To help the guardian remember all of the positive dog training tips I shared in this in-home LA Dog training session, we recorded a roadmap to success video that you can check out below.