skki
Well-Known Member
For a while my friend and I have had an increasingly difficult time walking our dogs together. Her samoyed, Zero, has taken it upon himself to start "herding" (for lack of better description) my dog, Pit, when he lags behind or strays too far from the group.
Zero is 4 and a half, Pit is a couple months older and they have grown up together from the very beginning and have lived in the same house since they were about 6 months. We've always walked them together and often go on long hikes and as far as I know the behaviour has always been present, it has only become too rough as of last year or so.
What generally happens is Zero charges towards Pit if he's too far from the group, sometimes he even does it if HE has strayed from the group and Pit is close to us, and basically tackles and grabs his back skin until he falls over or yelps. He didn't used to be so rough about it, but now I'm finding minor cuts and scabs on Pit's body while I groom him, so obviously it's become too much.
Zero has a phenominal recall if we walk him by himself, but throw Pit in the mix and it's out the window. We'll walk him on leash and it solves the problem, but then let him off and he's right after Pit again.
How do we practice a solution for this if he only does the behaviour when they're both off leash? It wouldn't be such an issue if he would chase Pit and NOT bite him when he catches him, is there some way to train out the "attack" portion of his herding type behaviour?
Any advice is much appreciated!
Zero is 4 and a half, Pit is a couple months older and they have grown up together from the very beginning and have lived in the same house since they were about 6 months. We've always walked them together and often go on long hikes and as far as I know the behaviour has always been present, it has only become too rough as of last year or so.
What generally happens is Zero charges towards Pit if he's too far from the group, sometimes he even does it if HE has strayed from the group and Pit is close to us, and basically tackles and grabs his back skin until he falls over or yelps. He didn't used to be so rough about it, but now I'm finding minor cuts and scabs on Pit's body while I groom him, so obviously it's become too much.
Zero has a phenominal recall if we walk him by himself, but throw Pit in the mix and it's out the window. We'll walk him on leash and it solves the problem, but then let him off and he's right after Pit again.
How do we practice a solution for this if he only does the behaviour when they're both off leash? It wouldn't be such an issue if he would chase Pit and NOT bite him when he catches him, is there some way to train out the "attack" portion of his herding type behaviour?
Any advice is much appreciated!