How chasing the bunny with your dog can really decrease their desire to pull you off your feet!

Do you have a dog that loves to chase wildlife? Do you find your loose leash walking skills are incredible until those blasted bunnies come into the picture? Do you really just wish your dog would STOP lunging at the bunnies? Below is a quick and simple step by step on how to decrease lunging by occasionally giving into your dogs most desired thing!

1. View bunny at distance. The ideal distance is dog dependant but aim for a space that your dog can notice the rabbit, may start lightly pulling to get closer but isn’t completely foolish yet.
2. Hold position and wait for some form of attention from your dog. This could be as simple as an ear flinch at first. We are going to shape our ideal behaviour here and the bunny is a HUGE distraction – so start simple.
3. Release and then RUN. Part of the reinforcement is your engagement with your dog. How much more enjoyable is it if you do not have to drag your human towards the reward. Most dogs like the chase part of the sequence – you do not have to run far or even fast but running/ chasing with your dog can really up your anty and means you just reinforced for attention near a bunny! YAY YOU!
4. Repeat! Keep repeating this sequence until you notice you no longer wait for that ear twitch towards you. Once your dog is automatically flicking their ear at you when you come across a bunny. Wait them out. This time wait for them to look at you. Most dogs will try the behaviour that has worked for them a couple times and then check in with their person to see why they are not paying attention! Once they look back at you that’s your cue to release and then RUN!

You can shape this behaviour into what you wish. The biggest thing to be aware of is to keep consistent and ensure you are saying your release word and THEN moving. You do not want your dog to think that checking in with you means they get to flat out run before being released.

First lay the foundation and get the behaviour to the specifications you want – for example with my dogs I like shaping the behaviour to include them coming into heel position on my left hand side and holding focus on my face for a couple seconds. Once the behaviour is where you want it you can slowly opt out of chasing every once in a while. When you start opting out make sure you are also clear and consistent. I like using the word “CHASE” as a release for this and use “Not today” as a cue to mean we are not running. At first it should be about a 90% chase ratio to a 10% not today ratio. As your dog gets very good at the behaviour you want you can start slowly flipping this ratio. Overtime, you should have the behaviour solid and only about 10% of the time will you use your ‘CHASE’ release word. The goal should never be to remove it all together as there needs to be a way in which you can continue to reinforce the behaviour!