A challenge

[Linus]

Piper is insane. This we all know. But when her prey drive is kicked in, Lord help us all. You may have seen this video in which she jumps at the big tree in the backyard after having seen a squirrel there ONCE. At first, this was funny and seemingly harmless.

Now she is obsessed! She goes straight to the tree, jumps straight up in the air and latches on with her feet on the way down. The poor tree is losing bark like an old man loses hair, and this is not good for her hips or her knees (hip dysplasia and ACL surgery are muy expensivo). Plus, I'm just waiting for the day when she catches the limb stump on the other side of the tree and pulls herself up and gets stuck in the tree. "Hello, fire department? Yeah, my dog is stuck in a tree..." No thanks.

It has gotten to the point where nothing short of me standing there and physically pushing her off the tree will get her to stop. No treats, no ball... If I'm there and verbally correct her before the launch, she won't jump, but I'm not out there every second she is, and the minute my back is turned, she's jumping on the tree.

I've thought about using the sound aversion technique with an air horn, but before I drive my neighbors crazy, does anyone else have any suggestions?

[Red Haired Girl]

How about this? http://www.treeboss.net/images/trunk-protection.jpg
Save the tree and the dog.

[Otto'sMom]

Motion activated sprinkler.

[areese]

Motion activated sprinkler.

He's a labrador...he'd prob. love it.
Wait-that might work. He'd love it so much he'd be distracted from the tree!

[Linus]

Its a big tree. I thought about something like that or chicken wire, but she'd probably use it to climb higher. She's smart like that.

And yeah, she'd love the water. She'd be clean though!

[AgileOllie]

:conf3: :conf3: :hissy: :hissy: The video is not working for me!!

[lotsadox]

Dang! Obsession must run in labs. Scooter gets obsessed with stuff and I have to just bring him in the house and shut him in the bedroom. He'll run from the gate in thru the house to the front windows just to bark at something and it goes on long after whatever he was barking at is gone.

We used one of the motion activated sprinklers to keep the dogs from digging at the gate and it worked great. I wonder if there's any way you could put vinegar in it?

An electric wire would probably keep her away from the tree and she only has to touch it once. Once they know it's there, they avoid the area.

[Courtney]

This sounds silly, I know. But - what if you use barking/climbing the tree as a reward for good behavior? Ask her to perform a behavior - sit, down, etc. Praise big time when she does it. Then say, OK, tree and indicate that her reward is to play with the tree. Then keep calling her back to you to perform a behavior, then release. Maybe even do it on leash first. This outlines the theory: http://life.familyeducation.com/dogs...ing/47296.html

This kind of outlines what I'm thinking here:

I am working with two Beagles. Now that breed has a natural tendency to have their noses on the ground 24/7. Why? Because we humans bred in that behavior. So instead of fighting their “Beagle-ness,” we worked with it and exploited it. The first week, we asked (okay, we lured … and then asked) for about one minute of attention and then let them go be Beagles for about 10 minutes. Then we repeated the process and asked for two minutes of attention, and then 10 minutes of being a dog. By lesson number three, they were both glued to their owners for 15 to 20 minutes at a clip.

This is kinda similar to putting the behavior on cue, which you could do also by capturing it with your clicker. Then work on stimulus control with her...

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2...6-34443327_ITM

If a behavior is under stimulus control, it occurs when you ask for it, and doesn't occur if you haven't asked for it when you are in a training or working session. According to Pryor, perfect stimulus control requires the following four conditions, and only when all four conditions are met is your dog's behavior of "sit" truly under stimulus control.

1. The behavior always occurs immediately upon presentation of the conditioned stimulus. (Your dog always sits when you say, "Sit!")

2. The behavior never occurs in the absence of the stimulus. (Your dog never sits if you haven't asked him to sit.)

3. The behavior never occurs in response to some other stimulus. (Your dog doesn't sit if you say "down.")

4. No other behavior occurs in response to the stimulus (Your dog doesn't lie down if you say "sit.")

[areese]

I think Patrice has a good idea. Aside from fencing off the tree (then she'd prob. climb the fence) or spending a tremendous amount of time retraining her...I think an electric wire would be the only thing that would work. If she is truly obsessed (and it seems like she really is) I doubt a sound aversion would work for long. You can put it up high enough that the weens can't touch it.
I think you COULD retrain it, certainly. But it would take a lot of time and a lot of consistency and it would be SOOO easy for her to reward herself with the tree if you aren't out there every time.

[lotsadox]

This sounds silly, I know. But - what if you use barking/climbing the tree as a reward for good behavior? Ask her to perform a behavior - sit, down, etc. Praise big time when she does it. Then say, OK, tree and indicate that her reward is to play with the tree. Then keep calling her back to you to perform a behavior, then release. Maybe even do it on leash first. This outlines the theory: http://life.familyeducation.com/dogs...ing/47296.html

This kind of outlines what I'm thinking here:



This is kinda similar to putting the behavior on cue, which you could do also by capturing it with your clicker. Then work on stimulus control with her...

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2...6-34443327_ITM

They talk about this in When Pigs Fly. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do that or even if I want to. I have been working with Scooter to where coming inside with mom is really exciting and that there is the possibility of treats and using it when he wants to be outside barking. I've had some small success with it. I can see how it would work, I'm just not sure it's something that I have the time and patience to achieve. Or whether I want my dog that trained. I do want him to still be a dog. Still thinking on this one.