Chase!: Managing Your Dog's Predatory Instincts (Dogwise Training Manual)

I adopted a German pointer last year, and she has escaped multiple times. The last time she ran many miles away and killed several chickens belonging to a very influential woman in my community. I adopted this dog to be a companion for my other more mild-mannered pointer, and I have been really disturbed by the idea that I was going to spend the rest of this dog's life trying to thwart her natural instincts, to chase and kill everything in sight! Basically, the point of this book is to give you exercises that will help you be able to keep your dogs attention, and to convince him or her that you are more interesting than chasing whatever animal is out there. I haven't had the opportunity to put any of these lessons into practice yet, because I have two small children and my husband deployed right after we got this dog, but I am looking forward to trying them out. I am really hopeful that this will help me and my dog to have a more mutually satisfying relationship. This short book was very readable, and I will keep an eye out for any of her other writing.

This book offers good basic information, but when I purchased it I was looking for a little extra help with a squirrel crazy dog. It didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, but might be helpful for a beginner. We ended up working through the squirrel issues with the use of counterconditioning & a leave it command.

Waste of money. Might be useful if you live in rural area or lucky enough to have ready access to many acres (without distracting off-leash dogs or prey around) for off-leash work. And you should have ready access to a lake for swimming and a sandbox for digging since fetch, dangly rod toys, squeaky toys, balls, and anything else that rolls (food dispensers) are off-limits according to the author. Exercise limited to walking, swimming, digging in sandbox, jumping on bales of hay, balancing on tree trunks, and nose work. No barn hunts, no herding lessons, no luring. Walking is hardly a workout for many breeds and, again, the other activities require ready access to a low prey area where off-leash permitted and few/no other dogs around and a body of water. Referred to a German study but did not see citation in kindle version. For those who live in a dense urban area or live in grand squirrel central, forget it. For those with plenty of land, time, and friends who have the time to assist you with training, sure, give it a try. Otherwise, consider Garrett's training protocol if you have a herder or any breed that is unfocused & easily distracted or overexcited. Control unleashed and Frantic also rec. For hunting dogs, I would have more trust in trainers that specialize in those breeds. Surely, there must be some high drive dogs that do well in competition and are also trusted pets.

This is an excellent book, not only for dealing with predatory instincts, but it can be applied to lots of other situations as well. I wish Clarissa V Reinhardt was more well known in the US.

Although I did enjoy reading the book, the price was quite steep for the information given. And it really only addressed walking your dog outside, not working with your cat-crazy dog inside the house... which is really what I was looking for.

A easy read filled with very practical suggestions for helping to redirect your dog from instinctive,chasing behavior to becoming more of a companion. I would think all dog owners would benefit from reading this.

This is an ideal book that guides you in the understanding of the your dog's predatory instincts. Those instincts that may lead to behavior problems that have nothing to do with fear nor anxiety.

Initially I thought this was a decent book. But when I actually tried to put things into practice, it wasn't applicable. For example, the automatic sit when prey is sighted might be OK for deer or field mice, but with bear or moose it could put a dog in serious danger. Or, the sausage tree. While finding exciting food for the dog on a tree that you've adorned with sausage might work for a really food motivated dog, or for my dogs in a low-energy situation, it will most certainly not work when the dogs spot a moose running across the trail. Sausage must somehow be more motivating than a moose. If your dog already doesn't work for food in high energy situations, well, sausage tree is not some little trick that will suddenly turn your dog into a food hound. The author does seem to understand dogs. I have little doubt that if I actually worked with her one-on-one with my dogs, she could help me manage them. However, she is totally against e-collars, with little to back her opinions up. I would never hurt my dogs, or use an e-collar in an abusive manner, but when my dogs would spend 3 hours barking at a moose if I let then- a very dangerous situation for all involved- I've found an e-collar to be a powerful tool that allows me to take my dogs into the woods off leash. I rarely correct, simply use vibration mode to remind them to leave it alone. So, if you have a high drive dog that loves to chase things the main thing to work on is reliable recall. Once you've got that down pretty good, you may need to consider a remote correction. Some dogs (like mine) just get so focused on the chase they can't even hear you, and certainly don't care if they can. Humane, non-avoidance e-collar training is something to look into. But please, work with a good trainer and always give corrections calmly and with the dog's best interest in mind, instead of out of anger. Overall, pretty much a waste of time and money for me. I needed to look to other sources to curb my dog's interest in moose.

As a dog trainer, dog walker and owner of a dog with a fairly high prey drive, I'd been looking for some more ideas on managing chase instincts in dogs - this book gave me plenty to go on! I thoroughly enjoyed Clarissa's writing style, clear and to the point, but still empathetic of the trials of being an owner of a dog with a high chase drive. There are some novel ideas here for ways to get your dog to start to pay more attention to you on walks (a sausage tree sticks in my mind!) and there are a variety of different recall and guided walking type exercises to perfect with your dog, which suit a range of different situations that you may encounter. I also thoroughly loved the idea of playing a more active role when walking with your dog - phone and ipods off, paying attention to eye contact from your dog, rewarding when your dog touches back to you and not constantly asking for obedience tricks and recalls throughout the walk. I have put this advice to work already and have been very impressed with the improvement in my own dog and the dogs I walk! There is a chapter on methods to avoid too - positive trainers will be familiar with most of the advice already, however Clarissa is very specific about the effects and consequences of some techniques I'd never even heard of (but can see people trying) - it's always nice to be armed with arguments against the wide variety of punitive techniques and tools that are available to 'fix' natural canine instincts. This book is quite short, but it is packed with invaluable advice to help you improve control of your dog on walks and manage it's prey drive, I would recommend this to all dog owners, walkers and trainers.

Not the best book I've read on this subject. The chase instinct is so strong in some dogs that you can't get rid of it, you have to chanel it. I trained my last dog not to chase animals and birds by developing his enjoyment of chasing and retrieving toys. The "sausage tree" idea, which some readers seem to like, would cause a riot anywhere I walk my dogs; all the dogs in the area would be barking up the same tree! I do like the book's emphasis on positive training methods and developing the relationship between dog and handler. It has plenty of ideas for activities to engage your dog when out on a walk.

Unfortunately although the premise is very good I have had little success with my extremely neurotic, chase-mad JTR/Whippet. Having said that I didn't expect miracles because even leaves falling gently in an early autumn breeze reduces him to a whirling dervish intent on bringing the menacing onslaught to its knees. Still glad I bought it though as it has helped a little with trying to divert his attention.

This book is very concise, easy to read and easy to follow. Lots of great advice and is fun for you and your dog. Well worth buying

I paid £60 for the book only to realise when it arrived it retailed at $16.95. Rip off