Leaf chasing. Why your dog loves fascinating forbidden flutters.
Freya V. Locke - Dog Behaviourist | Author | Blogger. Issue 36 2024
Hi Gang
The summer holidays are drawing to a close, and as always happens, I get busy doing 121s again. CLIENTS - if you have sessions paid for, get them booked in ASAP to make sure you can get appointment times to suit you!
Fun Not Fear® Journal
Leaf Chasing Season.
Almost Autumn weather signifies two things. Leaves and wind.
The bane of my life. Twyla LOVES leaf chasing. So Twyla now has to have a back-up lead attached to my walking belt, lest I drop the normal one and she bounces off into the road after falling, fluttering foliage.
Prey drive is a funny thing. Sometimes, it's not an animal that triggers it, but a movement. In my Scrumperdinger’s case, it is the latter.
We have worked with Twyla to make sure living critters are no longer as exciting as they once were. I strongly recommend looking up Simone Mueller if this is a struggle for your dog. She teaches Predation Substitute Training, and is brilliant at helping dogs with this issue.
My dog loses all pretence of control in the presence of a leaf dancing alluringly across her path, and so management and safety are the way forward.
I could decide to stop her from leaf chasing altogether, by simply never allowing her off-lead, even in the garden. By doing that, I would stop her from practicing the behaviour immediately and she might eventually stop bothering to try.
But that might create massive frustration for her and cause issues in other areas of her behaviour. I’m reliably confident that after hundreds of years of breeding her ancestors to chase fluttery things, that it is part of her genetic make-up, and brings her innate pleasure. Would it be fair to prevent entirely the thing she gets so much joy from doing?
I feel not.
So I allow her to chase leaves to her heart’s content when it is safe for her to do so.
We should always consider our dog’s feelings when with them. They are not robots and deserve some frolics, while learning to navigate our world.
N.B. - When it is not safe, she must wear her harness and be on the lead. She is never allowed to chase critters. Critters care if they are chased, but leaves do not.
Think back to your days in school.
Teachers who allowed for fun activities but provided context (like wearing a harness in the case of a dog) for when they were not appropriate encountered less opposition from their students than those who denied all of their requests.
We all remember the awful teachers who made us work in silence, doled out punishment and detentions, and made us hate the subject being learned. We also remember those who made learning fun, allowed us time to indulge in chatter and laughed with us, before we got down to the business of learning.
For us, that good teacher was Mr Larkin, who multitasked by teaching us German, while copying CDs for us, and having a laugh at the terrible videos we were supposed to learn the language from. He is still a friend of mine 30 years after leaving school.
If he asked me to sit down and listen for a moment, I would do it all day long. However, if Mr Dart the Headmaster had asked, we would have all carried on doing as we pleased as he was a total jobsworth. Sorry, Mr Dart, but you were.
We respected Mr Larkin, as he respected us too.
❤ I try to be a Mr Larkin for Twyla. ❤
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Spotted and sharing.
Veterinarian, Dr. Nancy Silverman Kay writes a really interesting blog about all things medical. This article about adenomas caught my eye as I have had several dogs who had them.
This blog post by Eileenanddogs.com is a great read:
What If My Dog Only Responds When I Have Treats
My other posts - because I write about other stuff too!
Shamelessly plugging.
I recently separated my Substack newsletters into separate profiles, to make it easier for people to navigate to the content they want to see from me. You can also find me on Substack at :
And also at:
As those two publications are non-dog-based, you may not be interested in giving them a cheeky subscribe! But, at least you know they are all me!
Handy links.
Why work with me? Ask my clients!
Since your sessions, Reg and I have made leaps and bounds - we walked the river by ourselves for the first time in months. He's been smashing group classes and we went on a walk with one of his old dog friends this weekend - which we both needed! ~ Georgie
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That’s it for this week’s newsletter,
Warm ‘N’ Fuzzies,
Freya xx
We understand hot in Florida, Freya! This time of year, it hovers around 100f (37.7c) and thankfully, our acre has huge oaks that shade more than half.
We also have a water garden, and our Morkie (Wilson) is a water dog. He's 10yo, 17lbs, and has a summer cut most of the year.
All three kids enjoy the dog door, and they have access to air conditioning when we're out on errands.
We've been remiss training and are getting back to it. I'm enjoying your posts!
Thank you for this; it's food for thought. Both of my dogs are former working dogs from different disciplines.
The true stories I could tell you about some of the wins (and the epic fails..oh gawd the epic fails) as I worked out how to give them the freedom they need to be themselves, yet also accommodate for their age and physical limitations.
Anyway. Please give Twyla a pat from me.