When I was younger, I can recall many occasions when I saw dogs chasing cars, in fact my Uncle lost a lovely collie to this very activity.
Granted, there were fewer car around in those days, but it occurs to me that I haven't seen a single dog in pursuit of a car for decades, never mind years.
Does it still happen, or has evolution removed this tendency from the canine population?
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I suspect people keep the dog indoors or behind a fence. Woe betide an owner who lets the dog roam free - if it bites anyone who harasses it then it faces a sad future.
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Known a few sheep dogs do this, for some reason they think they can round up cars like sheep.
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Irish dogs chase parked cars.
The reason is probably the growth of the dog warden industry - dogs roaming free are rounded up, kept for seven days and then usually sent to a rescue centre.
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FiFi* the faithfull RF bitch was a victim of a car (before its adoption into the RF I hasten to add) Chased out of a park by a German Shepard and under the wheels of a car (which was speeding and failed to stop)
Life hung in the balance for several days, many skin grafts to replace skin on front foreleg, said foreleg pinned and screwed, and now with no movement in "wrist"
Perhaps the £4000 vet bill (uninsured I understand) that it took to bring this lovely dog back to a normal life is a reminder of the hazzards of Dog vs Motorcar.
And no its not called FiFi!
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Irish dogs chase parked cars.
There's a celtic strain of collie.....
Mrs B and I have regular visitors to the Western Isles for 20+ yrs. We named the breed hebridean car chasing dog many moons ago. Seem to be disappearing, don't know if this demonstrates reverse natural selection or boredom with growing traffic.
Or perhaps they were excommunicated by the Free Church for chasing tourists on a Sunday......
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Known a few sheep dogs do this, for some reason they think they can round up cars like sheep.
>>
Think you may have a point there - farmer Uncle's collie was gainfully employed that way.
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Could it be that cars no longer have chrome bumpers, therefore the dog can't see it's own reflection anymore and doesn't bother chasing itself thinking it's seen another dog?
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Nah, DD.
Dog sees car approaching it's house.
Dog thinks: "ALARM! INTRUDER!!! Must defend my family's territory! Give chase! Must bark! Must bark louder!"
Car passes by along the road and disappears into the distance.
Dog: "Well that worked - look at them run away.....must do the same next time."
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Was in the hire car in France this summer and was chased by a mad dog every time I passed it (which I had to to get to where I was staying). Chased for about 400yds each time, biting at the wheels.
Maybe it is a French thing, but annoying as didn't want to squash the flea bag as some angry Frenchman may appear wielding a shotgun.
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Simple where I live. If it has a collar on it probably belongs to someone. If it doesn't it's a stray so run it over, cats also. You're doing your bit for the environment.
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Our collie has a thing about cars - we ended up getting a special collar that keeps her within the farm boundaries. You run a wire around the limit, then the collar zaps her if she tries to cross it.
Any time there's a vehicle on the farm, she's likely to be in it, so little chance of getting squished.
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I use an electric bike for local trips and have noticed that the sound of the motor will prick up a dogs ears from a hundred yards away. When they spot the source of the noise, they seem a bit confused and often look up to their owners - for guidance I suppose. On my route to work a lady walks her Poodle (the proper big one), whenever this dog hears the sound of the motor it plonks it's bottom on the ground and sits there whining. On one occasion it raised a paw as I passed, it won't budge until I've gone. If I cycle along unpowered, dogs don't even notice me.
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Our collie has a thing about cars - we ended up getting a special collar that keeps her within the farm boundaries. You run a wire around the limit, then the collar zaps her if she tries to cross it.
A colleague of mine tried one of those, but found it counterproductive. When his dog saw something beyond the fence, she got very excited and ran for it. At the speed she crossed the line, she only got a short Bzz from the collar and was so high with the chase she didn't notice.
When she walked slowly and calmly back to the property, however, she reached the wire, Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz, backed off, tried again, Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and eventually took the hint and left. Long searches ensued!
Thus, it didn't keep her away from the road (ah - motoring link - phew!)
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I haven't been chased by a dog for years either. It was never a problem because I usually drove cars which were faster than dogs; even my 435cc Dyane could leave a Leeds street mongrel behind.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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We once had a dog which was useless to us, he would never stay home to guard the house, and would rather fight than anything else. One day I was out in the car and spotted him in the road. He spotted me too and started to run alongside the car. At 42mph he was still with me. I had murderous thoughts - all I had to do was swerve - end of problem. But, better nature prevailed and he plagued us for a some time more.
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My border collie has no interest in chasing cars or bicycles, which is a relief. What he does have, however is a strange aversion to the clicking sound of winding a clock or (motoring link) a ratchet socket driver. Not sure what happened in the first few weeks before we got him, but it makes him run round in circles whenever I do any work on the car with my ratchet, or wind the mantel clock (heirloom). Apart from that, loves to ride in the car, knows to stay away from the wheels when we are parking in the drive. Other dogs in the extended family completely ignore the clicking sound. Weird...
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a strange aversion to the clicking sound of winding a clock or (motoring link) a ratchet socket driver.
It's probably from those early weeks - there was a clicking sound immediately followed by something he didn't like or which hurt him.
Dogs are very prone to pavlovian responses (as they would be...) and it will be with him for a long time. Ours has been with us for 6 of her 9 years and still flinches if your hand takes the wrong path past her head on its way to stroking her. Someone hurt her; I would love to meet him.
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Patently - the system we have is more advanced than the earlier ones. The radius of the electric field is close to 15 feet, so she gets plenty of warning. We were worried that she'd do just as you said, and run straight across, but it doesn't happen.
When she starts to get close, the collar beeps loudly, which will normally have her slide instantly to a halt and go backwards quickly. If she remains by the boundary, the collar vibrates, and then (and only then) does it zap.
She knows it so well, I don't think she's been shocked for months.
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Ah - technological progress. I love it...
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Some people just shouldn\'t be allowed to have a dog.....
I recall a small dog of the Cesar dog food ad. variety (can\'t remember the breed) which was running in and out of traffic outside my workplace.
Having caught it, I discovered it had no collar so decided to hang on to it for a while before \'donating\' it to the local nick.
After about 30mins. its elderly female owner turned up and, before we could intervene, immediately started smacking the poor confused pooch who, as dogs do, had completely forgotten his great escape and probably thought the beating was for greeting his owner.
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'do' = dog
When are we going to get an edit button Stephen?
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I've corrected your error;
>>When are we going to get an edit button Stephen?
Not anytime soon.
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Years ago driving my BGT through a midlands village a Jack Russell ran out and chased the car. I put my foot down but the unfortunate pooch must have just got a good bite on the rear o/s tyre, because there was a loud \'clonk\' as it went up inside the wheel arch over the wheel.
I stopped and walked back to where it was laying motionless in the road. Out of the butcher\'s shop I\'d just passed came this huge bloke wearing an apron covered in blood. I was a touch worried as he looked rather fierce.
He bent down, picked up the inert dog by the scruff of it\'s neck, looked at me and said \"pink fluffy dice thing\'s been asking for that all day!\", turned round and walked back to his shop. Phew!
I\'ve always been sorry that the dog had to die though. It could easily have been taught not to chase cars.
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Years ago one of the sons of our neighbours got into the habit of chasing cars down the road.
I eventually got fed up with being tailgated in this fashion and hit the brakes at about 10mph.
There was a "clunk" as he ran into the boot and he lost the habit.
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1 stary dog waters your wheels, another smells scent as you pass and decides you have invaded its territory, hence chase.
The last dog / car chase i saw was along the Risca bypass in South Wales, the mongrel in question took ages to pull over and a kinder motorist than me got bitten retieving it from the central reservation.
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Dogs chasing cars! I even overtook a Jag on the A38 the other day.
Regards,
Bonzo
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