Stories From The Pack

Sawshaw And The Semi

By Shelley Peterson

When Sawshaw came into my life she was only about a year old, timid, had no real training and was very insecure. I quickly found out what her worst habit was. It was a life-threatening habit that would eventually kill her if I didn’t figure out some way to stop this dangerous behavior.

“What is this dangerous behavior?” you may ask. It was one that ends up leaving most dogs dead on the highway. You see, Sawshaw could not resist chasing, not cars, but semi-trucks on the highway. I found this out when we were on a walk along one of the gravel roads leading out of town. She had been listening well off leash, so I didn’t think anything of leaving her off leash on this part of the walk.

We could see the highway just south of the field we were walking beside. Sawshaw didn’t seem to take much notice of the highway traffic so I didn’t worry about it. As we were walking, I saw a semi-truck coming down the highway. I didn’t think much of it until I saw Sawshaw perk up and focus intently at the on-coming semi. I reminded myself, “There’s a field between us and the highway. She won’t go after it from here.” Since I adopted Sawshaw she has stuck pretty close to me.

As the semi gets closer to the field Sawshaw darts across the field toward the highway and the semi. The first thought that went through my head as I was screaming for her to come back was, “Oh my God! She’s going to get hit!” There was nothing I could do but watch in horror as Sawshaw got closer and closer to the highway. She darted out onto the highway as the semi driver laid on his air-horn and tried to brake. He was going too fast and couldn’t stop. I closed my eyes and waited for the yelp she would surely give when the semi hit her. I heard nothing, looked over at the highway and saw the semi go by. Where was Sawshaw? Then I saw her trotting back across the highway and across the field and back to me. Thankfully, there were no other vehicles coming down the highway when Sawshaw decided to come back.

That was a very close call for Sawshaw that day, too close. I decided it was time for me to come up with a plan to train that lethal behavior out of her. So, when I got home with Sawshaw I began going through some of my dog behavior books to see if I could find some inspiration in them. I tried a few things but, they didn’t seem to work with her. I decided to meditate over the matter.

As I was meditating, an idea came to me. Since I am fortunate enough to live in a rural area and enjoy taking my other two dogs on back road runs down back roads or field access trails (a dirt road that’s only purpose is for allowing farmers to access their fields that are off the beaten path), I had to teach Sawshaw to return to my car when I blow the horn. It wouldn’t hurt to teach the other two as well but, they never go too far from the car.

The funny thing about this situation is that Sawshaw never chased cars, trucks, bikes, or even people running. She only went after semis and I have no idea why. Most dogs that chase vehicles will chase other fast-moving objects as well, such as bicycles, skateboards, people running, etc. Not Sawshaw, she had a hate on for semis for whatever reason she had in her sweet mind. I will never know why I can only speculate.

It was time to teach all my dogs to come to the sound of the car horn. I brought a package of wieners, a jug of water, loaded the dogs in the car and off we went. I took them to a nice, quiet field access road well off the beaten path. I figured this would be a safe place to start their recall training with the car horn. Before letting them out of the car I gave each of them a piece of wiener and then let them go. I waited until they got far enough ahead and distracted enough sniffing everything before honking the car horn.

Once they were sufficiently distracted by all the scents out there, I honked the horn. They looked in my direction but didn’t come right away. So I called them and shook the bag of wieners in the air for them to see and they all came running. That was only the first honk so I was happy that was all it took for them to get the idea. As soon as they got to me they each received a couple pieces of wiener as their reward for coming back to the car and me.

We continued on our back road run. At first they kept pretty close to the car so I just ignored them until they got board with it and decided to go exploring away from the car again. Once they became engaged in checking out more scents in the area I honked the horn again. This time they came as soon as they heard the honk. This was working well here where it was quiet.

I took the dogs out there several days in row to solidify this new behavior and then started taking them to other back roads to make sure they would listen to the horn in other places with different distractions and scents. I started them out the same way I did during our previous runs in the beginning. Before letting them out of the car I gave each of them a piece of wiener to remind them of the yummy treats the car holds.

Again, once the dogs were sufficiently distracted with their new surroundings, I honked the horn and waited. I watched and said nothing as the dogs came running back to the car. Once they reached me they all got a couple pieces of wiener. Over the next couple weeks I kept working with them on their newly learned recall signal (the car horn) until I felt Sawshaw had become reliable with this new method of recalling her.

Would Sawshaw still respond to the car horn if there was more traffic to distract her? Time to find out. I took Sawshaw to an area with more traffic, still on back roads, and let her out. She basically ignored the cars and pick up trucks we came across and returned to the car right away after hearing the horn honk. She came back every time. I was so proud of her, but I had not yet given her the ultimate test. Taking her back down the road I’d had her on when she tore across the field to the highway and the semi.

This time I made sure she had an even better food reward for this next test that would confirm or deny the success of Sawshaw’s training. I had a bag of bacon pieces, diced up chicken, wieners, and small hamburger patties. Before letting Sawshaw out of the car I gave her a piece of each treat in the bag so she knew she had more than one high value food treat in the car.

I took a deep breath and let Sawshaw out of the car. As we approached the field along the back road where she had taken off across it to chase that semi on the highway, I honked the horn for her to come back a couple times and she did immediately and received her reward with a lot of praise each time. There were cars and pick up trucks going down the highway but we hadn’t seen a semi yet. This test would not be complete if we did not encounter another semi.

Finally, I see one coming. I keep a close eye on Sawshaw, waiting for her to see it. As soon as she did see it she started heading across the field again. I honk the horn and she looked back but didn’t stop. I honked the horn again, hollered for her, and shook the bag of treats. I was hoping this mixture of high value treats would be enough to make her change her mind and come back. It worked! I was so excited and made such a big fuss over her when she got back to me for stopping herself from chasing the semi. I am also pleased to say that Sawshaw never chased a semi again.

I’ve had people ask me, “Wouldn’t that just encourage a dog to chase other vehicles?” The answer is no. What happened in Sawshaw’s mind was the realization that this particular car held yummy treats. This made my car more valuable to her than any other vehicle out there including semis. For Sawshaw treat time was any time she heard my cars horn honking and, because I always had more than one kind of treat in the car during her training she was never sure which treat she was getting. Since she loved all the treats she would come back every time. Eventually, I didn’t even have to have a treat for her. The back road run is now her treat and she still comes back to the car when I honk the horn.