Pigeon problems
I would literally give my life for this little girl but she’s 8 months old now and her behavior with pigeons is driving me crazy. I’m just wondering if anyone else dealt with the same thing and how you fixed it.
She is honestly nearly perfectly trained at this point, doesn’t have any accidents at home, understands like 20 different commands, and is overall just amazing and I love her so much.
But whenever we are out for a walk and there is a pigeon nearby (we live in nyc, so this is always unless at night) she will lunge and pull at it and then bark loudly at it. She has this almost sad bark that is so loud and piercing, people look at me like I am abusing her and it’s so annoying. I’m literally just holding her back from running off into traffic chasing pigeons.
All the training guides say to reward the moment she notices the pigeons and freezes, before she lunges. The idea being that she will look to me for a treat after identifying them, but this hasn’t worked at all.
I’m also on harness/leash number 50 at this point, trying everything to see if it changes, but she pulls and lunges regardless.
I’ve resorted to playing videos of them at home on the TV to try and desensitize her, but she knows the difference between the TV and real life. She doesn’t really care as much when they are on the TV, she will look, but not bark at them or anything.
Please help. Pic of professional splooting and sleeping as payment for helping.