My dog chases people riding their bicycles. How can I make him stop?

This is more common with herding breeds, but any breed can be susceptible to moving objects like bicycles, skate boards, cars, etc. The drive to chase prey or to herd animals can be so strong that something that appears to be a bicycle (from your perspective) will be a large and fast alternative to a sheep for your dog.

The best place to start is to teach your dog a solid, reliable "Come!" (see Come) around everything other than bicycles. Once that starts to fall into place, work with a friend who has a bicycle (and perhaps a lot of courage) to break the stimulation up into smaller bites and practice the "Come!" concept until the dog gets it. Then head off to the nearest bicycle path and from a reasonably safe distance (from the cyclists), further your dog's understanding of civilized urban behaviour. Keep in mind, you're not asking anything unreasonable of your dog, no matter how strong the genetics to herd are, they are also bred to work reliably with their handler and that means recall: i.e. stop herding, until told other wise.

You should also be aware that no matter how much you work with your dog to get him or her controlling themselves around bicycles, if you allow them to see bicycles and get over-enthused when you are not around, by either leaving them alone in a yard or allowing access to look out a window with a street view, they will likely see several bicycles and become over stimulated for every single one you expose them to. In other words, you won't make any progress as they will undo whatever you're teaching at other times. This may actually be what caused the problem in the first place.

It might also help to invest in one of the devices that fasten to your own bicycle for exercising a dog and flood him or her with the experience of being near a bicycle. Start slowly, if he or she isn't in shape you can overheat them and/or injure the pads on their feet.

Animal Behaviourist John Wade (http://www.johnwade.ca/)