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Permalink Reply by Beth on September 12, 2016 at 8:51pm

Some Corgis have a very high prey drive.  Once a dog is in full flight in prey drive, they won't hear you and they won't stop.  So what you want to do is condition him that the chickens are his friends and not dinner, long before he starts to run.

Assess him on a leash so you can see how close you get, or how the chickens move, before prey drive is started.  Then you want to start counter-conditioning somewhere farther back from the distance that sets him off.  You want to practice first with no distractions getting him to look at you when you say a certain word or phrase;  lots of people use "watch me."   So hold a treat to your face, say "watch me", give a reward marker and then treat.   Repeat and gradually fade the lure so that you say "watch me" first without getting out a treat, and he looks at your face and then you treat him.

Then you repeat this when the chickens are far away but he can still see them.  So you want him to notice the chickens, but not get too excited, then say "watch me" and treat.  Gradually move closer to the chickens (he should be leashed of course) until you can get quite close.   Then you can repeat with a longer lead, starting back at the original distance and working closer.

If he is not normally a dedicated chicken-chaser, you may be able to just walk him by the chickens and talk to him and give him some treats and pet the chickens and show they are friends.   But if he gets leash-pulling excited just seeing them, you'll need to work through the whole process of conditioning him to watch you when he sees chickens.

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