Well that all depends on who you ask and what techniques they suggest. All I am gonna say about this topic is I am gonna stick to positive reinforcement, counter conditioning, the use of clicker while changing the dogs perception of what a moving car means. There will be others who claim faster results (and who knows they might be able to get faster results) But in my every so humble ( yep mine and mine alone) opinion I would worry more with whose ideas are going to permanently change the behavior not how fast the behavior can show progress…
 
1st step gotta load the clicker… That means spending 3-5 days of just doing some hand feeding and clicking before every piece of food so that we can get the dog to understand and anticipate a treat after each click! If your dog spins on a dime and looks at you wondering where the treat is whenever he hears the click you have loaded the clicker well and you are ready to move on to the next step, Catching the Look not the Bark or the Pull!
 
Ok so now you head out to the road and wait for a car the instant you see the car and Fido looks in that direction CLICK!!!! Then reward… You have essentially blocked the barking and pulling with the noise of the clicker and rewarded a behavior you like and prevented a behavior you want to go away… Congrats you is Dog Training J
 
Now what to do if it does not work? Dog still pulls and barks… First realize you were late with the click and reward and allowed Fido to get to close to his emotions and he lost it. Your only chance is to retreat to a safe distance away from the road calm the dog and try again… Once the dog has lost it and is pulling on the leash, no amount of yelling pleading or correcting is gonna help you are talking to the end without ears and that just dont work… So just move away reset and try again. Like I said this is not going to be a quick fix but in the end with time it will be a permanent fix…
 
A couple of final thoughts
 
1.    Call a trainer we have better timing with the use of tools like clickers. One or two sessions will really pay dividends with your timing!
2.   We in the end are doing nothing more than making the See car = Bark and Pull Change to See Car and have it now equal look to Mom for a Reward
3.    If we make ourselves (the person) more important that the distraction (the car) the problem will go away guaranteed.
Ironically making yourself the most important thing in your dog’s eyes goes a long ways to fixing all sorts of problem behaviors….
 
Remember Keep it Simple Stupid
 

Mike
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