How to break a 1.5 y/o Australian Cattle Dog car herding habit?

[knowingjesusfellowship]

I rescued a 1.5 year old sweet gentle blue heeler a couple weeks ago. She was in training before and I am continuing with the same trainer. She very intelligent, willing to learn, and has made a lot of progress very quickly.
The only issue I can't seem to clear is her tendency to herd passing cars. We've been going to the park daily where they have private fenced in areas for her to run around, then, after she's worn out, I start by exposing her to cars in the distance while trying to redirect her attention toward me and training treats (she's VERY food driven), but nothing works so far. I'm talking basically no discernable progress at all.
My trainer tells me I'm doing right, but I feel like there has to be some alternative method or something I'm missing.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[cyprianus]

@knowingjesusfellowship Fellow heeler owner here! Ask your trainer about focusing on getting down a solid recall and coming to you no matter what when you call.

One thing I’ve learned with the current behavioral specialist I’ve been working with is that heelers need to be given “jobs or tasks” to focus on in order to successfully redirect them for a sustained period of time. So as they learn recall, it gets easier to redirect them into other commands (such as heel) so their focus is on you and not on whatever is distracting them. It doesn’t sound like it’s a herding instinct as much as it is a distraction, so getting a solid system of learning that their “job” is to follow your commands is a good place to start!

Edit: grammar

 

[pawel]

@knowingjesusfellowship First of, get her an out lit for it. It’ll be a lot easier to curb the behavior on to something that she’s allowed to chase and herd. They make different herding balls that are pretty awesome, one of my heelers is really big on the flirt pole and loves chasing that which might help a little. Then you want to start working on impulse control, lots of sit/stay and down/stay. Once you got a good stay you need to make it a little more difficult, I did this with my oldest heeler by using balls(he’s more ball motivated then food). I would tell him to sit/stay while holding two balls, drop one of them with as little bounce or roll as I could(gotta make it as easy to ignore as you can) and then would wait a few second, break him from the stay and let him get the ball I dropped but then rewarded him by throwing the second ball. Kept doing this till I was able to fully throw the first ball and he wouldn’t move to go after it. I saw our training all play out perfectly once too, a cat ran into our apartment yard and then out towards the back(still fenced in but not our area) and he started to chase it, I panicked and just yelled stay and to my surprise he came to a dead stop and looked at me. Best moment ever.

 

[yakuda]

@knowingjesusfellowship Is this an issue when you’re just walking your dog? Or are you trying to allow your dog off leash near traffic?

 

[knowingjesusfellowship]

@yakuda It's just an issue when I walk her. She's never off leash in an unsecured area. Oddly enough, when cars drive by while she is off leash and can chase them along the fenced-in parameter, she doesn't try to bark at them. She's content just chasing them. On leash, though, totally different story.

 

[yakuda]

@knowingjesusfellowship Ok. Maybe a thundercap could help, or getting into treiball / herding classes if there’s an opportunity to do so near you.

 

[aryehyehudah]

@knowingjesusfellowship Take some herding classes if you can find them. She can get it out of her system and learn to control her urges.