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Abby is half Treeing Walker Coonhound (the rest is Beagle and a bit of Greyhound) and she'll be 9 months old next week. We discovered she has a huge prey drive. Whenever she sees a bird, squirrel or rabbit, she goes absolutely hysterical. If she's in the house and sees them out the window, she'll jump up on the windows and let out a hysterical chop bark/bay. If I'm walking her and she sees a squirrel or rabbit she'll do the same hysterical bark/bay and want to pull me down the street. Interestingly she's not as bad with birds. If there's one in our path, she'll stop, start stalking it slowly and want to pull me after it, but that's more under control now with the leash training we've done. She walks very good now - it's only when there's a rabbit or squirrel around that it's a huge problem. She's very strong and it's hard for me to control her when she gets like that.
As for the jumping on windows whenever she sees one outside, we have screens and she's put a few holes in them with her nails. I'm more concerned about calming her and being in more control of her during walks. Anyone else have a similar problem? Any advice to calm her down a bit? I try to distract her but she's *very* focused. I know it's in her instinct. She even trees squirrels and that doesn't bother me so much, just the way she gets hysterical and I'm concerned the neighbors might start complaining eventually (luckily she doesn't do this in the early morning or night).
As for the jumping on windows whenever she sees one outside, we have screens and she's put a few holes in them with her nails. I'm more concerned about calming her and being in more control of her during walks. Anyone else have a similar problem? Any advice to calm her down a bit? I try to distract her but she's *very* focused. I know it's in her instinct. She even trees squirrels and that doesn't bother me so much, just the way she gets hysterical and I'm concerned the neighbors might start complaining eventually (luckily she doesn't do this in the early morning or night).