Border Collie and bicycles

Question
Hi Dr. Connor. Thanks in advance for your input. We have a (approx) 3 year old Border
Collie mix who originally came from the pound. He is extremely smart and has been
easy to train in most areas but we've still got a ways to go. We live in the country with
acres and acres of pasture on all sides except for a county road at the front past our
house. We've trained Oscar to stay away from the road and ignore passing cars, horse
and buggies (Amish Country), horseback riders, walkers, motorcycle riders, EVERYTHING
except bicyclers. I don't know what it is about someone on a bicycle, but every time he
sees one (even while riding in the car with us) he goes ballistic and wants to get to them.
He's not mean, he's usually wagging his tail, wants to run up to them, grasp a pant leg,
and get them to stop pedaling. The ones going downhill go too fast for him and he
doesn't bother going after them, but the ones struggling to make the uphill climb are fair
game. I don't know if it's the pedaling motion or the weaving bike, or what. Some will
stop to pet him, which he enjoys, but as soon as they're on the bike again, he's grabbing
at them again. Most in the neighborhood don't mind him, but I don't want him scaring
someone who might think he's a biter, and I mainly don't want him near the road at all.
(I KNOW, dog people will insist dogs should be enclosed or tied, but as I said before,
we're extremely rural plus we KNOW he can be trained to avoid the road as he does so
with any and everything else EXCEPT the bicycles.). How can we break him of this
behavior?

Anita

P.S. Oscar is only outside on his own when we're at home and in and out of the house
and barn and nearby ourselves. Overnight and during times when we're not at home he's
in the house. We try to make sure he has plenty of exercise and mental stimulation so
he's not bored.

Answer
I don't care how well "trained" your dog appears to be, he goes to the road after bicycles; he's not trained to avoid the road.  I know about very rural areas because I live in one but there are still cars, still hot headed kids, still drunk drivers, still trucks, etc.  If your dog is chasing after a bicyclist and a car comes along and swerves to avoid the bicyclist, your dog is a primary target.  I know of one case on Long Island where a car full of kids swerved OFF the road and ONTO the front lawn (where a dog was off leash in plain sight of its owner) just to RUN OVER the dog.  I know of another case in an extremely rural area where a dog was hit by a fire truck speeding to an emergency call.  Dogs and roads DO NOT MIX.  Even if you are standing four feet away, you can't intervene fast enough.  Every time your dog interacts with a bicyclist (especially one who stops to pet him) he's being heavily rewarded for his chase behavior.  This is a herding breed driven with serious control issues and tremendous response perseverance: if trained to stay at heel to the left, and the handler moves the dog to the right, the dog will PERSIST in looking right for the handler.  That's how set their behaviors are.

A wagging tail is no indication of intent; dogs wag their tails as part of the overall communication and in response to emotion.  A dog can wag its tail and rip off your face.  Tail set and ear set are indications of motive, not the wag.  Your dog is most likely responding to the odd combination of human and moving object that isn't car related; the fact that people interact with him, and most likely sometimes in an annoyed or frightened way, further encourages his prey drive.  Prey drive in a herding dog is: eye, stalk, chase, control.  That's what your dog is responding to.  Using serious punishment (shock collar) on this behavior won't work; it's hard wired and all that will happen is the dog will become confused, anxious and possibly aggressive because he will associate the pain with the OBJECT of his attention and not his own behavior, which isn't a choice for him, it's a genetically driven reaction.

To control and (possibly) eliminate this behavior you have to TRAIN this dog to HERD (if you haven't already tried this.)  An intelligent herding breed like this can be trained to: eye, stalk, stop, down, stay, recall; it's done frequently in herding competitions.  Once the dog has been thus trained (successfully), you must consistently "work" him in herding objects (soccer balls work) and then REDIRECT every single response he offers to a moving object on or near the road, ESPECIALLY bicycles.  This redirection will have to be initiated the MOMENT the dog "eyes" the object.  From eye, stalk, stop, down, stay, recall you can work backward slowly and shape the training to: eye, stop, down, recall.  It's not brain surgery but it can be complex, especially for someone who has never trained a dog for obedience competition, herding competition, etc., as you most likely have not.

My suggestion to you is that find a group of trainers working their dogs for herding competition.  In rural areas, this is not an uncommon hobby.  Here's a link you can start with:
http://www.herdingontheweb.com/starting.htm

If you're not successful with that link, call around to vet offices and see if you can locate a group, or even a trainer who has an expertise in working with herding breeds.  The every day obedience trainer is not going to have the experience to train the sort of chain behaviors required for this effort, but a highly experienced competition trainer (who has taken dogs to AKC UDX status) certainly can.  Until then, allowing this dog to continue in this behavior worsens it, makes it more difficult to extinguish, and puts the dog's life at risk.