[Ky S]

I have a 1.5 year old Australian Shepherd. He is a very good dog. He is great at being off leash, coming on command, not going in the street, calm energy in the house and on walks, etc.

I take him on lots of bike rides since he loves to run. I take him on some local dirt trails that there are no people on, so it's perfect.

However, the problem that I'm encountering is that he seems to try to herd me whenever we start moving. When I take the bike out of the back of the truck, he will be excited, which is understandable. But as soon as I sit on the bike and pedal, it is constant barking towards me for the first few minutes. He will also try to bite the front tire. After the first few minutes, he will kind of stop. If I go on a ride with a friend or 2, it is just non stop barking!! Don't get me wrong, I am OK with occasional barking, but the fact is that it seems a bit excessive and that it is directed towards me/the bike, I feel like this behavior needs to be corrected.

He is off leash while on bike rides, and usually runs in front of the bike (5' to 50'). He listens to commands great on walk, but is not as consistent on bike rides.

So, I am wondering;
How can I stop him from barking/biting the tire whenever we begin moving from a stop?
Should I allow him to run in front of me?
How do you train a dog while riding a bike? - It's harder to correct/reward.
Are there any books on this? Or maybe even a book on teaching a dog to correctly herd or ride with horses?

Things I have tried:
Stopping the walk when he barks
Making him sit when he barks
Spraying him with water when he bights the tire
Starting the walk completely over when he bights/barks

None of these methods seemed to work...

Thank you!!!!

 

[Dawnben]

Do you have a reliable leave it command. That maybe what you need so he will leave the bike alone. I would not leave home with the bike until he understands what is expected of him. Take the bike out and train at home. Put a leash on him and ride around on your street until he understand how he is expected to behave.

 

[Liminal]

I ran into this some with my catahoula and here are some steps I took to nip it in the bud:

Play games that work the herding instinct before beginning a bike ride. "Soccer" is good for this.

Go back to step 1 (bike introduction) and condition for calm behavior whenever the bike is close by. Slowly ramp up the joint dog + bike activity level by walking the bike and the dog on leash (so that you can give rewards and corrections easily), then move to riding.

You could also buy a bike attachment that holds the dog clear of the bicycle and condition the dog to run alongside without biting tires in that way. If he finds it physically impossible for however long, he may just give up on the idea of it.

And working on "leave it" as Dawnben said is good, too, though it can take more than that to overcome something like misguided working drive.