Aww, Miche, I'm really sorry to hear about this. I have a similar thing with Bella and squirrels - she is absolutely obsessed. If we drive into Greenwich park and she spots one on the way to us parking the car, she will be absolutely trembling with excitement by the time I park and go to let her out. She will stand there transfixed by one for absolutely ages, her whole body trembling (sometimes so much that I get quite concerned!) and nothing whatsoever can compete.
I've tried:
- keeping her on a long line (she just strained on the end of it to see squirrels)
- avoiding squirrel areas (she knows where they are so would just head off to them regardless - literally disappearing for 5-10mins at a time and coming back completely unconcerned)
- hiding from her (works until she sees me at which point she'll kind of go "oh THERE you are" and not come to me but carry on looking for squirrels, or even more irritatingly, run towards me as if she's being really good then keep going right on by.
- offering her the tastiest possible treats - one day I had a sausage sandwich in the park. Normally she'd kill for a bit of sausage but I held a piece literally in front of her nose and all she did was dodged out the way as I was blocking her view!
- taking her favourite toys - a chuckitt, a squeaky toy, a ball on a rope - but although she's very motivated by these in a non-squirrel park, they just don't come anywhere near for her when there are furry creatures nibbling chestnuts nearby.
In the end I talked to my dog walker to see what she does. She's a behaviourist and also the owner of 2 greyhounds with very strong chase instincts. She said that basically once they are chasing their recall tends to just go out the window because the instinct is stronger. The only thing she'd found that worked for her was to make them think she'd spotted a better squirrel in the opposite direction - this at least got them to go the way she wanted them to. Bella is not interested in catching them - or doesn't seem to be, as she will watch them, absolutely transfixed, for ages, and not actually run towards them until they are on their way up a tree. I think it's more about the mystery of them suddenly vanishing into thin air for her...
So anyway I took up the dog walker's idea and spent a few days like a complete loon, looking out for squirrels, spotting them and running towards them yelling "Bella SQUIRREL!!!" until she got the hang of it. She very quickly learned the word and loved the fact were joining in the fun. I noticed that she kept really watching me and listening out for me yelling the magic word and it was great to have her actually paying me any attention at all.
This meant that if she was heading off into the trees in the wrong direction, I could at least shout this word and she would come back to me (extremely quickly) looking for the squirrel. The drawback is that you can't kid a cocker for long so 8 times out of 10 I do have to have actually spotted one for her. So it doesn't make her recall 100% by any means but it does mean I can keep her more or less in view, attentive to my voice and can quickly get her to come in my direction if I need her to.
She's still obsessed with them - today for example we spent an hour in Greenwich park, no squirrels around whatsoever but she still spent most of that hour looking for them just in case.
I know it's probably not what any books or behaviourists would suggest and it certainly hasn't cured Bella's obsession but it's the only way we can get her to pay any attention to us. Also just to add that we try to not actively encourage her with this behaviour - if we're on a walk where she's not obsessing about them and I spot one I certainly don't point it out to her, it's just if she's obsessing then at least I can for the most part get her to head my way.
Just thought I'd throw it into the mix in case it was of any help.
Good luck with Bailey, I know how frustrating it can be!
