Bolting dog!

[Fimbacob]

Had a quick search and couldnt find anything similar but please excuse me if I am repeating anything.
We have always had dogs in the family although a different breed each time, the previous being a GSD. We now have a dobey pup (17 months old) who is perfect in every way, except we can not let him off the lead. Every dog we have ever owned has been fine and well behaved off the lead, however if we let this one off as he gets too excited and just bolts. You can call, whistle, wave a roast chicken under his nose and its like you dont exist. He completely loses his head. His full brother was the same and was killed by a car. Would hate the same to happen but would hate the same to happen. Anyone any ideas how to train, or know of any good trainers in northwest/cheshire area? Have tried puppyclasses with doberman (20 odd years exp) expert, dog whistles, treats etc etc to no avail. Thanks!x

 

[Fimbacob]

Sorry for repeat! On phone!!

 

[Dobiegirl]

I have 2 Dobes(both rescue) brother and sister, they both have good recall unless they spot a deer then I can kiss them good bye. To combat this I keep one on the lead most of the time and if a deer pops up will chase initially but comes back to the whistle. I swop them over to give them equal time off lead. My dogs have discovered they love balls so I try and channel their energies into running after fetching and returning balls.


I would try and do this with your dog but keep him on a long line at all times, Im lucky enough to walk on our own land well away from roads, youve been lucky once so dont push your luck.

 

[Adopter]

Our current dog is the first one we have had that just will not recall, so as you say he can not go off the lead when we are out. He is a rescue and is nearly 5, and if we are out with him and he hears something or someone in the distance will just bolt off, ignoring traffic and anything else.

We are working on his recall, but it is work in progress and I think he will be on either a retractable lead for some time. When we walk in the woods at the back of our field we do put him on a long recall training lead which we do drop when we can, the advantage is that there are no roads anywhere near.

There are a number of good training classes that I know of on this side of Cheshire, but depends which part you are in.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Are you sure it is excitement, it could also be fear/pressure and is likely to be genetic.
I had a female like this and if she felt in any way under pressure (and please don't think dogs perceive pressure in the same way as we do!) then she just ran.

I have also seen dobes at training who will be giving excellent heelwork/obedience or agility and then just...tank off for a nice run for no apparent reason to give themselves a little de-stress.

With my own young dog, I think maturity has a lot to do with it, he spent 9-18 months just fecking off on me, now after a lot of work he checks in with me frequently and offers me behaviour. I do this by only feeding by hand and a lot of training with balls (he never has free access to balls or toys, only in training)

I would look at only running him in enclosed areas, maybe look at biking him to release energy, and keeping him onlead in unenclosed areas until you get it cracked.
Biking is good because the dog HAS to stay with you, slow down and speed up when you do, turn when you do, it's a good control exercise.

There are lots of things you can do in terms of bonding exercises, drilling in that you are a desirable person to be with, food, balls, isolating him from the 'pack'/running away, but if he is genetically inclined to not be able to handle pressure/wants to evade it, then you will face a bigger battle.

 

[eatmyshorts]

When we got one of my GSP's she was so much in her own little world when we had her out, i actually thought she may be deaf at first! We kept her on leash for a while but when she off leash she would bolt & we lost her about four times. Her favourite places to take off in were large cornfields (a nightmare cos you couldn't see her & she'd sometimes be out of sight for 20minutes before coming bouncing back) but once she ran off along the cliffs at the beach, & my hubby had to follow her - the tide was coming in & i was terrified they were both going to get stranded! We had her sister Lexi first at 16weeks, put a lot of effort into her training & her recall was perfect, but Nissa didn't come to live with us until she was about a year old & she was a real hooligan! I ended up resorting to a shock collar - at the end of the day, there was a real chance it would save her life as she was going to get herself run over or shot by a farmer (or drowned along with my hubby in the sea!) & i just needed to be able to get her attention from a distance. I think i used it (after testing it on myself to check the level wasn't too high) three times before she started to listen. Once i got her listening i was then able to get her focus on a tennis ball (that was my blessing, i found out what she liked best in the world!), she absolutely loves it & now she is a complete little star - i can take her (& her sister) anywhere, in fact she will only go about 6 strides ahead of me before she turns to come back, & she will stay by my side off leash if there are other dogs around too. The power of a tennis ball, eh? I do sometimes take her out without a ball now & then, & she is still fine.

The other thing which may help is the power of a pack - i take four dogs out & once i was able to trust her a bit more & she'd relapse & wander off, i'd send out the other dogs, then recall them, & more often than not, she'd come along too.

I always walk mine in the morning too, before feeding, & take treats with me, so they are peckish & more likely to be bribed when i'm doing some training with them - like any animal you have to put the work in to get results. I often get strangers telling me how impressed they are that my dogs are so well behaved - i'd never had thought it possible when i took on the juvenille delinquent who arrived all those months ago!!!