Cannot ever let dog off lead.

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tessybear

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Does anyone else have a dog like this, our GSP cannot be trusted off the lead because once she has the scent of something she turns off and no matter how many times you shout her name and flap your arms she keeps on going. Not to bad when you're in the middle of fields but clearly if there are any forms of roads or live stock near by it becomes dangerous.

However over the past 3/4 years after she had got the scent of the rabbit or whatever she had been chasing she would run back towards us but would never come close enough to catch her. She acts like she was worried about being told off and would hang back.

Now we have moved and are nearer to roads that people fly down at stupid speeds she must stay on the stretchy lead whilst her Jack russel friend is off, she does go off the lead down the stock fenced 2 acre padock.

Does anyone else have a dog they simply cannot trust off lead ?
 
Yes, our rescue border collie who is just 5 now and we have had 18 months. He goes off lead in our fenced paddock and fenced garden, but outside that just can not trust him to come back.

We do use a long recall training lead in the field and wood and work on his recall but it is going to be a long time before we make any progress, so I prefer the safe option which is always on a lead away from home.

Have to say this is the first time we have had this problem with a dog, and we have spent and absolute fortune on dog proof fencing in the last twelve months, never needed it before!
 
Our 2 GSP's are now old ladies whose eye sight is deteriorating. We already lost one, who was picked up by the dog warden, a while back. Now I am loathe to let them off :(

What gets my goat though is a guy we meet who always has a snipe at the dogs being on the lead and how he feels sorry for them. Makes me :mad:.
 
Mine- rescue- way to OTT in his greeting of other dogs- goes deaf if there is one around- work in progress.

can be offlead with his "mates" in a secluded field we use regularly- where actually he is very attentive.
 
yes! My American Bulldog is not good with other dogs, so is only off lead in secure private areas, or when off up in the hills while we are fishing.

Her problem is with other dogs, so as long as we know we are alone (ie up a mountain where you can see for miles!) she is fine off lead- she has chased a deer once or twice... but Abs are not built for speed... or endurance! so she doesn't go too far!
 
18 months on my weimaraner bitch is starting to be much more consistent with her recall. Has taken an enormous amount of work and a collision with a car on the way. Some dogs can be an enormous challenge and you are doing the right thing to keep yours on the lead.
 
Your answer is to go and do some gundog training in classes. The GSP club run several across the country and if they don't have one local there will be another breed whose classes you can drop into. If your issue is hunting and recall then you have to expose to those things and train to make sure you are back in control.

You might find a vibrating collar useful if she is completely ignoring you (and NO not a shock collar your only asking to distract the dog so that they listen to you not give it a rollicking) you can pick them up cheaply.

Never understood why people take so much time and effort to train and school their horses but expect their dogs to train themselves :rolleyes: If your stuck for classes PM I might know someone in your area.

Have to say I really dislike flexi-leads they encourage your dog not to recall correctly.
 
Star_Chaser said:
Your answer is to go and do some gundog training in classes. The GSP club run several across the country and if they don't have one local there will be another breed whose classes you can drop into. If your issue is hunting and recall then you have to expose to those things and train to make sure you are back in control.

You might find a vibrating collar useful if she is completely ignoring you (and NO not a shock collar your only asking to distract the dog so that they listen to you not give it a rollicking) you can pick them up cheaply.

Never understood why people take so much time and effort to train and school their horses but expect their dogs to train themselves :rolleyes: If your stuck for classes PM I might know someone in your area.
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Yeah Im sure none of use who have issues thought of training............. :rolleyes:
 
Yep, my collie is aggressive with other dogs. He is on the lead all the time apart from when I can be absolutely sure we are by ourselves (out on the fields when other people are at work, up a mountain/moors for example!) or in a secure field. He gets lots of exercise and agility to keep him occupied.

He was attacked as a puppy and no amount of training or behaviorists has helped, believe me we have tried. He is 10 now. He is becoming easier as he has gotten older. Other than that he is the best dog in all other ways! So it is quite sad to not be able to let him off for a play on the beach :(
 
I have two GSP littermates. The one I've had since 16wks old and done lots of training with from an early age has excellent recall. I didn't get her sister until she was about a year old and she was a bit of a juvenile delinquent! She'd ignore you to such a degree on walks, I was actually beginning to think she may be deaf. If you were close enough to touch her, you could get her attention, any further away, forget it. We tried to stick to fairly enclosed areas (eg. fenced in pathways) but she still managed to run off several times (for periods of about 15minutes although it felt longer). We tried keeping her on leash but she hated it, it just wasn't enough for her.

We eventually resorted to a shock collar on a very low level (it has vibrate too which we tried first but it had absolutely no effect). I know some folk may they are cruel, but at the end of the day, we have busy roads and livestock closeby so it may well save her life. I only had to activate it 3 or 4 times before she started to pay attention. Once she did I rewarded her with a tennis ball. These days she is a bit tennis ball obsessed, but you couldn't lose her if you tried!
 
Never ceases to amaze me here how rude some people are, often without even having the balls to do it upfront but by snide implication. Perhaps it would have been more polite to just ask what training had been attempted?
 
She was involved with puppy classes and her recall wasn't bad till the age of 4ish when she would go into her "Mood" and just become a pain to catch. In ever other aspect she is fantastic.

Oh really im interested how the stretchy leads affect re-call could you fill me in :) Thank you very much for the advice so far.

Althoug i must admit wasn't after advice more than happy to trundle along on the lead, don't find many dogs that are perfect in every other aspect :)
 
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tessybear said:
Does anyone else have a dog like this, our GSP cannot be trusted off the lead because once she has the scent of something she turns off and no matter how many times you shout her name and flap your arms she keeps on going. Not to bad when you're in the middle of fields but clearly if there are any forms of roads or live stock near by it becomes dangerous.

However over the past 3/4 years after she had got the scent of the rabbit or whatever she had been chasing she would run back towards us but would never come close enough to catch her. She acts like she was worried about being told off and would hang back.

Now we have moved and are nearer to roads that people fly down at stupid speeds she must stay on the stretchy lead whilst her Jack russel friend is off, she does go off the lead down the stock fenced 2 acre padock.

Does anyone else have a dog they simply cannot trust off lead ?
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You could be describing my rescue terrier. Once she has a scent she is gone and no amount of training has made any difference. None of my other dogs have ever been like this but she is the only one I've not had from a puppy.
 
Yep, got 2 lurchers - one will chase (& catch) deer, the other was rescued from gypsies and never socialised as a puppy so has no idea how to play with other dogs and comes across as aggressive, he isn't but other dogs don't tolerate his 'exuburant' behaviour and often are aggressive towards him so it's safer to keep him on the lead! I am very lucky to have use of a 5 acre field which I can run them in so they don't go completely crazy!!! :)
 
Just another thought OP, if you find that being on leash all the time isn't enough for her, GSP' s being quite a high energy breed, have you considered training her to bikejore? More challenging exercise, in harness so still on
a leash as such, and you may just find it gets her focus - my girls have undergone distraction training in harness so now if they see a deer, they get burst of adrenaline but stay on track. You can get a made to measure harness for as little as £14.
 
eatmyshorts said:
Just another thought OP, if you find that being on leash all the time isn't enough for her, GSP' s being quite a high energy breed, have you considered training her to bikejore? More challenging exercise, in harness so still on
a leash as such, and you may just find it gets her focus - my girls have undergone distraction training in harness so now if they see a deer, they get burst of adrenaline but stay on track. You can get a made to measure harness for as little as £14.
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I'd love to do this with mine- but if he caught sight of a squirrel i'd be a gonner!!
 
Me and the OH we concerned about this when we got our rescue pups. One JRT and one Rottie x Lab. First time off lead in a massive well enclosed field and we let them off with the collies. Called the collies back, the pups followed. Worked perfectly.

One thing we found with the JRT was that if he caught sight of a rabbit or pheasant, he would be off. Recall didn't work, but telling him to "leave it" did and that always got him to stop and then we could call him back.

If it is something too interesting, often, having a dog good with the leave command is more helpful than the actual recall.
 
My oldest stafford is not trusted off lead. Its blooming annoying as she is perfect 99.99% of the time but in the 8 years I have had her, she has gone off and meant it. As I have staffords I simply cannot have a dog who chooses to disappear and go deaf so she stays on lead.She did go for an old dog the first time (actually left her "pack" of 7 dogs to go after it), turned out that particular poor dog spends a huge amount of time at the vets having been subjected to random dog attacks, and the 2nd time was after a deer. I am not going to risk it. I am lucky enough that our fields at the yard are deer fenced so I take her off lead through there and there are a couple of points on our home walk's when I know I am safe as again, enclosed fields and can see ahead. The other 2 are fine though agree the "leave" command is better than "come"!. That and bribery.

I put up with it. It would be much nicer for all concerned if I didn't have to keep 1 dog on lead but staffords have such a bad reputation that I cannot take any chances. What makes it even more annoying is that she is the first dog we will "dog test" a strange dog at the yard with as she is so good with new dogs, but she let me down in a public area and I am not risking a dog or me losing her.
 
lexiedhb said:
I'd love to do this with mine- but if he caught sight of a squirrel i'd be a gonner!!
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Seriously, you may be surprised - I expected to end up in the nearest hedge! And you do have brakes in case of emergency (or squirrel!). It's useful to have an experienced dog for them to follow, or failing that someone up front to encourage. The "Leave it" command is very important and we do train specifically to ignore distractions.The dogs love it - seems to me a good solution if a high energy dog needs some faster exercise but can't be off leash.
 
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tessybear said:
Does anyone else have a dog like this, our GSP cannot be trusted off the lead because once she has the scent of something she turns off and no matter how many times you shout her name and flap your arms she keeps on going. Not to bad when you're in the middle of fields but clearly if there are any forms of roads or live stock near by it becomes dangerous.

However over the past 3/4 years after she had got the scent of the rabbit or whatever she had been chasing she would run back towards us but would never come close enough to catch her. She acts like she was worried about being told off and would hang back.

Now we have moved and are nearer to roads that people fly down at stupid speeds she must stay on the stretchy lead whilst her Jack russel friend is off, she does go off the lead down the stock fenced 2 acre padock.

Does anyone else have a dog they simply cannot trust off lead ?
Click to expand...

I had one just like that, and she too was a GSP!! I won't bore you with all the details, but she ended up being run over as she ran across the village road after a cat. She had escaped from our garden. We did used to let her off leash because I don't believe in never doing so, personally I think all dogs should run free where it is safe, and so we would let her free in safe areas like enclosed fields or the beach - she would never run away on a beach, but just chase seagulls madly up and down and in and out of the water!

Something you said makes me wonder though if and when she does eventually come back to you, do you lavish her with praise or do you tell her off? Never, never, never tell her off if she has come back to you, even if she is diving around out of your reach, when eventually you manage to capture her, heap praise on her, give her a titbit, whatever you want to do to reward her. Never (like I did) shut her away in her kennel "as a punishment", or lock her up somewhere. Just the opposite - keep her with you, sleeping with you included (not in the bed, unless you don't mind!), try and let her know that being with you is a good thing, and that even when she has been naughty, you will be patient with her and work through her disobedience. I have come to realise that Lizzie used to hoof it whenever she could because she was lefthome alone all day whilst we were out at work, and she was probably bored stiff and under-exercised so she would just go lulu when taken out into the garden for lavatorial purposes and do her very best to find a way out.

As unacceptable as it may sound to most people, we eventually had to resort to an e collar with our wolf cross when we rescued him a couple of years ago. It was very much a last resort, that or be put down as I will not condemn a dog to a life on the lead. It worked a treat ... very few zaps resulted in an extremely obedient dog who comes to you as soon as you call "Come!". And he wants to come, he is really happy, really pleased with himself, he is not coming back because he is terrified of being zapped, he is recalling because he WANTS to. He is so smug and pleased with himself, and he gets lavish praise for his pains!

Sorry, I've rambled on and on!! :rolleyes:
 
So sorry to hear about your GSP Nikki J. Some people don't realise bad recall can be a matter of life & death & in the grand scheme of things, if an e-collar is used correctly, it's definately the better option. Even on the few occassions i used the e-collar, i made sure i praised & treated her when she came back.
 
E-collars on a light setting, introduced correctly and used as an attention grabber rather than BAD DOG - ZAP! are a very useful tool.

I love the 'your dog isn't trained' argument. Sometimes you can't fight with genetics, sometimes you can't fight with ingrained behaviour. I'd rather be safe than sorry, there are plenty of ways to tire a dog than letting them bimble around at their own leisure off lead (there's another sweeping statement, for balance :p)
 
You are right CaveCanem. Some breeds are not as easily trained as others.

I have Alaskan Malamutes (mine were always OFF the lead dogs) much to the disapproval of other sled dog owners but they will be put on the lead near other dogs, joggers and live stock.

However just because some dogs are very difficult to train, does not mean we should not make a serious effort to do so!!!

I agree every dog owner should do the responsible thing and keep their dogs under control and at least clip them on the lead when they see another dog...

Quite frankly I'm sick and tired of all manor of dogs running up to mine, with the owner shouting from the distance "HE'S ALRIGHT"!!!!
 
Alec Swan said:
Have I missed the post that suggested more treats and rewards? They seem to be the answer to every other canine problem! :rolleyes:

Alec.
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The classic solution to biting has to be "give treats to divert his attention".:D

So far, I have managed to resist contributing to this thread....
 
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