Having a nightmare - dog not coming back

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All of a sudden my English Pointer has started buggering off on walks in big fields when she gets a scent. She comes to heel, is good on the lead, but this is a very recent occurence. She will just choose to ignore you no matter how loudly you shout her, and just will not come back.

Any advice as she is becoming a nightmare to walk...
 
Oh dear, her hunting instincts are obviously in over drive.....This problem can be hard to over come with such breeds, I would convert to restricting her to a long lead maybe a lunging rope and re-teach her to re-call on command, i.e giving her a command to come using her name and re-inforcing this with a treat at the exact time she aproaches you, repeat this method many time using a treat that she rarely gets........something she wil find delicious i.e pre-cut up pieces of chicken or cheese, this should only be used for training purposes to reinforce her re-call, every few re-calls replace the treat with praise so she does not become dependent on the treats.
Whilst carrying out the technique keep her away from her usual haunts to keep her from becoming distracted with her sorroundings and become totally focused on u.
You will need to be patient and repeat this daily over a period of months until u feel confident she is responding to your commands.
The idea is to reward her with a delicasy she only gets when performing the command you require, they are very intelligent dogs and normally pick these training methods up quicky.
GOOD LUCK
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I am sure ANN-JEN has had a similar experience with her German Pointer she may beable to give you some advice also.

You could also use a clicker at the time you give her the treat to re-inforce the sound with the reward, this way you may beable to teach her to re-call at the sound of the clicker.

There are other methods but this is the most basic to try out.
 
[ QUOTE ]
All of a sudden my English Pointer has started buggering off on walks in big fields when she gets a scent. She comes to heel, is good on the lead, but this is a very recent occurence. She will just choose to ignore you no matter how loudly you shout her, and just will not come back.

Any advice as she is becoming a nightmare to walk...

[/ QUOTE ]

Pop and see Kev' Davidson at Edencroft Kennels, he will point you in the right direction in no time at all - tell him I sent you!

www.edencroftkennels.org.uk

Not sure where in Lancs you are, but would be worth your journey.

Mike
 
What works really well with the dogs on the yard - especially little Jack Russell that likes to wander, is to call in a really high pitched, silly voice.

I always say "Wee, wee, wee, wee" high pitched, and she always comes back to that. Big rewards and pats when she does. Shouting at them simply doesn't work.
 
run away from her, she wont want to leave the pack behind so should follow you. i usually shout on dog once and then run off if she is ignoring me works eight out of ten times
 
Thanks everyone...

AmyMay... tried that. She just goes totally deaf to you when she has a scent no matter what you do. Even used a dog whistle to no avail.

Thanks for all of your comments. It is quite difficult to keep on her on the lead because she is a VERY fit dog and requires an awful lot of exercise, as all pointers do in my opinion. She simply does not get enough being on the lead. Up until yesterday I had it mastered. I would make her come to heel at this particular spot (where all the pheasants congregate) and it has been working. However, today she did it in a different place because she got the scent of a pheasnat and then just would not come back in the field.

It is a shame because she is a fantastic dog. She is very intelligent for a pointer, and walks to heel really well. I don't even have to take a lead with me, even when we go through all the fields with sheep in etc.

She has done this running off with other people, but never with me. I am the disciplinarian to her and she takes the mick out of others. But like I say, this is the first time she has not come back to me when commanded.
 
I had a similar problem with my Boxer doing this. I took her out with a behaviourist and her advice was to take a whistle and before she got too far away to blow the whistle once and then hide but in the same place as we had last been together rather than running away. It really worked, as soon as I blew the whistle she would turn to look for me and come back before I had the chance to hide.
 
Call, get her attention, then fake a faint! Our dog nearly died when I did this, came running like a bat out of hell straight to me to see if I had died!! Off course she got loads of praise, I got over my faint and off we went, did it a few times and she got the message.

Problem had been, when she failed to recall I got stressed, started shouting and just frightened her off. When I lay down and she came to me (she has to see you fall to the ground) I was full of praise and she was so pleased to have 'found & saved me'.

Might be worth a go as last resort!
 
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