I have an absconder! How do I train my partner?!!

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I’ve got the ‘Total Recall’ book and it is great, so I’m about to start re-training Millie lurcher who has been allowed to turn into an absconder :(

As I’ve said before on here, I’m SO cross with myself that I’ve let that happen - the first couple of times we let her off I was there, and she behaved in just the same way as all my other rescues. My OH walks the dogs after work while I ride the horse during the week - wind forward a few weeks of my OH walking her, and as soon as she is let off the lead she bolts flat out into the distance and ignores all commands.

I am happy to take back walking the dogs and work with Millie to re-train her. My problem is my OH. He will want to walk them after work to save me time, but he doesn’t read much and I know he won’t read the book. He won’t listen to anything I tell him, and he hasn’t developed any awareness of when the dogs are about to do a runner, which is second nature to me. This is after 4 years, so he isn’t new to it all, he just doesn’t seem to have any dog awareness.

At the moment Millie has to be walked on the lead which is rubbish for a young excitable lurcher - any suggestions how I can manage the problem? :(
 
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I think he is probably untrainable after all this time, so can he just walk her on the lead and when you walk her you can do training?
 
Can you walk her and the OH walks the others? When my two absconded into the woods for those many hours, my trainer who came out to help find them told me to keep them on a longline for several months. She then trained us using the walk away technique, dog worries and follows. We also used the ball/dummy thing, but that’s probably unlikely to work for Millie.

I won’t ever let Zak and Bear off together in the woods again, so I’m poorly qualified to advise. Bear is fine with Brig, he has no recall issues, but with his brother, I doubt I’d ever have any chance. I feel for you, the OH is the one that needs training!
 
There are those people who we meet in life, often delightful, now and then intelligent, and whilst in every way 'normal', they haven't the faintest idea what goes on in the mind of a companion-animal, of what ever kind.

I've no wish to sound a smart-arse, but I, like a great many others on here, I'm sure, react instinctively to our animals and mostly before they make their next move. There are those who have neither the interest nor inclination to understand. It's frustrating for you OP and that I understand, but if his brain cells don't focus on the matter, that's the end of it — you'd stand a better chance of teaching a Dalmatian to play the piano.

Alec.
 
Oh dear my HHO "skills" have failed me and I can't remember how to multi-quote! But thank you Clodagh and CT, your idea of walking Millie separately is a really good idea and seems to be the way ahead - at least until I can get her recall ingrained to the extent where he can call her back (if that ever happens!) I am investigating the local enclosed dog walking field so at least the poor thing can get a blast around off the lead regularly for now, subject to what the book says I must do :)

CMcC I think I would resort to something rather stronger than clicker training :D And Alec, I have to agree, his lack of dog awareness still astonishes me after several years, although the mental image of a Dalmatian playing the piano is just brilliant :D
 
I think you already have your solution as advised in previous posts. Have your OH walk Millie on a lead and you do the training when you take her out.
 
My Parson Russell will do amazing recalls on a long line but loose she forgets her name and her brain switches off and she will chase for miles anything that moves. After she legged it on the beach after some birds and was on her way across the bay with an incoming tide I have never had her loose since, it took 40 minutes for her to come back! I take her on the beach on a long line so she can run and a local kennels exercise field. She does agility at home and interactive games, I still wish I could let her go though. She does not play the piano! :)
 
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