My recently adopted 8 year old pointer recalls well in the yard but when she wanders off she won't come back. Should we train her with an ecollar?

I have a pointer and when I walk her I can't let her off the leash in the woods. She becomes focused on smells in the bushes and not respond to commands. I know that her instinct is to hunt and she is so focused on the smells around her. We recently adopted her and she is 8 years old, so we don't know how much training she has had. She is very good with recall at home in the yard, except a couple of times when she wandered away and went to the woods which are across the street. She didn't come back when we repeatedly called for her to come. Do you have suggestions for how to train her? We don't plan to use her for hunting; just going on hikes/walks. Do you think we should train her with an e collar? Thanks!

Cindy's Answer

I would start with our Come When Called course and don't get in a hurry to let her off leash in distracting environments. Genetics and past experience will be working against you so be patient. Once you have reflexive responses to the recall in no-distraction environments incrementally add more distractions and new places but always have a long line on so you can help her make the right choices.

I would then layer the ecollar in using the techniques shown in our ecollar video. I would also make sure to buy a quality ecollar that has a lot of stim levels so you can fine-tune it without creating stress or worry in your dog.

Some dogs may always need to be on a leash or long line, if she's had 8 years of being allowed to run and follow her nose, it makes this training much more time-consuming and difficult than if she had been taught a proper recall under distraction as a puppy or young adult. Be patient and don't be tempted to 'test' your training too soon. This may take many months of training and even then, the more distracting the environment, the more aware you need to be of your dog's state of mind and where her focus is directed.

I hope this helps.