Her problem sounds a bit familiar. Roger once got loose when I tripped over a log in the forest and lost my grip on the leash.

He stood there and blinked for a few seconds, and then started moving when I walked towards him. Never an outright "I want to run to China" clip but certainly he paced me enough that he knew exactly how fast he would have to move to stay ahead of me.

I did finally catch him and was none too happy. He's also been let loose in large enclosed spaces and looked completely lost--he didn't move much at all, except when I tried to come back for him and he started darting away a bit before finally stopping and submitting to being back on the leash.

The problem seems to have gone away, as he recently slipped away from me and just came back after doing two big furious zoomy laps around me. However, I'll always remember the times that he didn't come right back or respond to his recall. Randy said this signified something being screwy w/the dog's imprinting, a fear I've had already.

If this is the case (let's say I've assumed the worst), what is there to be done about it?

Your tone of voice can mess them up, too. I've you've always had a happy, upbeat tone and all of a sudden it an "oh my word what just happened" tone, all of a sudden your dog can be on edge.

But in the first situation, don't go toward them, go in the opposite direction. Woo-hoo what's over here. 9 times out of 10 your dog will come up to you to see what is so exciting. Then just do your normal "hey, buddy" and slip the leash on.

He might have gotten freaked out by you falling.

However, catch me if you can is a fun game to some dogs. When you run into a situation like that its important that you don't play into it and you don't get mad. Its a situation that you have to keep your cool and outsmart them by going away from them.

The best dog book I have ever read is "the other end of the leash". In the book the author goes into more detail about why this works. The book is about where we misunderstand eacother in the primate/canine relationship. Its really a great read.

Also, as randy pointed out in the other thread if you do things right your dog should always want to be with you. You should be the most awesome best thing in their whole world.

Sometimes there are great distractions or moments of independence in a young dog. I remember one time that the end of the long line slipped away from me and my dog was bombing around a huge park with a dead rat!

I had to be way more fun than the rat, which as we all know is hard. She was about 30 yards away from me when I whistled, gave a little play slap and took off running. Rather than thinking "mom is mad at me." She saw it as an opportunity to play ! She dropped the rat and ran to me. I did play with her, and I grabbed the line. Problem solved.

Yep, run in the opposite direction and make a big, silly fuss about it.

I've had dogs that were very naughty about being caught at that age (7-8 months) but ended up being very nice, attentive dogs with super recall as adults. IME age has at least something to do with it.

Ideally we are the center of the Universe for our dogs, but we are also something they see every day. Adolescents tend to want to seek out novel experiences, which we generally aren't.

Knowing this has meant that I do everything to ensure accidental escapes just don't happen. I always use a martingale collar, or a prong w/ a backup so collar-slipping doesn't happen.

It can happen to anyone at least once, but once you know it CAN happen and what to do about it, it's easy enough to prevent.

 Quote: kristel smart

I've had dogs that were very naughty about being caught at that age (7-8 months) but ended up being very nice, attentive dogs with super recall as adults. IME age has at least something to do with it.

Me, too. This is very typical as your pup learns. It's up to you to get your pup to make the right choices...

With my 8 month old, he just recently got over being a stinker about coming in the back door from being outside. He did the old "Hi, I'm by the door...oh, I see you! I'm gonna run out into the yard and ignore you!"

This is when I had to consider how I could get him to "choose" to come in the back door nicely. Yes, I could have put him out on a long line, etc. but instead I simply incorporated play with his favorite tug as a reward when he came in or I would put on my boots start a training session outside and convince him to come and finish inside.. He is lightning fast to the door now It only took a few times to realize that while it's fun to stay outside, he would WAY rather play with me!

This is the important time of establishing the bond between the two of you.

One of the best things I ever learned was in England, where people take their dogs for off leash walks a ton. When out walking, have your dog’s favorite toy (or food for the chow hounds) with you but hidden. As you walk stop and call the dog back, when he gets there produce the toy and play, then put the toy up and resume the walk. Pretty soon anytime you call on your walk you have a dog that flies back to you. Of course for me it only works once, because ones Miles knows I have the ball he does the rest of his walk circling me and running ahead 50 feet, laying down and watching me like a hawk until I catch up and then he does it all over again.... makes for a real fun walk. The actual goal is to wait till your dog is really interested in sniffing or something and take that opportunity to call them back. And after always let them go back to what they were doing so they don’t think recalling means the walk is over. We also use to practice this during obedience class when the dogs were playing with each other, calling them to us and then sending them off to play again.

Edited by Sarah Slyter (02/04/2011 01:29 PM)
Edit reason: post was only half written!

 Quote: Sarah Slyter

One of the best things I ever learned was in England, where people take their dogs for off leash walks a ton. When out walking, have your dog’s favorite toy (or food for the chow hounds) with you but hidden. As you walk stop and call the dog back, when he gets there produce the toy and play, then put the toy up and resume the walk. Pretty soon anytime you call on your walk you have a dog that flies back to you. Of course for me it only works once, because ones Miles knows I have the ball he does the rest of his walk circling me and running ahead 50 feet, laying down and watching me like a hawk until I catch up and then he does it all over again.... makes for a real fun walk. The actual goal is to wait till your dog is really interested in sniffing or something and take that opportunity to call them back. And after always let them go back to what they were doing so they don’t think recalling means the walk is over. We also use to practice this during obedience class when the dogs were playing with each other, calling them to us and then sending them off to play again.

I really wish I would have known this for a collie I had... She almost got run over once and shortly after I rehomed her because I could not take all the scares she had given me and I did not know how to deal with it. I have learned SO much from this site and don´t know how I would be without it today. Thankfully I don´t have much of a recall problem with Zuki but again that is because of all the things I have read here.

Great thread =) and Great info! =)