I'm at the park yesterday evening and there's a man w/a 1yr old great dane (Zeus)and a woman w/an 8 month old dane. At some point he lets Zeus off leash. Zeus is running about playing. He calls Zeus, command ignored. He starts yelling Zeus Come! Zeus Come! Zeus Come!

Now the woman w/the 8 month old dane, tells him keep commanding him to come, don't worry about looking like a "fool" (I chose a nicer word). "Let me show you...Zeus Come! Zeus Come! Zeus Come! Zeus Stay! Stay!".

I'm thinking you should not issue a command you cannot correct, particularly a recall. And a recall should sound like a good thing (at least until the dog is proofed? right). And this is in a wide open area in the park.

Finally Zeus stays, long enough for her to grab his collar. Mind you that's only because my dog, who by this point had joined in the romp, was trying to mount Zeus (from the front). She's like "see, I made "fool" (again nicer word) of myself, but he actually stayed". To which the owner says but that's because he was being mounted by the other dog.

My dog is no angle of obedience and off-leash recall is marginal at best. But I try not to issue a recall if I can't correct him and I try to sound pleasant, even if I'm annoyed as hell with him.

Now how, if at all, should one correct a dog once you've manage to get him after disobeying an offleash recall command. It would seem you'd need to go back to on leash training, yes?

Exactly go back to the leash and re-introduced the dog to basic obedience and a prong collar. When the dog understands the basic commands add distractions to proof. Then move to a light 30 to 50 ft line and work recall from a distance. Sometimes it helps to have a patner when working sit/down stay because you need to correct quickly for the dog to understand its mistakes.

Thanks for the reply Tracy, I'm definitely recruiting my wife to help work with him this weekend.

I have gone back to the leash and light line. He definitely understands the commands; he has to perform them to eat everyday and he performs them on leash very well.