The first 3 times he caught us off guard, ran out of yard while we were working in the yard, bolted out of back yard fence then out the front door. Today I had a long line on him,he knew he could not go out of the yard so he waited quietly til I finished. The only way I can set him up is to untie the long line as he knows when he is restrained. Sure enough when I let him walk to the house, untied, he took off, but it was easier to catch him with long line on him. He does know what he is being corrected for, as he knows the word come. Since this is all new misbehavior and I can see that a few corrections aren't getting the message across I will not let him out of house or backyard off leash. But other than letting him take off I don't know how to teach him that that is unacceptable.
i have an e collar and that would keep him from taking off, but he knows when its on and when its off he will go back to running off. Boy it was so nice before he turned 3.

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Turning 3 years old is like "college age" for dogs -- Yes, keep him onlead until he is voice-command reliable on the recall <:-O....

I've heard this a lot, that age three can be a surprise. Is this a common experience?

is there a reason he needs to be outside w/ out an e-collar, dumby collar, or a leash on?

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is there a reason he needs to be outside w/ out an e-collar, dumby collar, or a leash on?

Me? Maybe this was meant for Nancy............I'm with Jim Nash on this one, but no disrespect for anyone who got caught unaware.......

oh, sorry it was not for you connie. In fact, I didn't read the whole thread, just when it started and then the last comment when i saw it on active topics. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> Anyhow, now that i look at the whole thread (duh) I agree that what jim said is good.

Anyways, I am having a hard time figuring out what exactly is the case here. Nancy, are you correcting your dog that has run from you after he stops and lets you come to him? I dont think that is the best solution to the problem because realistically your are not so much catching him as he is letting you catch him (small chance of me being wrong here)

I don't know what to do as far as setting up an enviornment for him to fail in since he is collarwise and I doubt you would want to buy a new collar, but if your always in control (which it sounds like you plan on being) I think the problem is solved

The only reason he has been outside without lead, etc. is the occasional times we are working in yard, or he "helps" me bring groceries in from car or we are walking friends to their car. As I said he never even looked like he could care less about escaping, just as well grounded in staying close to us as I could hope for. Ironically I would have thought that this "head for the hills" syndrome would have happened when he was a puppy not when he is almost out of puppyhood. He has really done an about face and giving me more training issues than I thought he would need.

Well you contradict yourself by saying in your most recent post that he knows what come means, then in your first post you said he wouldn't come. A dog that knows a command should also know to obey it 100% of the time.

As I said, I would keep a long line on him. At some point, he will try and bolt. Taking him off leash and "testing" him is just giving him more reason to keep trying to leave the yard! There have not been any consequences that he can connect with the action. A level 10 correction is great an all but its more effective if you catch him AS he is bolting, not after he's had 10 minutes of fun running around the neighborhood.

Also, age has nothing to do with it at this point. The age changes I've seen in dogs are usually under 2 years old. Dogs go through stages obviously and some drastic behavior changes. Past age 3..... he probably tried it once because something caught his interest (a smell, a cat, whatever) ... he got away with it and realized "hey I can run around the neighborhood while mom chases me and all I have to deal with are a couple corrections when she finally catches me". If his training was correct, he would know "I won't even make it to the curb before she'll get me so I won't even try".

I'm not even sure why you know the dog is leash wise. You haven't fixed the problem and you already took the dog off leash again. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> Like I said in my first post, he got away with it once and he's going to try it 10+ more times. You have to make the next 10, 15, 100 times unsuccessful if you expect the behavior to ever change. If that means he has a long line and e-collar (I would do both together in the beginning, never just an e-collar) on him for the next 1-2 years then thats what it takes.

Your dog should have lost ALL off-lead privileges starting with the first infraction. He should never be in a position where you cannot control him. Leash, drag line, ecollar, longline, doesn't matter so long as he is under 100% control. Start retraining the "Come" command under light distraction, and when he is reliable on that, increase the distractions until he can be called off of anything and everything.

/Not a trainer, but anytime a dog regresses one always must take steps back, depending on severity of regression and how often the regressions were allowed to happen.

I would keep a prong and lead on him when he's out. If you want to expedite the training, you could set him up for corrections. Have someone in the front try to entice him out of the yard. When he goes for it, bang him with a prong correction or other and repeat until you feel confident he gets it.

When your dog gets loose, you're only prolonging the situation by chasing. You can start running in the opposite direction and call him in a happy voice. Most likely he'll turn around and chase you. I wouldn't correct him when he got back because he might think you're correcting him for doing the right thing, coming back.

I had a situation with one of my dogs while we were fishing in marsh in the middle of nowhere. My dog looked at me with this look that I can only call defiance and then took off full speed. My first inclination was to give chase and she looked back and started running faster. So I was like, fine, later! And turned back around walking away. We were completely isolated so she wasn't going anywhere. I went back to where I was fishing and watched her. She stopped, turned around and looked at me and I yelled her name and started running in the opposite direction. She turned around and chased me. When she got to me I praised her for coming back and snapped the lead back on. Now, no matter where we are she's dragging a lead with a prong. I'm still waiting for her to mess up so I can give her a correction. It's been a year and I'm still waiting for that moment <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> That incident still makes me mad thinking about it lol <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Hi Nancy,
My dog ignored me when called one day, wanting to sniff and check pee-mail. Made me angry as heck. Called his name, got him to look, I turned my back and ran away while crouching down, he ran full speed to catch me. Upon his arrival, he was praised, leashed, and taken in. Sure was difficult praising this knot-head while wanting to bite nails. Anyway, next several days, always was on leash. Told him to "piddle", he does. Told him to "poop", he does. Walking around the pee-mail area I limited his sniffs with "No" and made sure he acknowledged who's in control. I worry about the collar smart issue so every so regularly I will change it up (choke, prong, flat, etc. but not harness~this only used for tracking). When it comes time to return inside we walk towards house and up on deck he is downed. Towel comes out I say "wipe feet, wipe feet", whereupon I begin wiping his feet with towel and rubbing him down all over before "inside" is given and we go in. Now. Once I was comfortable with him listening, we moved on to same routine while in close proximity together, usually me no more than a few to several feet away. This whole process occurred several months ago (around 1.5 years) and thankfully everything is back in order.

However, I always make sure he is in sight at all times. I keep regular "maintenance" on him by calling him to me from time to time when he least expects it, praising/playing with him upon reaching me. I know that if I am not vigilant in keeping him present he would be more than happy to "slip off" and explore. If this happens I would have to attribute it to "handler error", my fault.

When we are outside and are going to be out for long periods of time (yard work, deck time, etc) I always play with him by throwing kong or ball and do some obedience. This helps to settle him down and it is easier to keep track of him afterwards.

Anyways, this is how it works for me to improve his coming when called. I am not really sure or sold on the 3 years of age thing, but at least want to keep conditioning mine until we reach that point (December 06 will be 3 years). Definitely something I am going to watch for though.

I would be interested to read what you do and how you progress.