I'm often to be seen on here pontificating about recall, and how you shouldn't really trust pups until they are 12 or maybe 18 months.
Okay so I pontificate about lots of things but that's just one....
I start recall training the first day I bring a new pup home. Recall across the kitchen, recall across the garden, recall intermittently on walks, for a variety of very tasty treats. I even follow the Culture Clash elementary and high school recalls, and pup will studiously ignore another person waving roast chicken if I recall her.
But today she buggered off. Big time. No wild birds or small mammals were involved. She just decided that she was going to proceed in a different direction to me and my other 2 dogs. And she continued to do so for at leasdt 15 minutes (although it seemed like years) across open farmland and woods.
I whistled till I thought my lungs would burst. A kindly little dog right across the valley answered me enthusiatically: but not my pup.
Eventually she sauntered back into view: cue much praise, clicking, treating, eyes heavenwards, mouthing of 'thank you' and a few tears.
If I'd lost her before darkfall she'd have been a goner. She wouldn't have survived a night in sub zero. Stupid Bella
So, as I have said, please remember that young pups may have an apparently very solid recall, but at - say- 8 months or so - that can totall desert them. And you.
I blame myself. For letting her off, and for choosing the most independent pup in a litter of a highly intelligent breed.
Come on then, come kick my butt!