What to do with our lab?

[Ladyflip]

Our beautiful 4 year old dog is absolutely perfect except for two problems. He likes to run away and he won't come back. This is starting to cause a serious issue in that he has now got a taste for chasing the neighbour's sheep. Yesterday was a bit of a disaster in that he managed to slip his collar (which he will do at any opportunity) and chased them again. The neighbour was rightly furious, even though dog doesn't hurt them, he does just chase them. We had got to the point yesterday where the neighbour was wandering around with his gun trying to shoot him in front of my DC. I do know the law (I am a lawyer and DH is a farmer) so know he would be within his rights technically but my biggest concern is to try and stop this happening again. Obviously DC and I are deeply distressed by yesterday.

We are his third home and I believe that this is why he has been rehomed so many times. We have had him for a year and worked so hard on recall training but nothing seems to work. Sometimes we have to leave him loose in the garden because he won't come inor be caught. Despite being a Labrador, he doesn't seem motivated by treats, in that he would rather be in the garden than get a treat. It is a problem if anyone leaves the gate open (postman, delivery drivers) and even Ocado have him on their sheet as a "runner".

My in laws think we should have him destroyed, as rehoming him will pass the problem on to someone else. He wasn't well treated in his last home,and this could happen again as you cannot trust him if you take him out. Yesterday was not a one off, we have had incidents all year, and we are desperate for a solution. In all other ways he is the most wonderful dog, fantastic with the DC and with an adorable temperament. He just doesn't listen once he has gone. Only people who dont know him can catch him.
Please help!

[noddingoff]

And another piece of possibly useful advice, to make up for being sarcastic, which I was (sorry about that, twas a bit rude).
Is he neutered? If not then castrating him, whilst probably doing nothing about the stock chasing, might make him a bit less likely to want to head off down the road. Hard to know how much difference it would make though so you could ask your vet for a Tardak injection as a trial run before you did decide whether to neuter.

Is stock chasing about the same or getting worse (re the other incidents you mentioned in your first post)? What did the person you got him from say about his attitude to stock and what was he like when you tried him on a long line when you first got him?

[Ladyflip]

Thank you nodding off. His collar became tighter that afternoon. He has lost weight (through regular exercise) and we hadn't kept up with shortening the collar. Now rectified, but also we have the harness now as well.

He was already castrated when he came to live with us.

He initially seemed to want to go to other dogs, but as a by product of looking for the neighbour's dog also found their sheep. Now he just goes to the sheep. He doesn't seem to know what to do with them, he rounds them up, then wants to play. His goes down on his front paws with his bum in the air, wagging his tail. (I appreciate that the sheep aren't aware this is dog for playing.) We were told that he ran away when off the lead but were also told that it was because he was shut up all day and was never taken for walks. So we took him for lots of walks, but he started to escape from the garden whenever he could. We had two labradors previously, so the garden was fenced in but we hadn't needed it to be like Alcatraz before. DDog would jump over a four foot fence, so we increased them all to 6 foot.

We had really only taken him round cows (see above re: dairy herd) because we don't keep sheep. He is pretty polite around them but then they are a lot bigger than sheep and not quite as exciting to chase. He has moments where he gets very excited e.g. sheep, ducks and once at a falconry display and is very difficult to control, even on a lead.

Someone has suggested maybe getting another dog to keep him company and that is very well trained so could show him what to do might help. We have been offered a retired gun dog (so about 8 yo) whose recall would be excellent but I'm worried that I could be doubling my problems by bringing in another dog.

[SpicyBear]

I would very strongly advise against getting another dog until you have this under control. There is just as much chance that well trained dog will learn to stock chase from your dog as there is of your dog learning to come back with gundog. Or they may just both do their own thing completely. I have a dog with a high prey drive and a dog with very solid recall - the former does not have any interest in returning with my other dog when there is something more exciting (like a field full of sheep).

[todayisnottheday]

My dog responded very well to another well trained dog but he is extremely dog oriented. Ultimately we couldn't keep two but I suspect it would have helped long term. Is yours that dog focused?

[noddingoff]

I think getting, or at least walking with, another dog that has great recall is actually a good idea to hold his interest. Perhaps you could borrow the retired gundog for a while to see if that helps but as a non-permanent solution? Hopefully he wouldn't be too staid and boring for your boy. If I lived near you I'd lend you my working cocker cos she's great fun to play with but has good recall too! You could ask your gundog neighbour if she has any playful but good recall dogs that you could walk together but I suppose she might worry that yours could lead hers astray!
I also like everyone else's suggestion of behaviourist or other trainer who might succeed.
I don't live on the farm any more so had limited weekends to train steadiness to livestock into mine when she was a pup, but training recall can be done anywhere. I found a "leave-it!" command very useful too- initially to stop her grabbing things dropped on the kitchen floor and to stop her eating other dog's poo on walks, but this command became rock solid in her so I used it when she was showing too much interest in sheep on her first few encounters with them and it worked.
I'd work till you have "Leave it!" and your recall command absolutely rock solid before you tried him near sheep now. I guess you probably know but a key point seems to be that, except in emergencies, never give a command that you cannot enforce to begin with or that you are certain the dog will obey (so if I was too far away to physically stop her eating poo/grabbing dropped food, I would not utter the precious command, I would go up to her and wordlessly stop her. I would not give a recall command till she was coming anyway). Every failed command is stashed in their brain as "response optional" rather than "response automatic", so do your utmost to avoid failed commands. Once they know the command you can recall them when they're just pottering or "Leave it" at a distance but off a boring object, but if they turn out not to be 100% automatic go back a step. Once they're 100% automatic then you can step it up a gear and test them a little-"leave it" off more interesting objects and recall when there's something interesting that they're looking at in the distance.
With the ultimate goal of testing "Leave it -come here" off some placid non-running sheep belonging to an amenable friend. I expect it would take months to get that far starting with an adult dog though.
I would also do your utmost to make sure he never gets off roaming loose at all; not just because off the risks of stock chasing and car accidents, but also because again, any time he escapes and has a nice time gallivanting, even if no harm is done it's more reinforcement in his brain that buggering off is a desirable behaviour.
Sorry for the long rambling, teaching granny to suck eggs post. Best of luck-especially as he's so good in every other way esp with children.