I could really do with some foolproof advice/strategies

[LesleyKnopeFan]

Ddog, nearly 3, min schanuzer, escaped from my house yesterday and ran off.

I had her in sight the whole time and tried all my tactics/commands treat in hand, clear instructions (she can sit on command and go on her bed) running in other direction, talking sternly, talking playfully, everything, yet she just ran and ran and ran out towards a very busy main road, she had the devil in her and, by some miracle, got trapped by something (twig) for long enough for me to grab her, a few feet from the road. I was screaming with fear at the end.

What very nearly happened does not bear thinking about and I feel like the worst dog owner, as it's my fault that she isn't obedient enough.

We'd been working hard on recall, when out on off-lead walks (in an enclosed field) she always comes back and gets a treat as a reward. This is a big improvement on 6 months ago.

She rarely responds to commands at home, ie, if you call her to you, she mostly won't come, it's almost like she's very wilful, as she comes occasionally, only when it suits her.

She seemed to be heading in the right direction and was responding to me a lot more but I need 100% response from her, as this may happen again.

We are very careful indoors but we have visitors who don't always remember the dog and although we have a gate across the kitchen, I have kids and they offer forget to shut behind them etc.

Obviously, I will up the safety and I will do more training with her at home but the only method that I've done successfully is treat-based and that doesn't seem to be enough?

All advice would be gratefully received.

Is she food motivated or toy motivated? Is the reward great enough? Does she need a really smelly tasty food treat or would a game with a ball be more of a reward?

I sympathise. Recall is one of the hardest things to master and a determined dog doesn't help! Just make sure she definitely can't get out anymore and then practice, practice, practice in your garden until she gets that it has to apply at home as well as anywhere else. You need to 'proof' the command so she will respond to it anywhere. Apologies if this is what you have already been doing.

We've all been there at some point. Watching with horror as a furry bum accelerates into the distance. I appreciate a busy road is very scary but you are not alone.

Agree with pp that the rewards you're using might not be of a high enough value for your dog. Whatever it is, your dog will have something that she will be unable to resist: a special treat, or a special toy.

I had a real problem with getting my dog back on the lead when she hit adolescence; she would come when called but dash off when I went to grab her to put the lead back on. I ended up having to keep her on a trailing lead for months.

The thing that worked for us was dried chicken liver treats. They're very rich so you have to be careful how many you give, so might not be idea for general recall training, but my dog would kill for them.

I kept, still do in fact, this treat just for getting her back on the lead. Now, when it's time to go home I give her one when she comes back to me and sits down in front of me, and one when I've clipped on her lead.

It works every time without fail. In fact as soon as I say to her, time to go home, I can see she's getting excited about the wonderful treat she's about to have.

For general recall training I found dried chicken breast really effective and that can be used quite generously as it's just pure chicken breast.

Poor you, I'm not surprised you were screaming when she was heading for a main road, you must have been terrified.

Thanks so much for the replies and for the sympathy, I have to say it was horrific, her whole life flashed in front if my eyes but I was more concerned about the carnage she could have created. All because I haven't trained her enough.

You've both made a very good point about the treats, just lately I'd been taking handfuls of her kibble, I thought she didn't notice but I think she's onto me, I'm going to go back to the more 'treaty' treats.

I'm walking her on lead tomorrow and I will make her stop and sit for a treat at every road, even the tiny lanes. I need to get complete control of her or never sleep again.

She knows she's done something wrong but I doubt she knows what. Thanks again.

I'm no expert (hopefully one will be sling in a bit) but two things spring to mind

One is to try whistle training - the advantage of a whistle is it always sounds the same so no matter how cross or panic-stricken you are your whistle is simply telling your dog you want her back. Get Total Recall by Pippa Mattinson and work your way through it. You need to get the habit of responding to the whistle so ingrained that coming to you is the automatic response as soon as she hears it

Also you need to build lots of value in being near you so keep on treating her whenever she's close to you at home and out and about

Oh yes - duuuh - I've got Total Recall and it's brilliant!

Glad your dog's ok, I know that feeling of watching your ddog run towards a busy road, my stupid brother in law left the front door open and ddog got out, house on really busy main road, ddog ran down street as fast as his tiny legs could go, me panicking screaming and running after him Which he thought was fun of course. Until I remembered our dog training so I shouted stop got down to his level and called him really excited and thankfully he came running straight back and jumped into my arms.
Something he wouldn't have done before dog training classes, (as I've chased him around a football field for over 30 minutes in the rain) that's what made me decide on dog training classes and I can say it was the best £50 I ever spent.
So if your not already I'd say try some dog traing classes.

Well, I have ordered the book mentioned above, thx for the recs.

Took ddog out for a local, on-lead walk, which was a return to the scene of the incident. I took tasty treats and kept her on a short leash (I have an extendable, which I now realise is probably a big contributing factor to the whole problem).

I made her stop and sit at every road then commanded her to wait, which she did until treat was given, I then moved on to treating, once we'd crossed the road but I thing that was too soon as she refused to cross road!

She was, on the whole, pretty well behaved on the walk. Which is not the norm, not sure if yesterday has affected her or it's just an anomaly but I'm happy with it for now.

Will read the book, digest and update you on progress.

Thanks again for all the support.

That sounds positive - one piece of training advice I was given which seems to work is don't constantly make things harder - sometimes do easy, then get harder then do a few easy things again - you want to set your dog up to succeed all the time- if she's not doing something then it means you've gone too far too soon

I would agree with what someone said up thread, dog training classes was the best 50 quid we ever spent. and we started early at 12 weeks before any habits had time to form. dh took him then came home and trained us humans so we all were consistent. we trained in between training.

the treats are key of course, our boy will do anything for cheese, so we used to take a tube of primula out with us, squeeze a bit out and let him lick it off. got some weird looks though!

I loved our dog training classes. We did all the KC stuff in the first couple of years and then carried on going for years. We moved a while ago and I stopped going but I'm still in touch with a few of my old classmates. And my old dog still knew all the commands and could still do them absolutely perfectly.