Recall

[Earthmover]

So I took the dog out for a five minute walk tonight. There's a small wood that runs along the side of the houses in my street with a worn path through.
Long story short, it's pitch black and I realise she's not by my side. Turn back into woods. Shout in an assertive tone for her to hurry up. No sign. Head back and get to the other end before I see her scurrying along in front of me.
Heads out the woods and walks along the path away from the house, heading for busy roads and supermarket/garage etc. Everytime I take a step towards, she takes a step further away. Decide it's not safe to push further so sit on the grass, which turns into a 45 minute standoff and she just stands and stares. Try to coax her to no avail. End up walking back towards house thinking she'll follow.
Did she hell. Turned round she'd sauntered off into the night. She's never been hit in her life, gets treated like royalty and lives in a relaxed environment, but if I speak to her in the wrong tone, this is what happens. Ended up totally panicked, running the streets and finally found her standing in the middle of a car park, stock still and still not willing to let me near her. She's a whippet and is VERY confident, in fact too confident tbh. 3 years old and sticks to me like glue 99.9% of the time. Has anyone ever had this problem and did you manage to overcome it.
This is about the fourth time since she was a pup and it's going to end in tears one of these times.
Ps I never got back in the house until 12.15am from a short walk for the toilet at 10.30pm

Apologies for the long story short... Didn't quite transpire😣

Get a long line and train her recall like that. Lots of information online if you google ‘long line recall’.

Every time she comes back, make a big fuss of her, lots of treats/toys/whatever she likes.

When a dog comes back to you, even if it's taken forever, always praise it - it has finally done the right thing. If you tell the dog off it's less likely to come back next time because it thinks it's been told off for finally returning. Do you normally carry treats you can use to reward coming back to you?

Long lines can be a useful measure while training but it MUST be attached to a harness not a collar as otherwise there's a risk of neck trauma when they find the end of the lead at speed

You'll get more responses if you repost in the Doghouse section of MN

We're just moving this thread over to the doghouse at the OP's request.

How have you trained recall?

I use a whistle which means come back now. Even though mine sticks to me like glue I still practice every now and again just to reinforce that command.

Carry something that is a great reward to her. Mine is a ball but for others it might be a tug toy or extra yummy treats. Practice when there are no distractions and reward with high value treat/toy. Make yourself more exciting on walks than things she can chase in the woods so play games with her (I have a spaniel so it's hunting games but you need to find which ones your dog likes).

Her recall is great. It's not always an immediate response, but for a whippet it's about as good as it gets. The desire to chase is hard wired though and no amount of chicken or praise will convince her to come to me when a fast moving object is in her sight. I accept that.
I've even met other whippet owners who have mentioned how much better she is than theirs when I've shouted her to go when she's playing with their dogs.
It's just this rare occurrence where she senses panic in my voice and reacts very negatively. I know the consequences of projecting panic so I make conscious effort not to, hard as that may be but she still detects it and goes into flight mode.
I just don't know how to turn that switch off in her head once it's activated.

If you think she is reading panic in your voice then you need to swop to a recall command such as a whistle.

One of the advantages is that it is always consistent sound no matter what you are feeling.

@Biteyshark. That's a very good suggestion. I'll maybe give it a try.

Had my dog on a long lead for months when her recall disappeared during adolescence. I probably kept her on it longer than necessary but I was so frightened I'd lose her otherwise.

I wouldn't be letting my dog off the lead in the dark tbh. There are so many small creatures out at night and the urge to hunt must be overwhelming. At least if she leaves your side during the day, you've got some chance of seeing where she's gone.

True. It's just on occasion after long spells of obedience when I think she's grown out of it I let my guard drop.
She is off leash all the time, but I don't usually take herout in the dark.
Was a nice night so I thought I'd walk her down the path rather than a pee in the garden.
Lesson learned.

I'm working my way through the excellent book total recall at the moment.

I'm still struggling with my dog. Took her for a walk this evening down through the local park. Large reservoir and paths through trees and fields.
Heading back home and there's some trees that lead to a field she often has a wander through that has rabbits in.
I continue up the path and she normally comes up the other side of the trees.
Paths about 80 metres long and when I get to the end I shout her. No sign. Head back down shouting and whistling. Still no sign. End up in a panic and run up towards the reservoir thinking she must've come out, missed me and went the other way.
Shouting her name and whistling the whole time I do a circuit and decide to head back to where I last saw her. Get there and stand shouting her without success.
This is about 15 minutes she's been missing now.
Decide to head through into the field
I take about six steps from where I was shouting and she scurries out from under a bush.
I've been shouting and hollering no more than ten feet from her and she's completely ignored me the whole time.
If I'd headed back to the house in the hope she was there I have no idea where she nay have ended up.
Bearing in mind she's a small whippet and looks in absolute misery while on lead but absolute joy bounding around off lead how do I solve this stubborn wilful disinterest in my commands, depending on her mood?
98% of the time she's fine and seems unhappy if she loses sight of me.
It's like something just comes over her once every month or so and it's pot luck that I've made the right choices and found her.
She's almost four now and I've had her since she was a pup. She's never been perfect but this selective deafness has only recently surfaced but it's worrying me(and driving me mad) because I worship her wee bones and I'd be devastated if anything happened to her.
Any ideas?

BTW. I bought a whistle and tried it for about a week. She was totally unresponsive to it.
Ended up having better luck with a shout. At least she turns and looks in my direction when I shouted her name.
Most of the time it's just if something catches her attention and it's more interesting than me she just wanders in its general direction, irrespective of my commands.
She's very much her own boss.

The whistle isn’t magic - dogs don’t automatically know what it means. You have to train the response so with my dog we started in the house with no distractions and every time we blew the whistle (four short peeps) we’d give him something yummy. We did that for about two weeks before even attempting to take it outside. When you start using it outside blow the whistle when your dog is already coming back to you and then give her a really high value treat. You want to create a reflex response to the whistle so that when the dog hears it they think ‘ah, that means I head back to my human now’. When I recall my dog as soon as he hears the whistle he turns on a sixpence and comes haring back to me but it took months to get to this point - and he’s a gundog so bred to be easier to train than a whippet.

I strongly recommend you get the book Total Recall by Pippa Mattinson and work your way through it but it won’t be a quick fix.

In the meantime keep her on a longline and harness unless she’s in an enclosed space while you get recall cracked

How much training have you done with the whistle? You need to start off in the house so you blow it when she comes to you and reward. Once she understands that then move into the garden and then outside. It's going to take a while before she understands what the whistle means and you need to practice. Trying for a week is not long enough. You need to keep doing it at each stage until its firmly cemented in her mind what it means.

Could you afford some 1-1 training sessions as it sounds like you are struggling.