Dog that just sprints off lead....every time! Any tips?

[NumbMind]

we have a wonderful working cocker who is about 10.5 months old. We always knew he was an enthusiastic dog and the breeder, who we know well, very specifically selected us for him as he was a bundle of energy!

the first 2 trainers couldn't cope with him and we are now on our third one, a gundog trainer, and he's doing really well. We are still working on the basics and his lead walking is excellent now, as are his basic commands.

the next step of training is him learning 'stop' properly as he's not there yet. He used to be great off lead until the last few months when he hit adolescence and now comes back sporadically so the trainer said keep him on the long lead till we're through all the next training.

the problem is that, even with the long lead, he completely bolts off lead. So the minute you let him off, he starts sprinting and hits the end of his long lead, nearly breaks your arm with the force and then pulls to go further. You can call him back, and he might come back, but then he will bolt and do it again.

the trainer is going to sort this with time and she's pretty sure she'll be able to but we are working through a process with her (which appears to be working) so she wants to do all the pieces in order and I'm hesitant to disrupt that as it's working so well with him.

But I'm just wondering if anyone has tips for this in the intervening 6 or so weeks to stop him behaving like this?

This is an easy one Focus , focus and focus
If you have an old school gundog training they will do this differently!

Your dog needs to focus on you. So reward eye contact, around the house (and if you get it out and about but I doubt you will yet)

Get your dog used to looking at you before they do anything. So just reward them for looking at you, then pause and wait when you feed them until they look at you. If youi are playing games pause and wait until they look at you.

Then when you go for a walk , get the dog out of the car and do not move until you have this eye contact. YOU are the driving force to move on. Regularly stop on the walk and stand still when your dog looks at you off you go again.

The outside bit will take time but if looking at you is heavily reinforced in the house it will become default behaviour.

Stop command - how are your being taught that?

I’m still struggling with my collie x retriever on this. Secure dog fields are our only option.

Hmm I am not sure I am going to be helpful as I don't want to undermine the training from the gun dog trainer but I have a cocker who was a shit for recall when he was in his teens.

I had to work daily as being interesting. Running in the opposite direction. Putting things like balls in the grass and getting him to hunt them out. Hiding behind a tree.

Essentially making it interesting to be around me when out rather than anything else.

I have a lab from working stock who used to do this. She’s nearly two and much better. On the long lead I used an anti pull harness. You attach the lead at the front rather than back and when she bolted off her momentum would spin her around to face me rather than yanking your arm off.

Find a not too big area of grass. Let the dog have 2m of lead, don't walk anywhere. Be interesting, feed kibble, jump about, play with toy. Then give 3m of lead, then 4m etc. It is absolutely fine to stand still in the middle of a field for half an hour.

Think about getting a lead with some bungee in it, saves the shoulder.

thanks all @BiteyShark yes I can definitely see how that would work with this breed of dog! he loves a game of hide and seek! He is doing a bit of scent training now at the end of each training session as his treat (he's not a food orientated dog) and he literally shakes with excitement when he has to go and find it.

@PollyRoulson at the moment, he's trained to stop when we stop when he's on lead. So we walk and then when we stop, he sits and looks up at us. So we've been whistle blowing the stop command when we stop so he now associates stopping (and looking up) with the stop whistle command and even if we don't stop, if we blow the whistle (when walking slowly) he will stop. He will do this indoors and in the garden off lead. The problem is ramping it up to do it anywhere else because he's just not there yet in terms of distractions (this is undoubtedly linked to the recall/off lead behaviour!).