Dog runs away every walk: going to lose him forever if we can’t stop it

[Teifion]

We have a seven month old puppy who in the last few weeks has suddenly gained new confidence on walks and just runs off out of sight and won’t respond to calls to return. He was fine before this and had surprisingly good recall.

We take treats on every walk and reward recall but he’s now too excited by other things for treats to tempt him back.

Several times in two weeks I’ve thought he was lost forever. For a few days I’ve walked him in the only fenced area for dog walkers near us but it’s small and he hates it so won’t run at all in there and therefore is hyper and manic from lack of exercise all day. We can’t even practice recall in there as he won’t run. I can’t practice recall on a long extendable lead either as he won’t run when on those!

Any ideas what to do to train him not to run out of sight?

Can you pay a trainer?

He’s clearly not ready to be let off the lead. Mine took five years before we had really solid recall for various reasons.

You have to go back to basics and teach him recall again and don’t let him off till he’s got it. Long lines are your friend. It’s very common for them to forget everything. https://m.facebook.com/groups/dogtrainingadviceandsupport/?ref=share

this site is excellent. Or buy easy peasy puppy squeeze or get a trainer. Also, very high value treats….ours would do anything for salmon skin….

Keep him on a lead until you have really implemented good recall in a safe space.
I'd have a look for an experienced trainer to help you. It's a lot to manage on your own and having a well trained dog is so worth it. Much safer and much more of a pleasure for you and everyone around you ( including the dog) What breed?

I used a long line (not an extendable a proper very long lead) to set a limit of how far I'd let my dog get from me while I worked on recall. Keeping them and others safe needs to take priority over everything so you can't let them off until you've cracked it. It's not just the risk of losing them, if she got on the road she could cause an accident and harm others.

You need to keep him on a lead.
Hire a dog field to do some more training. If he doesn't have perfect recall, he can't really be off lead in public.

So many people don't lead train their dogs and the dogs do not have recall either (I'm looking at you DPs and DPILs).

Many sighthounds and lurchers are never off lead in public, due to risk of bolting if they spot a rabbit or deer. So many dogs go missing off lead and come to bad ends. Just keep the dog on the lead.

Why is he let off the lead if isn’t listening /Obedient

Lots of dogs never come off the lead because they can’t be relied on to come back. It’s not a good idea to let him off if he’s not going to come back! If he approaches another dog he could get bitten for a start.

I agree you need a long line lead and you can start training him. I had my dog three years I would say before I could let her off and be confident she would come to me in every situation.

What a bizarre post. What do you mean he will be lost forever unless you fix this? Just stop letting him off the lead!!!! Hire secure fields if you insist on letting him off lead. Some dogs can't be let off the lead. Stop doing it!

Have you tried upping the quality of your treats for the next few weeks? Chicken/ cheese/ sausage? And continue to do recall training at home in your house so every time he returns to you on a specific command word he gets this really good treat.
Have you tried gettibg a long long lead that trails and then it’s easier to grab and continue to do recall training with that in larger open spaces? Continue to use the one same word, like “Come”’so he’s clear what he’s doing not just using his name?
has he been neutered? If not definitely neuter him.
Have you tried running in the opposite direction away from him rather than chasing him whilst calling his name and his recall word? (I use “come”)
when you leave him in the house maybe always say “bye bye” then, when you’re going on a walk say “bye bye” and this can sometimes work as they associate it with you disappearing and run and look for you.
Hope some of these help!! X

As others have said - use a long line or hire a field that’s fenced in to do your training. Otherwise keep him on the lead!!

Keep him on a lead for a lot longer and when you are ready to let him off, put a gps tracker on his collar so that you don't lose him.

We trained our lurcher by randomly changing direction without warning him so he learned that he had to keep an eye on us all the time or we’d disappear. Lots of double backing and turning, they key was to just go off and not to say heal or anything and we used a long line until he was reliable.

It could just be down to the fact that your puppy is hitting the adolescent period, which is when they start pushing the boundaries and you really need to persevere with the training. Use high value treats, a long line and be very careful that there are no distractions around before you risk letting him off. Also focus on getting his lead walking up to a good standard in both loose lead and close control, because if he can't be trusted off the lead this will be vital.

Not all dogs will have a reliable recall as adults, it can depend on breed. I know some people on here will tell me I'm wrong and that all dogs can be trained, but it isn't true. Some breeds (notably the larger sighthounds, Livestock Guarding breeds and some Huskies/Spitz) are so independent minded that they have a "fuck you!"/deaf ear attitude to commands and it will always be hit and miss. So figuring out what your dogs instincts are and what drives them plays a big part in trainability.

Why are you letting him off when you know he's unreliable at recall?!

What sort of dog is your pup? If he’s a retriever type I’d go back to basics with a whistle and blow it gently inside the house to signal he can get to his bowl. That’s what we did from day one with our golden. Then start doing it in enclosed spaces like gardens - always rewarding with good. And only when he’s rock solid try and out and about. His recall now to voice or whistle is astonishing.
why would your pup come back to you when the big world is far more interesting and rewarding? Keep him on a lead until it’s sorted. He won’t suffer.
and good luck. A well trained dog is a wondrous thing

Thank you. I will try training on the long lead but as I said he just looks forlorn and refuses to run when I put it on. He’s a Cavalier King Charles so I didn’t actually expect him to run off. Our last Cavalier never did.

Use a long line!

It's squirrel season and he's testing your boundaries. Cavaliers are fab!

I should add that I have stopped letting off the lead. It just came as a shock as he was so reliable before.

Also we live in the centre of a big city so there are no big gardens for training or fields for hiring.

Use a biothane longline. Easy to wipe clean and he can have a good run without getting lost. Please don’t keep letting him off, I know it’s hard but you’re asking for trouble if you know his recall isn’t there. There’s large fields you can rent for an hour for as little as £10 that are fully fenced, go there and practice recall. He’s in the adolescent stage so they like to forget everything they’ve learnt and just go rogue, it’s normal. The world is exciting when you’re a pup. Would recommend looking on the ABTC website for trainers near you; all these are fully vetted against strict criteria so are ethical and have proper qualifications in dog behaviour. Dogs trust also have a free advice line (which is great!) and puppy training classes

What kind of walks are you doing with him? What are you doing on these walks? You need to make you the centre of his universe. As @CoubousAndTourmaIet said, he's very likely becoming a teenager and more than likely he'll come through this stage just fine but you need to press on with training so he doesn't forget it all. There are lots of engagement games you can play – at home, before you've even started with a lead – to get him better focussed on you.

Tough luck if he doesn't like a long line – teenage dogs that don't listen have to go on one for their own safety. You can make being on a long line fun for him – run about yourself (if you can), side to side, up and down, bringing him with you with 'this way', and reward when he comes. Repeat again and again.

If he goes one way while on the long line, go the opposite way. Reward for coming, and repeat endlessly. He needs to associate you with fun and you with the centre of the world while he's outside. You are the giver of treats or balls or whatever else makes him tick.

There is a teenage dog thread on here that is a very supportive and non-judgemental place. It's been a bit quiet lately but help is there if you need it.

My dog is 6 and I have to start upping the recall training again as she went zooming off to play with another dog yesterday and didn’t come back until she’d said Hello, had a chat and decided to come back when she felt like it. She’s now back on the lead and has to start again.

i met an army dog trainer who said that dogs need training every day.

Put your dog back on the lead!

Why is the dog not on a lead? It clearly isn't ready for free run time. If the dog doesn't listen to you how will you stop it from jumping up at DC or others?

Ours did this at 7 months. Suddenly went from good recall to just running off 3 fields away with no concerns at all for where we were. We bought a tracker and kept him on lead.

But the solution was the ball. We had to literally train him to fetch it over a week with treats when he went near it and the treats to pick it up and then treats to bring it closer to us etc. but then since then he's obsessed. If he even sniffs at a fox trail I just say "so where is your ball then?" And he's snapped back to me.

You're not supposed to get them to jump at the ball so we use it as a kind of replacement pheasant. We will hide it and get him to find it or get him to sit and stay, throw it and then release him to go and find it.