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?

@Teifion that sounds good. Keep up with it! when you feel more confident we found doing hide and seek a good game with our dog - she'd look around for whoever had the cheese....so we took it in turns to hide. Anything to keep her attention on us. You'll probably find there's another period when he loses his training - adolescence...

I'm sure there should be dog training nights at a local venue. Google them for where you live locally.

My dog was a complete arse around that age for recall.

I didn’t use long leads but did take him to places that were very open in the countryside with no roads close by and tried to avoid other people and dogs. It was extremely stressful but looking back the most successful training method, which I can see other people have mentioned, is to keep changing direction opposite to the direction they run off and not call them or look back. I found mine didn’t want to lose me so whilst he was over confident it meant he would keep coming back and then running ahead so each time I turned round he would suddenly realise he was losing me.

If you do try that technique a tip would be to put a couple of bells on your dog so you can hear if they are moving towards or away from you without looking. I have them now because although mine is an old boy and comes back with a whistle when he is in the forest it isn’t always clear how close he is and I can tell from the bells if I need to recall him if I think he is getting too far away.

Puppy training and a long retractable lead.
its not complicated-but you have to put in real time & money to get it sorted.
Your dog is YOUR responsibility-you have to train an unruly dog otherwise they are a menace to everyone and give all dog owners a bad name.

This is completely normal behaviour for this age a puppy. He is moving into adolescent age and everything else will be so much more exciting

Unfortunately at this age you can't let them off the lead.
I woul suggest a training lead so he has some freedom but can be controlled and just work on recall all the time.

Its likely you will need to do this for about 18 months

No amount of treats is gonna stop him running off so until his or her recall is in place you need to leash have two short lead and long lead for his wander untill you create that boundaries with your fur baby recall ..and outside etiquette because lead walking is best bonding and training is a must because not just safety if him running off could be a car or a reactive dog dogs don't always need the freedom still have that on a long leash they a springer collar which isn't cruel so please keep on leash if it at the front door or back garden put in place gates that dog needs to to know your the boss even having him on a house lead which you can grab I f he bolts all down to boundaries and rules at the moment he doing as he pleases!

Have you done any socialisation training?
This isn’t is he good with other dogs, it’s getting him socialised with the world. If he is keen to run off it may be to say hi to other dogs, people or get a sniff for something. What breed is he?
Have you thought about hiring a gated field?
You should keep him on a lead for the foreseeable, until you’ve cracked it.
Im currently training my 4 month old cocker spaniel, it pisses me off when dogs come running over as I’m in the middle of training her. So I’ve decided to hire a field with less distractions around. Until she is fully trained with me then she can play with other dogs.

There's these wonderful inventions called leads !!and believe it or not you can get really long ones so they can't run off , strange i know !

You might want to keep him on a long line for now, as recall is one of the most important things a dog can learn and a long line makes it so much easier & is probably the safest way to teach it.

I got mine from here: https://www.wolfandhooves.com/product-page/long-line-with-detachable-handle-16mm. They come in lengths from 5m to 20m, and I went for the detachable handle one so it can trail safely without getting caught on things but can clip the handle on if needed.

You can still walk him on his normal lead too, just to get him used to it, then swap to the long line when you’re doing recall practice. It’ll give you the best of both worlds, helping him feel a bit of freedom while you still have peace of mind.

I kept my dog on the long line for his first year, his recall is about 95% and he’s 4 now but is bloody hard work.

Totally agree, this group is brilliant. You definitely need a long line - every time your dog doesn’t come when called (every single time, if you call his name five times before you go and get him that’s five times) he’s practising the behaviour you don’t want, and he’s getting g REALLY good at it.
the book “perfect recall” is really good and gives you this amazing step by step plan for how to have amazing recall in pretty much any situation, starting with standing in the kitchen when he can see you have some delicious food.
the other thing you can do is playing amazing games with your dog when you’re out, tug toys, balls, whatever he likes, and slipping him random delicious treats. This increases your value to the dog so he wants to stay close. Meanwhile you also need him on a long line so you can prevent him self rewarding with the fun chase of the squirrel or dash across the road or whatever.

He's most likely hitting his teenage phase, mine developed ears for decoration purposes only around this age 🤣 He was walked on lead and I took a long line with me to change to when he was in a suitable location and then back to basics with training. I tend to walk where dogs are required to be on lead these days though as one of mine is now reactive as a result of people with zero control who shout "don't worry he/she is friendly" as their dog launches itself like a missile at the face of my nervous rescue dog who doesn't want to be jumped all over and just wants to enjoy his walk in peace

Sorry, doesn’t add anything to this thread, but seeing your user name and having a pointer tickled me 😂
we have a Weimaraner called Rafa (it was either that or Roger, his official name at the vets is Rafa Roger 🎾)and we were torn between a pointer and a Weimaraner.
My mum had both and they were great together.
don’t think my DD has ever forgiven me for not going for a pointer!!

As this poster says, REMEMBER TO BRACE!!!
a few weeks ago I was walking my dog on his long line when we met another dog. He was playing so nicely with said dog that I let my guard slip as I was talking to the owner, my back to my dog.
Next minute I was on the floor face down with two cracked ribs.

my own fault entirely. As a plus to this experience my dog came back immediately out of concern for me, probably panicking as to whether I’d be well enough to feed him his dinner!!

You have guessed correctly that I'm a tennis fan, and also a fan of German Shorthaired Pointers...our current one is a stately old lady of 12 now!

My mum lost her German pointer three years ago.
definitely the best dogs 💝

You need a long line, not an extendable lead (extendable leads feel very different for the dog as they have to put pressure on them to move forward, not the same with the long line). If possible let it trail rather than holding it (as long as you think you can be quick enough to grab it if needed, and try to always have an eye on where the end is, not just where your pup is - recommend a high vis one for that reason).

Work on engagement out on walks - playing games like follow the leader (walk away, drop treat by your side when he catches up), hide and seek (recall from behind a tree), take a toy out with you and have a little play at intervals on your walk, vary your speed, run away and get him chasing him then reward when he catches up - basically lots of things to revert his attention back to you.

Scrap the idea of long a to b walks for now - he doesn't need them at that age and they will just pressure you into thinking you have to be covering a certain distance and forgetting about your training. Better for you to pick a low distraction area (like a quiet corner of a park) and do some of the above mentioned activities. Add in a little bit of obedience training and "free" sniffing time as well. Then move on to another slightly higher distraction area and start again.

Under no circumstances let him run off and self reward without you releasing him to do that - sniffing, saying hello to a person, play with another dog etc. Stop it immediately by grabbing hold of the long line and reeling him in if necessary. Also try and avoid too much free play or free interaction with whatever he's interested in for extended periods of time - keep bringing his attention back to you or you'll become redundant.

Keep your recall cue completely consistent - so NAME/COME (or whatever word you choose) in exactly the same tone every time. No wheedling or persuading. If he doesn't come first time don't keep calling - use your long line to bring him back.

I highly recommend the book "Total Recall" by Pippa Mattinson - great tips for teaching a good foundational recall

Get a training lead the sort that trails on the ground and you can step on when the dog runs off. My daughter had one for her pup as recommended by her friend who's a dog walker. The dog doesn't realise they're attached to it but you still have some control.

You have had very good advice so haven't got much to add except that it's pretty normal and recall training is stressful! I really didn't like the long line but it really did help once you got the hang of it. It was the only way for us as he would be unpredictable and he wanted to run to every dog walker and dog in the park so that habit really needed to be interrupted and that's when the line came in handy.

It's so easy to get downhearted by comments regarding every dogs perfect recall but no dog is born with perfect recall and they all probably had their moments of disappearing or running up to the wrong people. (joggers, cyclists)

Keep the training up and he will get it eventually. You must be the most interesting person on every walk and it's rather trying at times 😅