Lurcher with increasingly poor recall leading younger dog astray

[whippetwoman]

I could really do with some advice. We have two dogs, a five year old Bedlington/whippet cross (lurcher) and a nine month old Border terrier.
The border is basically a model dog, or was. What's changed is the increasingly poor recall of the lurcher. He's never been 100% which means I only allow him off lead in certain places where I know he will be safe. However, when he decides to chase a rabbit, a squirrel or deer he is off and deaf to all commands in about 50% of cases. When this happens, the pup will follow him come what may. This means the formally excellent recall of the pup is deteriorating. He would always come when called but his loyalty is clearly to his dog sibling and not to us.

Today they were both off-lead in the woods and both ran off out of sight for quite a while causing me to have a minor breakdown. The pup did recall in the end but the lurcher took a good five minutes to return.
They are off-lead every morning for a run and then either off-lead or have a lead walk in the afternoon or evening. There is nearly always someone at home so the backdoor and fenced garden is available to them for most of the time.

I know we need to go back to basics with the lurcher. He pulls on the lead despite my best efforts and has a hearty dislike of flat faced dogs and sometimes Collies as he doesn't like the way they sit down. FGS. Anyway, I am more than prepared to put in the work and get a trainer to boot, but does anyone have lurcher recall tips? Honestly, I had a whippet previously and he was easier. I know it's our fault btw. Am feeling pretty low about it.

Please don't let your lurcher off-lead in the woods if he's like this.

Thanks for your message. Honestly, I will not be letting him off again after today. I've got a long line so will be working with him on that. I was just wondering about getting him to respond to recall again as high value treats are no longer working. Normally he is off in the fenced fields btw.

Keep the lurcher at home and walk them separately.

At 9 months, your border terrier has hit adolescence and his recall would probably have dropped off a bit anyway. So it might not all be the lurcher's fault.

I'd either walk them separately or only let one off the lead at a time.

Sorry. I don't have any recall tips if food doesn't work. I have spaniels. No piece of chicken is better than flushing a rabbit/pheasant/deer.

I appreciate the replies. I will do as you suggest and walk them separately for a while and when I do walk them together I will keep the Lurcher on the lead. And you’re right about adolescence kicking in too, that hadn’t occurred to me.

A friend has suggested a good trainer so I’m going to contact her to arrange some sessions to cover all bases. We did actually do agility training with the lurcher but that was a while ago. It did seem to help so maybe that too.

My 3yr old saluki cross would still chase a rabbit rather than recall, but once it's popped down a hole she's right back to me to tell me about how exciting it was to chase it. Same with squirrels in the woods. Mostly she follows me about like a dream. I think lurchers are a nightmare to teach perfect recall to but if you really work on the relationship and ensure being near you is brilliant (food, toys, playing, whatever works, I do a bit of all three) then they can get to a point where they will not want to stray far. Unless there's a prey trigger. I take that risk but I also walk her in a lot of places with no rabbits etc so she doesn't form a chase habit and start obsessively looking out for small furries.

I agree that at 9 months your younger dog might have lost some recall naturally anyway.⁶

My lurcher had amazing recall that disappeared overnight when he hit 8 months so I suspect your pup is going through the adolescent phase rather than being led astray although it won’t be helping!

I never managed to get a solid recall back with my lurcher but I have found he does much better with a stern “wait” command and he will stand still and wait for me to come to him. I’ve resigned myself to only letting him off in limited places. The dog walker has him off but with a long line and has no issues.

With the lurcher being back on a long line. I’d practice recall that way, going way back to basics. Allow a bit (but not full) slack of the long line. say his name and at the same time tug the lead towards you (to remind him his name means to come towards you) and then excitedly praise and give a bit of food.

allow him a bit of slack on the line again and give him time to sniff etc and again, before he has full slack of the line, repeat the above of tugging the line towards you when you say his name.

he needs reminding that his name means to come towards you immediately. Currently he thinks his name means “please come back when you’re ready” 😆😆😆

I have similar problem but the exact same breed of Lurcher belongs to a friend and I have a 5 yr old dog who has good recall when the Lurcher is not around. I also have a minor breakdown if I can’t seem him. My friend doesn’t seem to care if her dog is gone for 1/2 an hour.
Solution: I don’t let me 5 yr old off if the Lurcher is off. We decide when we walk who will be off when.
My other young dog is off all the time as she’s understands the words “stay with me” the older one also understands the words but the lure of a chase overrides everything.

Thank you so much for your replies and for sharing your lurcher experiences with me! I very much appreciate it. Lurchers really do have a very high pray drive. I do love them though.

I did walk him on the long line and practiced recall, which went well. He didn't seem to mind the line whatsoever. Also, the wait command does work on the whole, unless he sees a squirrel, so I will reinforce it. We also walked them separately which was great and the pup was as good as gold on his own. I foresee a lot of work but am feeling a lot better about it. The dog trainer coming in two weeks time as a back-up. Thanks again to everyone who responded, I'm glad I posted here.