Sam, our chocolate lab is 2 years and 3 months old, most times when we go to the local park he loves to join in with the other dogs, running and chasing each other, but suddenly he will run off and go too far away, and completely forgets about us and I have go as quickly as I can in the direction he has gone, is he likely to stop doing this as he gets older?
I don't think he will just grow out of this behaviour, but there are things you can do to prevent it happening. I would suggest that you need to build the sort of relationship with your dog where he looks to you for fun activities when you're out. So when you go out have a plan of the games you're going to play. These can be things like fetching a ball, playing tug, learning to do movements like twirl, send away to a marker and lie down etc. If you're in the U.K. it's fairly easy to find places other than recreation grounds where you can walk your dog and if you can walk in wood / forest then that's an ideal place for 'the about turn walk' (from the book Total Recall) - basically as soon as your dog gets ahead of you, turn and walk in another direction. Keep repeating and he will learn to keep an eye on you. Another idea from Total Recall that i used when Molly was young, was to give a food reward whenever she was within a yard of me in any direction. Personally, I've got no problem with having the occasional visit to the rec for a play with other dogs, but I wouldn't want to do this all the time, as I want Molly to be engaged with me.
Nope, sadly not. It's up to you to make yourself interesting enough to him that he wants to stick around. If you're not of any worth to him, what's the point in staying with you? This thread might help you: http://thelabradorforum.com/threads/keeping-your-dog-close-on-a-walk.12214/#post-184709
As Fiona and Joy have said, he will not grow out of it. i play a lot of games on our walks with hiding balls, playing hide & seek in woods and running away games. She does play with other dogs, but will always come back to play with me.
