Our lab turns 4 at the end of this month and, after a lot of trial and error, her behaviour is pretty good. Out and about we put a lot of effort into improving her heeling on-lead during lockdown (finally realised that she didn't respond to the standard loose-lead walking training and teaching a solid heel was much more productive) and her recall on open fields is pretty good. I can call her away from other dogs easily in any environment and we do a lot of retrieving in woods/fields/ponds etc. But... at least once per walk she will stop whatever she's doing (this can even be on her way back to me with a ball in her mouth as I'm waving my arms and cheering her on) and disappears off on a mad sprint. She won't recall and I usually lose sight of her as she heads off into whatever trees happen to be closest. She returns of her own accord a few minutes later, but I've no idea what she's been up to in the meantime! We've taken out everything from her regular food to roast beef, cheese, hotdogs, salami, as treats for recall, all work fine normally but in these "head down, run like crazy" moments it's like she doesn't even hear the whistle. A long-line didn't seem to help as she was very aware of when it was on, and it doesn't seem to happen in the same location. Rather it's when something catches her eye/nose. Basically, I'm stumped! The only thing I can find on here that I haven't tried is vibrating/beeping (not shock) collars, but they seem like a big investment without knowing how well they work! Had anybody been in a similar situation and managed to find a way out of it? Cheers, Mark
