Hi , I’m Sarah and I am the proud owner of a golden retriever called Alfie . Alfie was two last November and in all but one occasion he is a very obedient and well mannered dog. He has recently started chasing deer and not coming back. It has started to become a real problem as I had trained him so well with your Total Recall book Pippa and the whistle does work usually . But just recently I have whistled and he has not come back but instead ran far away chasing deer and got lost. Today was the last straw , usually if I call long enough he finds me but today he got lost and found some other people instead. He was a long way from where he left me and these people who had dogs too , kept him for nearly an hour before calling me to tell me they had found him. He was running around frantically quite near to where I had parked my car and they took him to the nearby pub and phoned me from there. I only wish they had phoned me sooner as I was sure he had been taken by then and I was on my way back to the car anyway . I am grateful they gave him back to me however ! So , do I need to go back to the beginning with training ? Should I stop taking him out on countryside walks and stop letting him off the lead ? I’m so unhappy it’s come to this ! Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Sarah
Hello and welcome. I not an expert dog trainer but I would suggest no more off leash walks until you have a 100% recall. I would start with a good dog training class for that. Good luck...
Hi Sarah, welcome to the forum! I'm sure our members will have some great advice for you. Something I keep being reminded of here is that you can't expect perfectly linear progression with training - sometimes it feels like it's all falling apart again, and you have to take a step (or a lot of steps!) back and rebuild from an earlier point. But all is never lost, and you can do it! Good luck and let us know how you get on!
Lots of deer by me and I understand how tempting they are. Have you got some other off lead areas you can walk and practise recall? I can't see a training class making much difference, especially if you've already worked through total recall, it's such a different level of excitement ( I could be wrong though). Could you use a long line and work on maintaining a close heel, with your eyes peeled for deer, hopefully standing on the line before she takes off? Maybe some very clear instructions on her collar? You can get collars printed with phone numbers etc. Don't sue me though if she does get lost! I'm no expert by any means, I just can't imagine restricting a young dog to on lead walks only for any length of time.
Thank you for your comment. I have started to do walks where I know there are no deer around and reinforcing my training , things are going well so far. I’m using the lead in danger zones. Alfie is such a good dog apart from the deer temptation and under all other circumstances comes immediately to the whistle , even with deer around he usually comes when he hears the whistle but just lately has started to ignore it if he is in full chase mode. I’m grateful for all the comments thank you all.
