My 2 1/2 year chocolate male named snickers will not stop running off. We live in the middle of the woods and we don't have many neighbors so when snickers was little, we let him run around. He always came back so we weren't worried. Well now he's decided that running off to our neighbors house is a good idea. They have an old Saint Bernard who snickers likes to play with. The owners of the SB didn't mind snickers being there, but snickers stopped coming back from his play dates. We'd have to go get him. Then one day we get a call that he bit the child of the owner of the SB. Apparently the dogs were fighting and the child intervened and got bit. Snickers didn't break skin but they made it clear that he wasn't welcome there any longer. Snickers has no history of aggression; on the contrary. We have 7 kids and they sit on him and play with him all the time and he's as gentle as can be. I'm sure the other kid just got in the way. But now, snickers is tied up all the time and only is allowed off to run with our quad once a day. He's not acting very healthy and I'm worried about him. Any ideas on how to keep him around the property?
Hello there and welcome to the forum. I suspect you are going to find this a bit difficult as his behaviour will be difficult to change. I guess fencing in your property isn't an option, but perhaps building a large run might be? How is his recall? This might be something to work on alongside providing him some safe confinent.