I am the owner of a beautiful 18month old Labrador bitch. From buying her at 12 weeks old to six months ago we lived in a house with a huge walled garden, escaping was never an option. From 12 weeks I have spent three four times a day training her, exercising her. She is the 5th Labrador that I have owned. Six months ago we moved to our present home, heart of countryside, again. 5 acres of our own land to explore. Have made her and our 6 year old Great Dane, their own paddock, approx 100metres square. In there on her own twice a day. I practice, Sit, Down, Stay, walking away from her, around her, she never moves until told to do so. Will walk to heel without lead. Brilliant!!! Happy dog, happy me................ Take her out of her 'paddock' and her twin takes over, pulls on lead, doesn't listen. Recently have taken her into a 2 acre field, where we practice all that has happened in paddock, slowly, after running off steam she is more and more obedient. She will retrieve a ball and return it, sitting for it t be thrown again. Now the problems begin, when walking back to house from field or paddock, off lead, she bolts through fence and races up the lane, if I get close she moves further along grass verge, sniffing. we are only half a mile from a very busy main road, my heart is in my mouth, as she races towards the road. This has just happened again, third time in a week, I try not to appear as though I am chasing her, I make noises as though we are working or playing as usual, yet still she runs. She has been outside for two hours, yet still chooses to run off!!!!! Advice please, after all these years of owning dogs, I am at a loss!!!
Hi. It sounds like all the new smells and sounds are more interesting to her than you are, hence she is ignoring your recall. Can you pop her on the lead before you leave the field or paddock to walk back to the house to stop her running towards the road? Harley used to always pull on the lead. I ended up using a harness or head collar when we were practising lead walking. We can now do several routes with no pulling at all and can generally use just collar and lead. It takes time to proof them in new environments that they aren't used to. The other thing you could try is a long line (I use a horse lead - - 20foot, when I have faster dogs) as it allows them a bit of freedom, but gives you security of being able to grab the lead in an emergency.
With our dogs there is no real connection between pulling on the lead, and recall. Cooper can be sled dog when she first goes out on lead, but her recall is very good and very dependable. Tilly doesn't pull as hard (maybe because she is 11 and her recall is not a good, especially now that she is mostly deaf, but she doesn't tend to stray far from us on a walk.
How was she went you took her out of her previous walled garden? Do you take her out of the paddock to train in other places on a regular basis? If not, it sounds like you have a dog that isn't trained outside of the places in which you usually train. This is normal. Dogs don't generalise their training very well. You have to train in loads of different places. Including the lane between the paddock and your house.
