The other afternoon, hubby had taken our boy out on a nearby enclosed field for exercise. Hero has been doing so well off lead for some time and he meets his friends there for a play. We followed Total Recall all the way through and he has become very good at returnng everytime called, not chasing birds, squirrels etc and listening all the time. We've worked on proofing and proofing and proofing against so many distractions. However, that afternoon I received a phone call from a complete stranger saying he had my dog over the hospital car park up the road from our house. In a mad rush I went over there. A young man and security guard had Hero sitting quietly with them. The young man said he and his partner were driving down the main bypass and a muntjacs went in front of their car followed by Hero. He got out of the car and after dog and muntjacs jumped the fence to the hospital helipad area, the muntjacs disappeared and he was able to get hold of Hero's harness and they then phoned me. By this time I was really upset but so grateful that a complete stranger would be so kind to save a strange dog from harm like this. I will be eternally thankful to this young man. When we got back home, eventually my son brought OH home. They had all been searching for him as had many other people apparently. None of them dared to let me know what had happened. They then told me what happened. Hero was off lead playing with a couple of his retriever friends when a muntjac was disturbed and as it jumped from out of the bushes it landed right on Hero which seemed to freak him out and he gave chase. The muntjacs had found a gap in the fence and the rest is history. Needless to say the gap in the fence has been reported. My question after this long winded explanation is 1) is this field now poisoned regarding off lead and 2) how far back do we need to take recall training or will this have destroyed it all together. Needless to say Hero always has long line on again now so is not playing with his buddies.
I'm sorry you had such an upsetting experience - it's clearly left you shaken but thank goodness Hero came to no harm in the end. Although not as dramatic or potentially dangerous as your situation, I have experienced recall failure when my dog was young (and I doubt whether any dog owner has never had this happen). I think that provided you are sure that the field is now secure you should go back there and let Hero off-lead. Engage in games with him as well as letting him play with other dogs and practise your recall when you are confident he will come (i.e. when he's not in the middle of a game/interesting sniff etc.) You certainly won't have lost your recall completely so try not to worry.
I'm referring to personal memories. For example, whenever anyone asks me "what's the coolest thing you did this semester?" I actually get stumped as I try to remember cool things I did. Earlier today I had an extremely hard and embarrassing time remembering how many girls I've kissed in my life (two, fwiw) which is a pretty significant statistic and prompted me to make this post. Speed Test
