I went for a lovely walk yesterday and as I was approaching the river for Hattie to have a dip I met up with a lady I know in the village. She has a Cocker Spaniel that's nearly a year old and she's struggling with her. We were chatting away when another lady we know also with a Cocker Spaniel around 2 years old joined us who is also struggling. They started discussing their "trackers" so I listened only to discover that both their dogs cannot be trusted off lead as once they are on a scent they run off and disappear and have no recall. So their answer is a £50 tracker with a £10 per month subscription to track their absconding dogs. They were terribly excited that they knew where their dogs were, but can't get them back Unbelievable, I just had to zip it and not say "why don't you put the required enormous amount of effort and train your dogs?" I have to say once I had walked on I felt a so proud of Charlie as now he doesn't abscond and is a good boy off lead (most of the time, touch wood ) There are no short cuts that's for sure! xx
Were I walk my dogs on one of my local little parks there are group of dog walkers who can't catch there dogs when they want to go home. The dogs know what's coming and refuse to he caught. They have no recall won't sit and just run circles round their owners mentally. I can see how it happened and see the logical steps the dogs took to learn to do as they please.
I have a couple friends in Germany who resort to returning to their cars, turning on the engines and starting to drive away. Only THEN will their dogs come out of the corn fields and hop into the cars to go home. It is a system that works for them, but would drive me batty.
