Today there was little news from the refuge. Two dogs who arrived yesterday were reclaimed and we had one arrival so I thought we would have a look at how we get our dogs back when all our recall training goes out of the window and the dog is just not behaving!
When you let your dog off its lead, there’s always a chance that your four-legged friend is going to bolt in a flurry of excitement. Smells, other animals and people can all prove too much for a young dog to resist!
With this in mind, it’s always good to have a few tricks up your sleeve for catching the dog when it forgets all its training..even a good dog can have a bad day!
1.Lie down…ok you might look stupid but who cares! Sometimes lying down stimulates prey drive in some dogs and they will come rushing back to you!
- Run in the opposite direction…again, sometimes this is such a shock to your dogs that it races back to catch you. You need to really know your dog though. You could end up even further away from it.
- Use a squeaky toy or ball….whatever gets your dogs attention.
- Hold up the lead…for some dogs seeing the lead means walkies and sometimes you can trick them into rushing back to get their lead on, forgetting that they are already on a walk.
- If you are near the car and he wont come back…try opening the door and stand back. Hopefully he’ll jump in and you can simply close the door.
- Treats…for those food oriented dogs..rustle the treat bag and back they come! That works well with my Labs!
- Forgotten treats….pretend you have them…rustle anything you have in your pocket. If this catches him reward him with a cuddle instead.
Now they say that you should never chase after your dog as the dog will think it’s a game and the bad behaviour will be reinforced. But, I don’t know anyone who is going to watch their dog disappear over the horizon and not try and catch it. My advice would be to run, run fast and get your dog!
Of course we need to all need to do recall training with our dogs and keep them safe whilst they are learning. If you have any tricks, then please leave a comment…anyone can lose a dog for all sorts of reasons and it would be interesting to know what you do!