many thanks for that I feel better knowing that what you say is what I'm doing, so I am on the right track.I Don't think it's a dog she after it's rabbits, she's just noticed them. I have put her back on a very long horses lunge lead. I think I'm just taking it to heart because she was well off the lead in my fields with no problem for months, so I feel like I'm really cruel now that she is not able to run free. she loves other dogs and won't leave them so I'm arranging runs with friends who dogs I know have really good recall. I don't care if she does agility or not, I just want her to have a much fun and freedom as possible, and to enjoy every moment of her life. many thank again

Hi jp909 - until recently my dog was a bolter too but for some unknown reason he seems much better.

I only wanted to say that right now there's lots of things moving around in hedges, lots of different scents,so your dog may be reacting to that.

Don't be disheartened - just keep doing what you're doing, sounds like he's on an adventure. Does he play with a ball? Does he like squeaky toys? What about a whistle.

Sandy

Just to add a little bit of help to the advice you've already had, is to not call her when she's sniffing. When a dog has it's nose to the ground, its ears switch off Of course I'm talking about a controlled environment or the dog on a training lead. Basically, just another tip to set her up for success.

We all need to go back to basics every so often. George is 3 now and yesterday, he decided that sitting at the curb was something he would do in his own good time. Back to basics until he plonked his bum smartly, clicking and treating for the faster responses of course.

Sounds like you are doing well as it's much more difficult training recall with a rescue dog than starting with a puppy.

Thank you both I feel much better now I now I'm not alone .
I have never have this proplem with any other dog before. and because she had been ok for so long It frightned me when she ran off, I wasn't sure how far she would run or if she would make it down to the rd. Your quite right I have restarted basics from today. Many thanks

My hounds' recall is poor and I would never let them off together because it then becomes terrible. I am reading "Total Recall" by Pippa Mattinson. It is mostly common sense as already outlined here but broken down to very basic stages for people like me! It seems good but not got to a point of letting them off line yet.

Hi thanks I willl get hold of that. I took it to heart more because she has always been of the lead at home in our fields and I can't stands the though of her having to sit in the car looking out at the fields she is use to running free in.
But back to basics keep reminding myself she in only 12 month and a very young 12 months at that, and that when I had her as a rescue at about 5 months she had almost certainly never even been walked. we are going back to tranning classes in a few weeks

I adopt or foster dogs of all ages, shapes and sizes, at 12 months old your dog is still a teenage hooligan, during this stage all training goes out of the window so you just have to keep up the training.

Not one of the dogs I have take on had a good recall, they all leave with one. This is how I teach recall but remember, recall has to be practiced right through the dog's life or they start to ignore it.

Recall

To have a good recall with your dog you need to have good recall in your house and garden before working outside in various places. It is very important to set our dogs up to succeed with recall, there is nothing worse than trying to call our dogs back and them not coming or worse coming so far or running round us. Only coming so far or running round us is a sign there is another problem which need to be sorted, often this is based on fear, the reason for the fear we may never know especially if your dog is a rescue.

First decide on a word to use for recall, this can be any word but one not in constant use generally, preferably not the word you have used previously because your dog has already learnt that he doesn’t have to come to that so use another. It is easier and quicker to teach a dog to a new word than change his idea of the word you are using now.

Never call more than once,
We have all see dogs that come on the second or third call, have you ever wondered why? The owner has taught the dog to come on the second or third call by continuing to call, the dog has learnt that he doesn’t have to come at first call, this isn’t good enough for me, I want my dogs to come the first time I call.

Never call your dog when you know he won’t come,
That is teaching him to ignore you, again we don’t want this. If your dog has his head down a rabbit hole or investigating something he won’t hear you when you call because he is so focused on what he is doing, so no point in calling, his mind is on something else. Think of a child watching a good cartoon on the tv and you ask them to tidy their bedrooms.

I use a long line clipped to a harness, I don’t let my dog get to the end of the long line so he never learns how long it is, this is handy when I add another long line. I call him back from various distances and give lots and lots of praise and high resources treats, I go overboard with the praise but only give ONE treat.

I try to get my dog looking at me at first before asking for him to recall, this is so I know he has heard and I can encourage him back with my body language. If my dog isn’t looking at me I can try several things, high squeal, rustle a bag that normally has nice things in, start to walk the other way and saying “This way”, bounce a ball, anything will do to get my dog’s attention. I have been known to lie down on wet grass. I can then give the command for him to come back to me.

As my dog improves I stop getting his attention first and still expect him to come back to me immediately unless his head is down a rabbit hole etc. Once my dog is doing well and coming every time I introduce a whistle, I give the command and whistle, it doesn’t take my dog long to associate the whistle as come and I continue to use both.

This doesn’t really take that long, it just looks like it takes a long time. Once my dog is 100% recall on a long line I add another and carry on setting him up to recall every time but start to use the whistle more. The whistle travels a lot more than our voices and is louder so is very handy for recall. I will often add another long line depending on where I am and how busy it is.

Once my dog hags 100% recall I then drop my end and let my dog trail the line still working on the recall. If everything goes well I take a line off work some more before taking the last line off.

I take my dogs away a lot and don’t know what the countryside is like, in these situations I will still put a long line on my dogs but let them trail behind. My dogs are used to this and don’t think anything about it.

When teaching recall to our dogs we also have to take into account our dog’s breed and what they were bred to do. Some dogs like Labradors are bred to obey us, others like Terriers are bred to think for themselves, it is up to us as owners to find something that our dog will come back for. This can be treats, praise, play, toys etc some dogs we have to mix these to keep them interested.

Thank you so much thats brill, i am using long lines, but not stopping her before the end this I will do now. I have notice a marked improvement in the last week. That is no fear at all she comes brill as long as she hasn't picked up a fun smell, spotted a rabbit or another dog I have had dogs all my life and been lucky not to have ever had this problem before. She does not seen motiveted by anything normal like food or toys. But she is such a wonderfull kind dog. and because she is a labx span x staffie I really want to challange her or I think she will get fustrated otherwise, she likes to be active and doing something.

thanks again that was really useful

Quite simple really. You didn't mention you being worried about her running into the road in your first post about it. I've quoted it so you can read it again yourself. If you had said anywhere you were in tears because you were afraid your dog would run into the road and get killed that would have read differently. You didn't. You mentioned running after rabbits and being in a field.

And nowhere did I say you were giving bossy orders - I was talking about what works for MY dog.

This may work for some dogs but not had a dog yet that it worked for. I often see when owners have problems with recall that they have to make themselves more interesting, problem is, we can't be more interested thn chasing a rabbit, it is the same with treats no matter how high reward they are.

When we teach a dog to do something we get them into the habit of doing something when we ask them to. Take sit, we teach them to sit in the kitchen then have to reteach them in the living room, hall, garden etc until they will sit no matter where they are. Rewards do help, a dog will learn quicker if they are rewarded.

We need to set a dog up to do what we want them to, this is why a long line is so useful, you still have control even when your dog decided the rabbit running across the field is more interesting