Problems with getting Tia to "come" when off lead (Recall training advice?)

I took Tia to the common earlier.
I thought as she has been here for over 2 weeks now i could try letting her off the lead as i was told by the staffie rescue that her previous owners said she is good with her recall.
They also said if you shout down to her she will stay there till you get to her.
Anyway i let her off the lead as there was no one else around and she just ran, i tried calling her, running the opposite way and making it into a game, offering her treats etc, none of it worked. :smt009
So i started to panic and ran after her, by this time she was out of sight as she had run into the trees and long grass.
When i got closer to the trees i could just see her head poking through the grass.
So i told her to lay down, she layed down and didnt move until i got to her to put her lead on.
Im laughing :smt005 about it now but at the time it really scared me. I really thought i had lost her.
Has anyone got any advice other than to keep her on the lead, as i`d feel really guilty keeping her on it if she is used to being let off.
Thanks

Give here time. She may need to get used to your voice calling her. When we got Cassie we took her to a local park that had tennis courts with fencing around them. We could let her off in there and practice her recall without our hearts in our mouths.

HI there

What a fright you must have got. Poor you!!! I would practice recall exercises in the garden. Do a search on here. There's bound to be past posts giving advice on how to establish recall.

Good luck
Annie

Here is a Dogsey article on training a reliable recall: http://www.dogsey.com/dog-articles.php?t=8049