I suspect Poppy may be taking weed behind my back!

[David]

I'm a bit at a loss on this one. Having crowed about her being on a short gundog training advertising video, the sweet lamb did a runner yesterday afternoon. It could have gone horribly wrong. In short, on the way back from our afternoon walk I let her go for a swim in the river. When she came out she did a zoomy then seemed to go into a trance walking off down the field with a stiff legged gate to start with. She was completely deaf to recall. She then transitioned into a slow canter nose down obviously on a trail. She was off! Stone deaf! There is cattle in the fields and the farmer has all the gates open so they can range over a large area so there was nothing to stop Poppy and she went so far away she disappeared. I could see where she was on her tracker and she went about half a mile to the main road where, thank goodness, the hedge stopped her. She then came back as if nothing had happened.

This morning I kept her on the lead across the offending fields and then let her off but kept her tight. All seemed OK but it was very worrying. I have let her range a bit when she's not training and I think that may be a mistake with this dog. I didn't have that trouble with Lady. I plan to keep her on the lead except in "safe" areas and keep her close for a while to see if I can break that habit and instill a keep near habit but to be honest I'm at a bit of a loss on this one. It's possible it's a residual from her sniffer dog history. She had a basic recall when we got her but essentially the dog had no boundaries at all.

Ideas as usual all welcome.

 

[JES72]

Sounds like she went off on a trail. What kind of sniffer dog was she? I’m just thinking. Would Mantrailing help. It may give her the boundaries that she can sniff specific trails when she has a harness and long line on and when not she stays close to you. Or is that something that you feel might confuse her more.
Our mantrailing trainer has taken on a young lab/ flat coat that lived with a pack of dogs that were left to roam with no boundaries. She will just take off sometimes despite a lot of work trying to get her to bond with him.

Edit: I’ve seen the video of gun dog training. Maybe it will take her time to learn when she can go off to ‘work’ to do a retrieve on your command and when she needs to stay close.

 

[Stacia]

Go on to gundogtrainingforum.co.uk useful posts on recall. If you keep your dog on the lead she will never learn to be off lead!

 

[MellowYellow]

Maybe she was on the trail of a fox or something that really fascinated her... Tricky for you! I'm not normally a fan of the long loose training leads, but maybe it might be worth using one of those for a while; as @Jelinga says, if you don't let her off the lead she'll never learn a proper recall.

 

[Stacia]

Another thought, never call a dog when their head is down, they just can't hear you! Have you thought about having a solid stop whistle, you can stop her just as she starts off!

 

[Selina27]

Cassie was just like this, luckily where we live and walk roads are not a problem. Hares it was with her.

I think Sonia s idea of a "stop" is a good idea, there is a good video by the IMDT. It's a really useful thing to teach.

I've done loads of games over time with Cass, which have helped as well. I don't think there is one specific answer

 

[SwampDonkey]

The problem I have and a lot of friends too is people walking isb. Even if the girl in question has been gone a few hours it's still dangerous for us boy owners. Not a popular opinion but I get tired of others putting mine and others dogs at risk

 

[Selina27]

instill a keep near habit

Yes, I guess this is what you want. This where the games I've played with her have really helped.

 

[Anne123]

I do not have a solution for your problem, just want to tell you my experience with Finn while walking in the forrest. Finn is allowed on certain paths to walk off leash. There are a lot of animals in the forest like boars and deer. I watch Finn closely for I can see immediately in Finns attitude when there are wild animals in the neighborhood. He barks/cries differently and his tail is more upright. He also sniffs uncontrollably. I try immediately to put him back on leash again. Most of the time I will succeed, but there are times I don’t…I also have a whistle which I use then and he will respond immediately to that. He knows I have a very irresistible treat that comes with a whistle.

 

[David]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. Sorry for the delay - been tied up over the last few days. I think she picked up a deer scent because I had another "incident" yesterday when she did a "wander" into a standing crop of field beans and wouldn't recall. A Roe deer emerged!

I got pulled up on gundog training on Tuesday about commands - which I think is part of the issue. I need to be firmer and keep it simple. Apparently I've a tendency to over-recall etc then over reward. It takes a bit of practice because I've got into bad habits, I think. Anyway we've (Poppy and me) have since been working on "here", "heal", "over" and "behind". All much better on the new regime. In the early days of transitioning Poppy from a detection dog to a retriever it was pretty much necessary to use food rewards to get Poppy to do anything. We seem to have transitioned out of that now so her reward is a simple pat and stroke.


Actually, Judy had a word with all four of us on the last session about reward and tone of voice. She illustrated tone of voice with Poppy (the waggiest Labrador I have come across) by really insulting her with a rewarding voice and I though Poppy's tail was going to fall off, it was wagging so much! Very funny to watch!

We've been doing some fairly complicated stuff recently to the extent I feel we might not keep up with the others, but so far so good. On Tuesday, for example, we were working on a series of exercises picking up the selected dummy in several different scenarios. Poppy did fine except for one reversion to running off and playing with the dummy. Her reward as a police dog was a ball on a rope and she was allowed to run and play with it after she had done her job. Every now and then she does that with a dummy. I guess that will diminish over time. I mean it's absolutely ages since she's challenged anyone for carrying weed.