Dog Community

Follows his nose

Posted : 6/28/2006 10:54:38 PM

I have a cocker spaniel who loves to follow his nose. I realize that this is normal for this breed.

In almost every aspect, he's very well behaved. He's 8 years old and we got him in November. He was a stray and had to survive on his own for quite a while before he was rescued.

I like to walk with him off the leash so we both have freedom, and about 80% of the time, he stays around. The main problem is not that he goes off on his own (although sometimes he will if there's a fork in the road). The problem is that he'll find a smell and just stay there. He could stay there all day if he could. I call him and call him (with or without cookies) and I know he hears me. He just ignores me.

He's gotten better at walking off the leash over the past few months but I'd still like to get over this hurdle. That way, I'll feel more confident that he'll stay with me, and it will be more enjoyable if it feels like a "together" walk.

Any thoughts?

Sydney

Posted : 6/29/2006 6:09:38 AM

honsetly untill he learns to listen to you, i would walk him on a leash..might not be as fun for him, but he needs to learn to listen you..let him smell around on leash if it dosent bother you, but when you say come, he needs to know that you mean it..i would just work on the "come" comand with him more

Amina

Posted : 6/29/2006 9:49:29 AM

The thing is that when he's on a leash, he comes when called. Or when we're in the house... he comes every time. It's when he has freedom that he doesn't want to relinquish it.

jones

Posted : 6/29/2006 11:57:25 AM

ORIGINAL: Amina
The thing is that when he's on a leash, he comes when called. Or when we're in the house... he comes every time. It's when he has freedom that he doesn't want to relinquish it.

Well of course! Dogs aren't stupid. They know when they have the option to run off and when they don't. The idea is to train them so that they respond to "come" even when they don't strictly have to. I too think you should train a reliable recall before you let this dog walk off leash... it can take a while and you have to go slowly. Here are some detailed instructions on recall training -
[linkhttp://www.dogforme.com/pages/roadkill.html]http://www.dogforme.com/pages/roadkill.html[/link]

In the meantime, walk him on leash. If you're walking in more secluded areas, try putting him on a long training line... then you have the option of reeling him in but he has a little more leeway for sniffing around. Congrats on your new dog by the way!

ewin0210

Posted : 6/29/2006 2:52:11 PM

You could use a long drag line. You wouldn't actually hold the end of the line, but if he wanders off call him to you. If he doesn't come that is when you take hold of the drag line and make him come to you. Tell him "Good Come" and give him a treat or just praise. Then let him go again. This will give you the opportunity to get him to come to you even when he doesn't want to.

Stephanie Book

Posted : 6/29/2006 10:23:52 PM

I was going to say the same thing as the poster above. My instructor at dog training class was talking about this this evening. She has a dog that whenever it would see something, it would just take off and not come back. So she put a really light nylon rope ( about 20 feet or so) on the dog, so that the dog wouldn't feel that it was wearing it. Then when she takes off (this was the case with her dog, it would totally ignore her calls), the dog then hit the end of the rope as she yelled No . She said that after only doing this twice, the dog realized that it's not a good thing to run off! What I'm saying is that if you have a long line on the dog, you can get him to come to you, and if he ignores, then tug on the rope and really praise him when he comes to you. If you wanted, an e-collar ( though expsensive, and you would have to know how to use it correctly) would help with off leash recalls.