State of the Hound

[bunn]

At the moment, at about one and a half years old, Theo's actual recall is OK. He knows about coming when called, he enjoys the 'come and get a treat' game, he loves interaction and he doesn't want to lose me.

BUT - he is easily distracted. If he sees a rabbit, fox, or worst of all, deer, he will go deaf and chase. If he sees a dog, I sometimes can't get him back in time before he greets. He'll come back eventually, but I lose control and this is not OK. If he's all comfy in his bed, he sometimes won't want to get up, even for a treat!

I don't think this is unusual for a dog of this age, particularly a hound, so my plan is to keep working on it with loads of practice, and in the meanwhile do shorter offlead sessions with lots of practice recall-release rather than expecting him to be able to keep his brain together and focussed for the entire walk.

I am bad at this! I want to just bimble along and let him do his thing, but I don't think he's ready for that yet.

Comments

[rekishi]

Had a dachshund ages ago who never learned to listen (made worse by the fact that at the time in her life when she needed to be trained there was a long-lasting family emergency and it was the furthest from anyone's mind). It wasn't a terrible problem because she had a sweet temper otherwise and we could just pick her up if she got too obstinate, but there was no off-leash anything where there was no fence. Once the hunting instinct took over, she went completely deaf to anything. And dachshunds will hunt and face anything no matter the size.