Looking for advice! My Marley likes to run away!

[candt]

Meet Marley! He's 6 months old and overall a really great dog!!! The only negative thing is that he likes to run away from me. Today I had to chase him all over the neighborhood - I'd get close to him and he'd take off running! This went on for about 30 min. He is typically on a leash or in our fenced back yard but today my 2 year old nephew let him out the front door. Any advice on how to go about training him to listen better/not run away?

[Wendy and Myla]

Marley is adorable!!!!  He looks like a little imp in that picture!  I've got to tell you that to me, training the dog to come to you is one of the most important commands to teach.  We started as soon as we got Myla and all we did was I would get away from her and then sit down and say "Come" and she would run as fast as she could and when she reached me she got a treat!  Because Marley's a bit older, I would put him on a long leash and when he's away from you, yell "Come" and give him a treat when he obeys.  If he doesn't "come" pull on the leash gently and when he gets to you, give him a treat and start over.  After doing it on the leash successfully, start doing it off leash.  NEVER chase him - that is just a game and a very fun game for a puppy.  I realize that your experience was an accident, but training the dog to "come" will help if that happens again.  To me, treating Myla gets me the best results.  When she was a young puppy, we treated her with her kibble, now she turns her nose up if that's her treat :)   Myla is three and a half years old and still gets a treat every time she comes when called!  As I said, it is one of the commands that I always want her to obey!  "Leave it" and "Stay" are the other two that we always treat her with.  We always have treats in a bowl by the back door or in our pockets - needless to say, laundry day always finds treats and doggie bags in the machine - lol.  If you haven't already, join the training group!  There are lots of really good discussions on how to get your doodle to listen to you!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Great advice.  Recall training is so important, and it doesn't happen overnight.  It starts with having your dog view you as a leader so your "come command" is meaningful.  Never use your recall word unless you are prepared to follow through and get the dog to come to you.  I love the long line for training recall because it gives you the ability to follow through.  I also agree that high value treats are important, especially during the training phase.  Have you started any formal obedience training yet?  The recall command usually comes after training a baseline.  Have you looked at the discussion here on DK about the Doggy Dan training videos?  That would be a great resource for you.

[Ginny Nightingale]

One other suggestion--run TOWARD your house (Once you have spotted him) and act like there is a party going on there--hooray, yippee! I am going home! Woohoo! Don't look at him--act like you are leaving him out--I had a terrier like this years ago and the more I chased, the further he ran--but he could not resist following me home when I acted happy to go there.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

First of all I would get a lock for the front door that is too high for your little one to open. Being able to get out the front door could also be very dangerous for your child!  One of my sons got out the front door when he was a toddler and we found him in traffic!

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

Dogs don't come any cuter than Marley.  No pun intended.  The come command is probably the very hardest to teach.  You must work on it constantly with increasing long leads and high value treats.  Some dogs just "come" better than others.

In high risk situations like you just had here are a few possibilities for getting around the impulse to run from you.

Take the time to get treats:  work everyday in different situations on the down stay, both on lead and  and then off lead in a very contained area when on lead down stay is impeccable.  When Marley escapes  and you are close and he is looking at you to entice you into a good game of chase, look and him and say firmly,  "Marley, down stay with the large arm and hand downward movement you have used to train this behavior.  Then walk calmly up, fix his lead or hold his collar and praise and treat.  Second possibility in emergency situations, when Marley is looking at you fall dramatically to the ground and lay very still, Marley is apt to come up to check you out as this is unfamiliar behavior and he will be curious and possibly worried.  Get ahold of him and praise and treat.  Third option;  if a willing stranger or even a familiar neighbor is near have them call Marley and pet and hold him until you get there.  Dogs in play mode seldom think that someone they don't know or is not family will "turn them in" - to them it is just another play opportunity with maybe a snack included.  Fouth option: if you can get close enough and Marley is a treat hound, get as close as possible and throw a handful of treats in front of him.  Then catch him while he eats and searches for the treats.

Meanwhile be as vigilant as possible and train, train, train the down stay and the recall (come).

Just so you feel better, my Roo's recall is good, not excellent, while Tigger's is ridiculously poor for a labradoodle and I have worked on it for his whole seven years!! 

As you may gather from this I have had a good bit of practice luring wandering dogs home!!!  I had Siberian Huskies for forty years and they are notoriously difficult to recall if they decide they have better things to do.  Add to that they can run for miles before tiring, so you need to get pretty tricky!

 

[Stella]

Train, train, train!!! I agree with the others advice - don't chase your dog, get him to chase you. Some dogs have horrible recall despite tonnes of training. My older LD is a masters level agility dog, so he's pretty highly trained, but he can't be off leash unless it is an enclosed area. He has a history of taking off after wildlife and would be gone for hours, so sadly he lost his off-leash privileges for ever!

[Diane and Alma]

I'm glad to hear that you were able to catch Marley.  He is adorable!  People have given some great advice and I use all these recall methods.  I'm usually the one who leaves the garage doors open while doing yard work only to find that Alma has gone out the back doggie door and through to the front yard.  I swear she can sense when the route to the world is open. Her recall is quite good except when there are squirrels involved :)  But, she is easy to catch then because she is usually standing and barking up a tree.