Annabelle gave us quite the scare today

[Amy and Annabelle]

Early this morning we got a call from our daughter to come watch the grandkids as her daycare provider was sick. In a hurry we packed up everything and headed over. One thing we forgot was Annabelle's leash. She has been doing very well in training and comes when called...in the house. We have trainer that comes to our house twice a month. But with the weather, all of the training has been inside.Our daughter has a fence on 3 sides of the yard with 40 foot tall evergreen trees on the other. My husband took Annabelle to the back yard to do her business. No sooner had he put her down, that she went running through the trees and into the road. My husband was stopping traffic, trying to call her and catch her. It's like all that training just went out the window, once she realized she was free from a leash. Not even her favorite treats would lure her back to my husband. Luckily, he did eventually catch her. He did go buy a new leash to keep in the car. He probably could have caught her quicker if he could have squeezed through the tree forest like she could.  Just really frustrated with her today. It's like all time and money we have spent on training her has been for nothing.  The little stinker is almost 7 months old. Am I asking too much of her at this age?

[Amy and Annabelle]

Thanks everyone for your responses. We have been working on recall pretty much since day 1 as we felt that was the most important. She was doing really well, until put to the real test yesterday. I think it frightened her too. Since it happened, she has just wanted to lay in her safe place, which is her kennel. I know all the honking scared her.  It was scary for all of us I think.

[holly b]

Your time and money wasn't wasted.  You said all her training has been inside.  She needs to be trained outside as well, when the weather allows.  :)  I know I was taught during puppy training with my 2 previous dogs that anything done inside needed to be done in multiple rooms all over the house (not the same room every time) and outside as well.  And for training to come when off leash, you still have to start with the dog being on leash.  One of those really long, like 30 ft "leashes" comes in handy for that.  

And even then, dogs are still dogs.  She was in a new, very exciting place.  Even if she had mastered "come" outside, I don't find it that surprising.  Glad she was caught!  :)

[Lucy , Alex and Madison]

We take our dog to large nature center not near any roads.

there is a long fenced in walking deck where we let Maddi off leash to test her on come command.  I noticed she runs ahead and then waits for us to catch up before she runs again.  She also comes when called.  We practice having maddi look at us when we talk to her and while giving commands, that seems to let her know we are the leaders.  Almost had a heart attack yesterday in a friends back yard.  She was running with her dog off leash who tends to run away and she did run to front yard with Maddi in hot pursuit!

By the time we made it to the front yard they were no where in sight.  Trying not to panic I walked down the block calling her name, about 5 min latet she came running up to me looking scared.

My friend's dog was still missing in action. After driving around the area 10 min I came back and a neighbor had seen her across the street and she came to her when she called.  

Thankfully all ended up ok.

[Lucy , Alex and Madison]

The stay command is great when you see a potential distraction and your dog is looking at it getting ready to make a mad dash for it. This worked great on my Wheaton terrier because when you start to panic you can shout "stay" and walk to your dog before they run. Hope this helps others in crisis mode. I love the meat baby food idea, definitely going to add that to my list of techniques.