a wondering boy

oh my god did jadan give me a fright the naughty boy. he already has one girl friend who he pines after if he sees her across a field but at least she is just past his age, jadan is six half months she is 1 year. today he went for an older woman, she is five and he would not let her be. usually he is very good about not going outside our park and there are at least six exits. if he gets too near after following a dog i can call him back and he comes straight away. but tonight he followed this little miss almost right out but as i was right behind him he didnt get far. but then....i took him right to the other side of the field on his lead and let him off again, he played with his ball for a good five minutes then had the hair brained idea to make a run for it back out of the same exit as his love :yikes :yikes no way could i catch up that far with my little legs. thankfully i could see him and he turned at the top after finding she wasnt there and came back down. there is a road at the end!!! :yikes :yikes did my heart go or what. this is his first time he has just run off and now i am frightend to let him off at all. i was thinking about having him done before because he does like the ladies and i think this has made me think of it again. how old should they be and would this stop him from running off like that. i am sure it was only because of this whiley lady dog because he hasnt done it before ever. or is he kicking into his teenage years already? :sl*p: :sl*p:

Yep!! At 6 and a half months, your little baby is entering the period if independence. Up to now, you could probably let him off leash and he wanted nothing more than to be close to you. He'd follow you around like a puppy (hence the phrase!!).

Your instinct to keep him on leash from now on is a good one; listen to yourself. He's going to get more and more independent as he ages, and he'll remember where those exits are!

If you havent done so yet, you might want to consider going to obedience class. As his continues to get more independent, he'll suddenly stop listening to you and developing bad behaviors (just like a teen!). Basic obedience training makes this transition much easier to deal with.

Good luck and have fun with your growing baby!

i thought it might be that. i had read about it and wondered what the signs might be. i just thought i had a wonderfully behaved boy until that episode. i will have to get a longer leash i think. i dont like his retractable one as it gets tangled a lot but maybe a longer leash as his short one doesnt allow him to do his buisness off the path!! :? just as i realise he is going to do his buisness its too late as he couldnt get to the edge on his short leash. maybe a longer one would allow him a bit more freedom with out the FREEDOM :yikes :sl*p: :sl*p: i do take him to puppy class but maybe now he is old enough to go to the slightly more advanced class. thanks for advice. i have two teenage girls and that is hard enough work let alone a randy pup icon_whistling icon_whistling

You have found what a lot of people have found. This breed is really a free spirit and they seem to have no concept of danger. No matter how good he seems off lead, I would always have him on a leash unless he is in a completely fenced area. These guys will many times see something they HAVE to have and away they go, as you found out.

These guys will many times go after another dog just to play because they are such a social breed; the sex of the dog wouldn't matter. I doubt the girl he was chasing after was in season; if she was, I really don't think he would have given up so easily. Normally, if a boy gets the scent of a girl in season, there is no amount of training that can stop him from hunting her down.

I completely agree with Bruce on this one (as usual)! He's just being a typical Cavalier, they also suffer terribly from selective deafness when they see someone or another doggy friend that they like the look of :roll:

well jadan was on his lead this morning and to be honest i dont think that he really noticed any difference. he is still allowed to do his stuff and because i did put him on his retactable (even though i said i wouldnt!) he had a bit of freedom too. that helped whilst i could control how far. i think i just felt a bit guilty restricting him before. but not half as guilty should anything have happened. we took him to some woods we know and let him off there as he is surrounded by all sides and we have never had a problem there before, he sticks to us like glue here. so maybe for a while open areas are out of bounds off lead.

yea he is definitely entering the period of independece...boy my two gave me shocks alright!! when they were around 6 months they somehow dug out of their pen and i came home and my heart fully stopped when i went to bring them in a saw them gone...i felt like i was going mad... without even thinking i just ran down the road calling their names my mind already racing about putting up missing posters and calling every vet in the area (i think i overreact a bit icon_whistling :roll: )...i walked around three blocks and couldnt find them anywhere... i finally went back home when i saw a note on the front door.. i went over and read it and immediately thought what an idiot i was... it sed "monty and milo have gotten out of their pen and came over and are playing with jess to visit jess (jess is this 2 year old golden retriever that monty had fallen in love with). i was so relieved! i went next door and there waiting inside where my two...my neighbour told me they had come over and she had taken them inside till i got home! i was ecstatic! anyway i put bricks under the fence and they havent able to get out since except on one occasion before that when the vet called me telling me someone had brought them into the vet because they found them wondering on brokers road (this really steep road that is VERY far away from my house for two puppies to walk....anyway they seem to grow out of it! anyway i have just been blabbering on and on for no particular reason..sorry if ive been boring you guys to death!

lol lol lol :lol: :lol: :lol: no it was really good to hear that they all get into mischief. it gives me hope..... and a good laugh!!! though i am sure it wasnt funny at the time

Oh yes and age is no barrier either :roll: Alison will tell you about her phoning me a few weeks ago and me saying in a panic 'Can't talk, Maxx is missing' I was almost hysterical as I'd been out and hubby had gone out and left the patio door open for the boys - I thought someone had gotten in and stolen him :yikes

I now know his hideout.... in our garden we have two sheds and my darling boy has realised that he can get down the side & back of the one nearest to the fences.... He likes to go and have a nap down there and being as deaf as a Dodo.... :roll:

Didn't do my nerves any good at all, I can tell you!

There is nothing more frightening then coming home to missing dogs.
we live in a rural area and one day it happened to me. At this stage I had 2 Aussie shepherds and a wire haired pointer. I tried everything to find them but noone had seen them. All I had was these visions of dead livestock and shot dogs. Dont get me wrong they had never attacked anything in their lives, but you never know. Anyway I finally get back from my search and there was my Pointer in the garden. A little while later one Aussie came home, but the other was nowhere to be seen. Ichecked to make sure there was no evidence that they had attacked anything and there wasnt to my great relief. But my boy still wasnt home when the lights went out late that night. I feared the worst and hardly slept. But for some reason I could hear him barking in the distance. The next morning I woke up early to look for him, And there he was back safe and sound and not a mark on him. Later I found out that he had been stuck behind a fence and where the other two had jumped it, he couldnt and he had complained about it until the owner of the property let him through. And I am happy to say that they didnt even attempt to go near his livestock. He said they were rabbit hunting, and that he figured they would go home I was really lucky that the farmer didnt shoot them or they didnt get hit by a car. Need les to say I make sure all my dogs are put away in safe areas before I go out now. If I cant take them with me that is.