Help with controlling dog on beach

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone can give me some advice on how to control my dog when she is on the beach off the leash.

I try to let her off the leash so she can run around and get some good exercise but then when i want her to come she won't come and will run in the opposite direction.

I've tried bringing toys which she would usually love to play with at home but at the beach she just seems to ignore me.

Can anyone help?
Thanks

How old is she? A 100% reliable recall is very important and sometimes not all that easy to teach. We are doing this currently at obedience classes.

We start with having a pocket full of the most irresistable treats. Dogs often understand hand signals better than words so our command is "come" and we raise our arms up in the air in a big V above our heads. This signal can be seen from a long way off. We start off with the recall being only a few feet away. Call the "come" make the V and then reward with food. We practice this every single day. You don't need to be outside to practice. You can practice this at home indoors. Over time you increase the distance. The really important thing is that you NEVER call come to scold or punish. Every single recall gets followed up with a treat.

At first the "come" and the V might need to be accompanied by fooling around a bit, jumping up & down & looking all excited & on for a play. This works with the puppies as they are learning. Later on you can drop the tom foolery & just call & signa.

I hope this helps.

Oh and BTW never run after you dog as they think it is a game. If things get really out of hand, it is better to call and then start running in the opposite direction. You dog will think it is a game of chase you, rather than you chase him.

Even experienced dogs practice the recall with a fun game (motivated recall). Our classs used to have someone hold your dog's collar, while you run awaythen stop and generally do silly arm waving, jumping up and downn etc. This usually makes them very eager.

Keep her on an extensa-lead until she has learned recall. It can be dangerous at worst, and a serious nuisance for others, in an open environment like this where people and other dogs may be around, to not have the dog under voice control -- and in most places it is also not legal to have a dog that is not under adequate control off lead. So it is responsible dog ownership towards others, and safe ownership towards her, to keep her on while you do some training. Also an extensa will give her *plenty* of room to run while remaining safely under your control; you can get very very long extensa leads these days.

For example Flexi leads are available in an 8 meter length -- 24 feet -- that's plenty of room to run. These can be dangerous to use to walk your dog on city streets or near cars (because sometimes you think you've locked the lead but it isn't locked, or the handle can pop out of your grasp surprisingly easy) but are great for beach and park:
http://www.dofos.co.uk/d_p3.htm

And good timing! :lol: I just put this link and article on recall into the library last night. :rah:

http://board.cavaliertalk.com/showthread.php?p=220331#post220331