why does she run off????

[RoyalRuby]

My ruby is well behaved in the home, she comes to call, sits, lies down, rolls over and generally listens to what i say. but when it comes to walking shes great on her lead but when i let her off she runs off in bushes, chases birds, doesnt come back to call and the walk ends up in a search. Ive tryed almost everything i take balls squeky toys treats and she still wont come back!
Advice would be most welcome

[ilsamom]

how old is she? If she is just a puppy, a bit more off leash training would help a great deal. I remember one instance when Ilsa was a pup I lost her for an hour in central park, she was chasing a squirrel. I had thought she was well trained (and underestimated her speed). In the end I was calling her hysterically and she came back to me happy and thirsty, curious why I was so upset. I didn't let her off lead again for a year, and tried tried to retrain her to come. It's difficult but as city dwellers I know she needs to run off leash in the park, and the dog runs are filled with large, dirty dogs and I don't take her in those places.

She is fine now and always stays where I can see her. If you have a puppy I'd say she just needs more training and isn't ready to be off leash in an unsecured area. If she's an adult, I don't know, but she probably needs more work on recall as well.

Jen and Ilsa

[psucavs]

do you used a fixed lead or one that expands? Amanda used to be like that, but I went out and get an expandable lead. I keep it really close, but then give a command and release it. She can run up to like 30ft from me and then I give the recall. took a little bit but amanda figured out that if I let her run around whereever and then came within a few seconds of calling she gets to sleep with me instead of the crate...and up here in COLD PA she LOVES the bed with blankets.

[Sabby]

I know what you are going through. I have the same problem with my Rosie. I always managed to get her back but last year I lost her for two hours in a 70 acre wood. I thought I never see her again and it was only luck that someone found her exhausted under a bush. My other dog run of with her but turned around and came back to me but Rosie just kept running. The problem is that once her nose hits the ground that is it she just runs. In the home, garden, obedience class she listens really well. I tried training her slowly on a training lead, I tried treats.
I am interested to see what other people suggest.

[ilsamom]

I did train her off lead in a fenced in area outside by making her follow me using her treats as bait. If she didn't listen I'd put her back on the leash and put her treat away while she was watching. I'm too soft to yell at her so it took a while but it did work. She understood eventually that if she didn't come when called she wouldn't get to run free at all. You have to be vigilant and make sure you catch them not listening quickly before they start going at full speed.

I often wish she had a yard but now we can enjoy the park properly. Especially in the city where parks have streets going through them. So dangerous! Now if she starts going she understands the command "wait", and I go catch up with her, (or put her on lead if she's near a street), so she knows she can still go play where she wants as the park is her time.


Jen and Ilsa

[RoyalRuby]

shes one year old, and a few months ago she was fine off lead, never went too far away always came back but just recently shes got all cocky thinking she can do as she wishes. I deffinatly think alot more recall training is needed, there is a great advice thing on this site so am going to use that and just keep trying. I use a fixed lead at the minute, will consider getting a expandable one. Its just so frustraring when she was fine off lead before, and i panic alot when she goes misssing in the bushes. Any further advice would be greate and im glad to hear im not the only cav owner with this problem becasue it makes me feel like a lousy trainer. But i am going to keep trying i so want her to be let off lead safely becasue she loves it.

[Daisy's Mom]

Daisy is the exact same way. I cannot trust her off-lead. She will follow her nose or eyes to anything interesting, completely heedless of cars, big mean dogs, etc. I just can't risk it. I hate that because my past dogs have always just stayed with me, with really no training to speak of. Daisy is just very different from them. We've been through Obedience I,II, and III, but she just is not trustworthy. I'd love to find a huge, fenced-in safe area where I could work with her on her recall, but I just haven't found such an area.

The other day she slipped out the garage door that was inadvertently left open. I panicked, of course and ran outside when I noticed the open door. She was across the street sniffing in the neighbor's yard, thank God! I said "Daisy, Treat!" and she came at a flat-out run straight to me, which impressed me a lot! Sometimes I think she may warrant a bit more trust from me than I give her, but if something happened to her, I would never forgive myself. She used to have a horrible car-chasing habit, which I have mostly cured, but every once in a while on our walks, she will still jump toward a passing car. That scares me to death that she would literally throw herself under the wheels of the first passing car if she were off-leash. She knows no fear of any moving object -- they are all prey to her.

Good luck to you and let us know what works if you get her figured out.

[misty]

I would go back to basics if I were you.

Get a long line (a 60' horse line would be ideal) and keep her on the line. Let her have some freedom and then call her back, reeling her back in so to speak.

An incentive would be a reward of warm sausage, baked liver, ham etc - something very desirable.

She's probably being a teenager. Marlon went through a phase like that between about 9 - 13 months old and everything he learned he unlearned!

[chloe92us]

My only complaint about Cavaliers is their general inability to be trained not to run away when off lead. I have one I can let off, but she is super lazy. The other two...unless we are in the woods somewhere, there's NO CHANCE. Even if they were trained well on recall, i would NEVER let them off lead where there were other people, dogs, or cars. NEVER.

[psucavs]

Yea the horse rope is GREAT my mum uses them when she was training our pointers and labs for upland bird hunting.

I would try also to get her used to being outside where there is no fence. Fences teach them where they can go and are forced to stop. Amanda was a bit like that when she came to me, but I did all my training in the front yard so that I could teach her about streets. Cavs really have NO street smarts. By being outside without a fence she learned that if she stayed close to me she could do alot more and go more places. I would try your training in the front yard so that you can teach your pup that the street is bad.

Hope that helps.