Hi all,

I need your help and advice!! So please feel free to tell me whatever you thinks works best!!

I have a young Staffie who is 9 months old (male) and he's just an absolute dream to walk on the lead. He always walks to heal, stops when i stop and is completely obedient, he would make so many owners proud.

HOWEVER - there is a downside.

Whenever we let him off his lead in the park the little bugger will not pay a SINGLE bit of attention to me or my girlfriend. We can take treats etc, but he just runs wild and to be honest we have NO control of him at all. So needless to say letting him off the lead is becoming something we are both seeing as more hasstle then worth - however, im sure he would disagree...

What i would love to learn is some tricks to keep his attention span and so that he does listen to us when we let him off. If we take his ball he will chase it around the park like a loony, but if he sees another dog or a young child he would much rather try and play with them, sometimes chasing other dogs when they are thinking "god, just leave me alone"....(nightmare!)

PLEASE HELP - we really want to let him off his lead as he has so much fun and its socialised him into a little social monster, but we have no control and this is not good. What if any advice can you give us so we can have complete "off lead" control?

Thanks

He can't be that bad - you obviously get him back to you to put his lead on so there is some control. What treats do you take ?. Some of the 'dog' treats aren't very exciting. A bit of cheese or sausage is much more likely to attract his attention (and mine !).

Start from the begining again.
while on the lead let him go to the end of it then call him back. when he come to you give him a treat and tell him he is a good boy. (don't go too mad though, he will get over excited)
Use a flex and do the same again.
when he is let off completely only let him go for short periods and repeat the above.
Also try walking away and calling him.(they hate mum and dad not to be around)
Hope this helps
Terry

I have a boxer and she used to be a nightmare off lead until someone told me to hide from her. She searched frantically for me which was very interesting to watch as they do love you really. This seemed to do the trick for me as she never runs off too far but admittedly I don't ever let her off in parks just at our local field where there are loads of dog walkers but not really many children.

you could try a really long training line on him. have it & your normal lead attached,let him off his normal lead so he thinks hes free, before he gets to the end of the t.line call him  & show him the treats, call him once & if he dosent repond give him a little tug & pull him in aLL THE TIME showing the sweets to encourage him & saying "good boy come" or whatever you want to say.

also dont always call him to put him back on the lead. but call him back ,praise ,a few sweeties then say "off you go" or whatever. or perhaps have a special toy call him back have a game then send him off again

basically you are trying to make yourselfs INTERESTING & fun to be with, youve got to be more interesting than the sights & smells of the walk.
Also only call him when you are pretty sure hes going to come back,or you end up just teaching him to ignore his name.

mad suggestion, try stopping & sitting on the floor,i bet he comes back & mugs you!!!! then you can reinforce it with tons of praise & sweeties.

also try hiding behind a tree or bush,i bet he comes to find you,again reinforce it with praise & sweeties ,maybe a game.

if you are slightly "unpredictable " in your behaviour he should take more notice,sometimes turn & run the other way, dont always do the same walks. etc etc

Thanks so much for your responses!! Im going to try some of them.

If we call him when he's on the lead he will stop and look straight away, however, he's right next to us as he doesnt pull at all, just walks to heal. As soon as he hears the lead unclip he just bolts as if to say "youve had your time with me being good on the lead, now its my turn to be let loose and sniff everything"
I will take some cheese etc, but i have tried taking "nice things" before, but when you call his name to give him something he just doesnt look at you. Maybe they were not nice enough!! Will take some tasty treats!!
We are not worried about him loosing us, as he follows us wherever we walk, normally just a couple of meters in front or behind, it's just when he gets distracted or sees something else he thinks is much cooler then us, he goes and there is no amount of name calling that works - the Terrier in him takes over and he's off and he wont come back even if we walk away.

I will try the "training" lead / extendable lead and see if he calms down when he thinks his main lead has been taken off (but surely this will only work once as he will realise he's not off his lead???) I'll try it anyway!!

Im definately going to hide from him and see how he reacts, but i wouldnt be suprised if he carried on as normal as he's so self assured and confident...i will let you all know what worked when we have him sorted!!!! Im sure that all of the above will work.

Thanks guys!!!

Hello
He is 9 months old as well and starting to find his feet. From what you say it seems he has always done this or at least a version of it. So I doubt he knows what he is doing is not what you want.
It sounds like your problem is not that he gets lost as you say he follows you but that he sees more interesting things than you.
Have you a friend you can "use" to help you someone he doesn't know or doesn't know well (your partner would be no good as he would feel comfortable)
Go to the park or where ever you let him off lead - get the other person to hold his lead and you walk away from him - don't look back just keep walking go about 30ft away and then stop and call him really "excited voice" like you've not seen him in months hold you arms out and maybe even crouch down make yourself really really appealing to him. And have something nice that he really really loves as a treat, be it cheese/a toy anything. Then when he's really trying to get to you get the person to let go of the lead (don't let him off just drop it) and when he charges toward you and gets to you praise him play with him with his ragger something he loves. Then practise this a few times.

Try that.

Go back to basics and work on his recall indoors and in enclosed areas. Keep his leash in your hand. When you say he stops and looks at you, that's him saying he's unsure, he's not blatantly disobeying you, other breeds may notice the ear movement or head cocking. You have to make him want to come back. When you are in a safe place away from other dogs practice his recall, give him lots of encouragement initially always stroking him with the leash. As others have said bending down is less threatening. Working on his all round training will help him learn to follow your lead. Be firm,fair,consistent and kind remembering he doesn't speak human, the only word you need to communicate is 'No'.  Anytime you need to check him remember to praise him as soon as he stops, again stroking him with the leash, trying to get him to associate his leash with nice things indoors and out. When working on the recall don't allow him to go more than 2-3 metres away from you. If you find using treats helps I find it amazing that a dog can happily ignore a dogtreat but if it thinks you have a sandwich...bingo! :D

When going back to basics as suggested, perhaps you could whistle train him? Some dogs will recall to a whistle more readily than to a verbal command. Also the sound of the whistle will carry further than the voice.

He is a pup finding his feet and all of the things suggest are worth a try, however I would suggest that you try them initially somewhere different, where he will be less confident. I suspect that he has decided that certain parks are OK to just run around like a mad thing.

One of the things most food loving dogs cant resist is home made liver cake, it has a really strong smell and they love it.

I have even resorted to skipping across the park to try and be interesting or even (in a safe park) walking out the gate and shouting 'bye'. Hid behind the gate and the dog soon came looking for me - didnt quite train bye as the recall command, but useful for those days when your pup wants to spend all day playing and you have to go to work etc ;) 

sorry for replying to this but ive been trying to get in contact with you to see what happened with yr dogs condition of demodex at 16 weeks did he grow out of it or did you manage to cure it please let me know as i have a 20 wk old white staff that has the same problem and i wanted to know how you coped thx.

our girl Staff is 11 months old and is good on the lead but not as good as yours sounds but she is good most of the time on recall. Still I must admit because she loves other dogs and people so much we do have to watch her when she is off the lead because she sometimes thinks twice before coming back to us. As she has become older she has got better at this but if we see another dog before her then we do put her on the lead more for her safety than anythingelse.
have you tried the recall at home, thats how we started,just practicing at home everyday for a few minutes.
how long have you had him and how long have you had this problem

We have this problem with Abby and I got a trainer to come to the house she told us we had to be the most interesting thing in the park, she is still on a lunge line so she gets a fair amout of running now I can control where she goes. She suggested we get Abby to retrieve she is not too keen but we are slowly getting there we found that changing where we walked helped also.
Mary

Hi Zulu

I know it's a little while since you posted your topic but am curious as to whether you have solved your problem?

We have a 5 year old staff that we stopped letting of the lead when she was around 2 because of the same problems.  The only time we let her off the lead now is when there are no other dogs or people present (my parents live in Wales so have the opportunity to do this when we visit them).  We sometimes do feel like we are bad dog owners because we don't seem to have control over her when she is running free and there are other people/dogs around but she only wants to make new friends!  At home she listens to us (most of the time!) but outside she seems to become deaf to our commands when running off the lead, it is frustrating because I am sure she looks sad when she sees other dogs running free :(