please can you help we can not let her off the lead as she just runs away and will not come back. Please can you give any advice on what we can do.  It would be much apppreciated if you can help me.

Thanks
Belinda

The first thing I would recommend is go to a training class!!! Even though she's eight months old she will still be excepted. They are very good as your dog has to learn with distractions of other dogs, people talking and some trainers play noises on a CD player. I'm taking my Siberian Husky to training classes at the moment and he's two years old. Plus, in my breed, they cannot be let off the lead. I have a close friend with elkhounds so I could get a bit of info from her if you wanted.

K

Hi Guest
I own 3 norwegian elkhounds and Brainless who posts on here owns 5.Elkhounds are not the best dogs for recall...they still have a very strong hunting instinct.I have one who although I have tried since he was 8 weeks old is still too unreliable to allow off lead safely.The other 2 are ok but don't expect an elkhound to stay close...their off lead means 'out of sight' at times and it can take a long time to adjust to this type of dog.
As suggested go to training class.Use food as rewards since most elkhounds are very food orientated.There is no magic formular...train,train and keep training and hopefully your elkhound will learn to come when called.....good luck.
Archer

Hi there.  there are several Elkhound owners and breeders on this site.

Please register so that you can answer questions.

My first would be did you train your pup to cone to you before letting ehr off lead when she was a baby?  Did you let her off lead when very small in a safe place?

This is a very independant hunting breed for whom it is natural and necessary for the job they were breed to do to be bold enough and curious enough to range well ahead of you.

They will never be a dog that will trot at your heels.

I had a pup back at your pups age.  She had had no trainign, and worse still had been able to escape the house ant take herself off on jaunts of her own.  Sadly even now at  years old she is not fully reliable off the lead, but is not too bad. 

The others are not too bad at all, in as much as they do come when called even if they take detours and have to investigate everything on route.

First off she needs to know exactly what the command come means, and initially you have to be in a position to enfoce it.

Start with having her on lead and calling ehr in a biright cheerful manner and offer her a really tasty treat.

Then call her to you accross the room and make a real fuss about her compliance.  Then the garden.

Then take her out on a retractable lead to a flat area wher she can't get tangled.  do more training here with lots of praise when she comes back.  give the command once only.  If she doesn't comply give a sharp tug and give lots of encouragement.

BAsically recall training relies on the dog understanding the command, respecting you, and also for an Elkhound finding it more worthwhile doing what you asay rather than what it wants.  This is where the problem lies.  Few Elkhounds simply want to do what you say, they need something in it for them.  After all you will still be there once they are bored and then return.  Food tends to be the only thing that motivates an Elkhound apart from their enjoyment of pleasing themselves :D  Generally tyey are not Toy motivated, and of course mostly they are confident, so being away from yu doesn't worry them, they don't feel the need to guard you (like a GSD might) they are not looking for instruction, as they are brd to think for themselves when hunting.

Generally what works best is to utilise the fact that a very young pup will want to stay near you, unfortunately s/he has hit teenage where everything will be more interesting than you.

It is styill worth making it clear tha youy will nto follow him/her.  Let him/her off in a safe place and walk the opposite way, hide behind trees, crouch down and invetigate something on the ground, anything that gets their attention.  Don't do this until they ahve ahd a chance to wizz around and burn off that first bit of energy.

If they run ahead then turn on your heeels walking the other way, calling thei name only (not come) to get attention.  If they then come wizzing in your direction do not grab for them, but turn around again once they have got past you.  You can do all this using the flexi.  The idea is to get the dog to pay attention to where you are going.  Once they are paying attention to what you are doing then you can start using commands.

Hello - I have elkhounds too - my family have owned 11 of them so far.  I am a little surprised that your breeder didn't warn you about the tendency to take off.  The elkhound is bred to think for itself and some lines are also bred to hunt relatively independantly from the owner.  The usual pattern is for the elkhound to leave your side and range a little way away from you, perhaps out of sight, returning periodically to check your whereabouts.  If your puppy should disappear, it's a good idea to go back to where she last saw you - usually they will eventually come back.  However, having said that, occasionally you get a dog that does not come back at all.  I currently own one of these, and having had him do this to me twice, he is now never let off the lead unless he is in a paddock or other fenced area.  Mostly he just gets his exercise on a long flexilead or a 60 foot nylon line that I bought in Norway for the purpose (it has one of the Swedish clips which just attaches to his collar, but basically it's just a glorified washing line, and you could just use one of those or climbing ropes securely tied).  He's from loshund lines, so he has been bred to think for himself.
Most elkhounds are rather more trainable, but don't expect complete obedience.  My bitch (from mostly bandhund lines) is very biddable, and is always exercised off-lead, but even she will go off if she flushes a pheasant or other game, and keep running as long as she can see it.  Elkhounds are quite agile, and can clear quite high fences and walls.  Elkhounds are also renowned for "selective deafness" - they may obey you nine times out of ten, but ignore you the tenth time because there is something more interesting to look at that time.  In cases such as that, the methods that Brainless describes are very effective - find a pretend something fascinating to look at on the ground, or walk the other way and say "Bye" - they will usually follow you if they think you are going.  Play hide and seek and reward her with food when she finds you (the prime elkhound motivator!).  Do it in a safe place at first, like the garden or a completely enclosed field, with no traffic or livestock around.  If you chase after her and shout, she will either be frightened or think it's a game and run away.  There also seems to be a certain distance beyond which they know they do not need to obey you.  Elkhounds know how far this distance is, but people take a bit longer to learn it.  You may notice that she is quicker to return to you within a certain distance - once a bit further away, she is not so quick to respond.  Try to call her back before she reaches the "invisible line".  Practice recalls often during a walk - reward with food when she comes back and do not always put her back on the lead every time.  Start off doing it while she is still on the lead though until she has got the hang of the "game".
Incidentally, she may be due her first season soon.  That might make her more prone to wandering - keep her on a lead all the time during her season (for at least three - four weeks after you see blood).
Our first bitch used to take herself home regularly during walks, taking in the bowls of cat food in the back gardens of the houses along our road on the way.  I really don't recommend this as an option - she could have been killed had we lived on a busier road, as one of the first litter I bred was.  She took off and ended up on the railway line.  She was only twelve months old.

Hi Ness...the possiblity is there that this pup is one of the balckpool pet shop pups I suppose.We also have people up here in the North that are now breeding there DLR pups ...its not uncommon to find a litter for sale these days in the freeads unfortunately.
Like yours,my unreliable hound is bred directly from Norwegian hunting stock...his dad being a Norwegian import.My other 2 are from english lines primarily with a little yank thrown in for good measure :d and they are much better behaved.
Nikki

Your lad is from mostly bandhund lines on his sire's side, I think - he is my 'reliable' Spooky's cousin as Jerry and Tara were littermates.  At least, the kennel they were from breeds mostly bandhunds I believe, and another littermate became a bandhund champion.  "Go figure!" as my American friends might say.  Almost all of our dogs have carried mostly Norwegian lines within a few generations, but none have been as frighteningly unreliable off-lead as Raider except the first, Tara, and we didn't get her until she was four and a half months old.  He is Brainless' 'unreliable' bitch's half-brother - shall we blame the sire? :-)  No, I love him too much for that.  Your lad's great-grandmother was Raider's great-great-grandmother on his sire's side - HER great-grandfather was the grandsire of our naughty Tara.  Mind you, you can probably link any elkhound's pedigree if you go back far enough.
I had wondered if maybe there is no breeder as such.  You are right, most of the ones round here are not sourced direct from the breeder.  Depressing, isn't it?