At the risk of jinxing this very good behaviour I just have to brag about Oban's performance yesterday.  Perhaps this can also serve as an illustration of how well letting a puppy OFF lead from the earliest possible age has worked for us.  Rather surprisingly to me, since he is an independant and self confident little guy, Oban's recall is very, very good, knock on wood.  Yesterday a squirrel darted across his path, twice.  He was ahead of me, but I called and he was at my side in about two seconds the first time and even faster the second time.  You can imagine how thrilling it is for a five month old puppy to chase a squirrel.  Yet he left off and came straight to me as fast as his little legs would go.  I did increase the attraction to me by running the other way.  I was so pleased with him.  He got lots and lots of praise and hugs and extra treats.  What a GOOD BOY.  I think I'll keep him.  :)

Awww. Thats brilliant! Well done Oban and Jetstone Jewel.

Enjoy.  Just wait until he gets to be a teenager though!  :-)

great! my bitch had perfect recall until a baby squirrel crost her path and she turned suddenly into a real dog and killed it! i wouldnt have believed it if i hadnt seen it! now shes always hunting for them and if she sees one recall is forgotten

Well done, I know I can't do that with mine! Tilly once came out of the wood with a warm squirrel in her mouth, Zak detests crows & is gone at 90 miles per hr. However I did call them off a rabbit with myxomatosis, only because it wasn't going fast enough to give them the thrill of the chase!

That's a shame, beardy - they could have put the poor thing out of its misery.

Not if they're like my Remy - the only rabbits he can catch are the ones with myxi, and he just picks them up and runs around while they scream :-(

The really big test for Oban will be porcupines, which are starting to move around more now that winter is, gee, they say about half over.  :)  If he fails that test it won't be the porky that's doing the screaming.

Edited to add, the smiley is for the long winter.  Not for my dog getting mixed up with a porcupine.

Gee whiz, post about a porky, find a porky.  Poor thing, it was well good and dead and there were only parts of it but Oban got into it, high smell, quills and all.  He was happily tearing out mouthfuls of rotted skin and quills while we caught up on the snowshoes.  Yuck.  Thankfully, he relinquished his prize and did not get a mouthful of quills.  Lucky pup.

We are quite lucky that in the UK we don't have to contend with Skunks or Porcupines, and that most of the wildlife our dogs are likely to come into contact with are not likely to cause them too much harm.

W only have one venomous species of snake, and a dog is unlikely to die of it's bite unless small or frail.