My neighbour has asked me to post a topic. She has a 1 year old bitch boxer who is excellent around the house. However after initially behaving off the lead on walks now, as soon as let off, runs off from the owner. We live by some fields and the boxer runs through one field into another and will not come when called. She also jumps up children who are playing. My neighbour is very concerned and as soon as they retrieve her they put her on the lead for the rest of the walk - but they do not know what else to do. I would appreciate some help for her. Many thanks.

Linda.

Hi - If she were mine I would keep her on a long rope so she could still have a run and work on the recall , at the moment running off and jumping up is more exciting to her than staying with the owners . Also getting her obsessed with one toy ( my lads is a squeaky bone ) which only comes out on walks is a good idea .try keeping her on the rope and keep calling her back and then letting her go again -at the moment she knows that when she does come back -thats it , back on the lead so she ain't comin back till she's had her fun .
but seriously she could hurt someone by jumping and children get scared and run and squeak -so it needs to be stopped
HTH
Liz :)

Sounds like 'typical' Boxer behaviour ;)
But it can be solved with consistent approach and re-training.
Although what have they done if she does come back (recall)?
As with some people the temptation is to smack or give the dog a good telling off.
When that's completely the wrong thing to do.
One of my Boxers is brilliant at recall, the younger one does tend to get distracted
and if she's spotted another dog, she'd rather go off and investigate/make friends.
Yes Boxers are artmasters at selective deafness :D
However I am working on that by always treating/rewarding her recalls with titbits/biscuits.
She's cottoning on fast :) However Boxers can be stubborn so perserverance is the key.
The thing is that maybe they should take her back to basics again and start retraining her
to recall as if she's never had any training before, so just doing recalls in their garden and
when outside in parks walking her on the lead until slowly they can work with bringing distractions
into the recall game in the garden and slowly building on this until they can recall outside their
home garden environment on long lead and then off lead, using treats/favourite toy as reward
for correct behaviour.
It also might not hurt for them to teach the down command, and if they can get her to down on
command even when off lead and a distance from them, it might be useful for them to stop her jumping up at children
when they are playing.
If they can it's never too late to start her on obedience lessons at group classes and she may
learn that her owner is far more interesting :)
Its always a good idea with a Boxer to take it to obedience/training lessons as soon as they are old enough
They aren't stupid, but do take a lot of patience to train :D

To Boxercrazy!!
I couldn't agree with you more! Especially "the selective deafness!!" I thought it was just my boys, glad to know that i am not alone!!