Can a lurcher be trained to go off the lead and return? A friends wants to play with her other dog but she is scared to allow offlead. Opinions please.

Hi, how old is your friends dog? I have an 8 month old Pharaoh Hound, Ive had him from about 7 weeks old and from the start I've brainwashed him (well bribed him with food :D) come back and not to chase things that move. His recall is very good and although we have had a few close encounters with deer he was very good and resisted the urge to chase and came back when i called him. A lot of people told me that it couldn't be done but with bribery and hard work it seems (touch wood) to have paid off. I'm no expert on training sighthounds to recall, or sighthounds for that matter!!! What I did first was in the house put the lead on and make the dog sit and then said "Marley come" and pulled the lead (not too hard) towards me so he got used to the command. Then when he was old enought to go out took treats and just kept calling him back making him sit for the treat, just generally making a big deal about him getting the treat and making it more interesting to him than the pile of manure he was about to eat or the squirrel that just ran across his path. Also you need to be very vigilant about what is up ahead if you see something that might be worth chasing call him back and make him sit and feed treats until its gone, I'm finding now that if there is a jogger/cyclist/horses he actually comes back to me automatically now for his treat.

Hope this helps your friend a bit as I say I'm definately no expert but I think it can be done if you put enough time and effort in to it and its well worth it just to see them all play together :).

Clair
xxx

er...of course they can, how else do you think people work their lurchers!

arrrrrrr, sam, thats what i was going to say!

Yes, lurchers can and should all be trained (as should any dog) to recall.

My has a very good recall, considering he is doing the teenager thing at the moment! He has been trained from the age of 6 weeks that the recall command means food, and being a greedy pig, that takes priority over everything else!

I know people who work lurchers, sometimes two at a time, and dont use leads when working them, they can recall each dog seperately, down them, stay them, whilst the other is after a rabbit or hare! so it CAN and should be done!

Keeping a dog on a lead permanently, is in my opinion both cruel, and never ever going to teach it to recall, in fact its more likely to teach it NOT too!

Em