Help And Advice Needed

hi i have a girl whippet she is 1 yr 10 mnth old i have had her since she was 14 weeks old she was a rescue given up by previous owners due to ilness she has always been really close to me and yes i have had a few days when she just wants to not listen but when ever i have taken her out off lead or to a show or racing she has had a great time then quite happily come back when called ... this is up until 5 days ago for some reason only known to her she has decided that when i leave her off she has her run about then when called will come and stand 5-7 paces away from me just out of reach and stares at me if i move forward she moves a few steps away i have tried taking her alone and with my other dogs and she is exactly the same its frustrating the life out of me and worrying me as last time we went out i took her to a local park not far from home and someone else walking their dog tried to (help) and catch her but she ran past and headed for the road it was only pure chance that my daughter was bringing my grandson to the park and she ran straight to him.. i know what ur thinking she just doesnt want to come back to me but i have had my 2 daughters take her in last few days and OH and she the same with them all we have even tried treats and thst dont work either she reminds me of a spoilt child as she looks at me over her shoulder as im calling her and then walks off again ... any help or advice would be great as it is spoiling our time out together and i wont be able to race her if i cant get her back :sweating:

i had a similar problem,

i found it was to do with the fact smokey knew the end of the walk was coming, so i started piriodically(sp) putting him back on the lead for no real reason through out the walk, usually just call them all over, put him on the lead and walk for 5mins and let him off again. try to do it at different points during the walk so hes not expecting it and somtimes only just touch his collar and not put him on just to keep him on his toes,

the other thing i would do, if he didnt come or stopped, waiting for me to go to him, i would turn and walk the other way, that way hes wasnt controlling me, im basically saying to him, "if you dont come to me, then im not coming to you" type of thing.

it took a few weeks but it worked, and still now i stop all three and just touch there collars or put them on the lead for 5mins, just to make sure they know. We walk where there are "blind corners" and horses are walked there, my 3 arnt livestock trained so its handy that if we do stumble accross a horse with only seconds to react, as they are all so used to me calling them back, i can get them on the lead pretty quick when its needed.

good luck, im sure others will have some more/better advise :luck: :luck:

as Katie says, calling her back to you and then letting her go again, often and always on walks should help, I was reflecting on just this with my pair yesterday, that our best, happiest walks where the girls are most responsive to me are the ones which involve free running sandwiched between periods of lead walking, we rarely do the same walk twice in a week, so they can never be quite sure where we are going next!

But it does mean that when we get to the final place for leads on for home, they are ready and willing and knackered!

Try to keep your little girl guessing where and when she is going

and if she does this agin, laying down or walking in the opposite direction have more benefit than chasing her will ever have

Good Luck

just to add

always take her out hungry

and has she had her first season? hormones can do funny things...

I chuckled when I read this as I know this scenario so well :thumbsup: Maia, my parti colour is prone to being a little moo, one occasion saw her racing across the golf course beside the woods that we had been walking in, always just out of grabbing distance, I even got in the car and started driving away hoping that might work but it didnt, my hubby managed to hide behind a tree and grab her, funny looking back but very worrying and frustrating... I now do as Katie says, put all 3 on the lead periodically throughout a walk, I also have high value treats (cut up sausage) and recall and treat constantly throughout the walk. I have also learnt that with Maia, if she is not on her food and doesnt want treats she stays on the lead for the whole walk since that is when she gets her 'funny' head on and wont listen, with her it is very much a case of reading her mood. I also always put Maia on the lead first after a walk before the other 2 so she doesnt get a chance to scarper LOL Maia is 20 months old now and the last naughty incident was about 2 months ago. Best of luck with your girlie :luck: :luck:

hi thanks for all advice just wanted to add she wont come back any time during the walk and always stays just that little distance off from grabbing also tried food and she turns her nose up if i walk other way she just walks off i have never had a dog do this with me before and its driving me scatty hubby says i was always scatty anyway i have decided that an extender lead is the next step and try from start like pups i do hope this will get sorted it worries me that she will have to spend rest of life on lead :unsure:

I have one out of my 9 that does this and it is fustrating , i remember sitting on a park bench for over a hour with her just sat at a distance just watching me (w00t) that was 4 years ago and though she doesnt do it as much these days , she still as the odd day that she will be stuborn and sit at a distance when where almost at the end of our walk , luckily she gives in quicker these days :teehee:

The flexi lead training is brilliant, as is taking her somewhere secure and un-known to her and then hiding from her ...... Reward when she comes looking for you by calling her and stroking her loads to reinforce the touching her when coming to you, as it sounds like she is just pushing her bounderies ....... The lying on the floor trick also works well as does the running away from a dog who isn't responding whilst waving your arms about and sounding all excited ..... though the latter is a sure fire way to get your dog to come back to you but you may find people start avoiding you thinking you are nuts lol .... (w00t) :luck:

ohhh this sounds all to familiar. I had the same problem with Lola and her daughter Truly and son David. Fortunately truly and david have grown out of this (must have lasted a couple of months) and walking away shouting excitedly always worked with treats when they eventually came near, i never got hold of them on the first treat but instead sat down and pretended to eat the treats. Curiosity always gets the better of them. i used to sit in the back garden where she was secure too and share the treats in the same way (even tho she never acted 'naughty' in the garden).

please persevere, dont get annoyed or frustrated. Keep a level head, advice given already is fantastic and well worth acting on.

good luck :luck:

Hi Hawky,

I completely agree with everything said already. But just to say, rest assured, it doesn't last forever - they all try it on at some stage, some worse than others! but given consistent, loving guidance (and walking them away from busy roads whilst they are in their rebellious phase) it should all come good in the end!

My lovely old bird Bella was particularly bad at getting to the park gates apres walkies, and then taking off for just one last chance at a squirrel - it made me look a real prat on numerous occasions, not to mention late to work! Now she is the one that I use as a school mistress for my youngsters in how to behave perfectly.

Big big praise or/and food when they do come to you, when they don't and you have to go and get them, completely ignore - hard as it is to do and straight on the lead. They seem to hate quiet hostility more than a good braying - besides which, it makes you look a little less mad in public than you need to!

Good luck with your naughty rebel.

i had to reply to this we've got the same problem with Dotty but only when she goes racing? Why I don't know :teehee: She's fine any other time as long as I have high value treats and her kong ball in fact she follows me off lead. When we go racing (or should I say trialling shes only just started) She is an absolute nightmare!! it took ages to catch her last time and it was soooo embarressing. Everything we usually use to catch her has no effect what so ever, So i can really sympathise with you these dogs really do like to make fools of us :clown: Lol

I had this problem with Taz (lurcher not whippet) at one point, he was infuriating, he never ran away but would stay just out of reach and not let me get the lead back on him.

As other have suggested I started calling him back every few minutes on walks, and rewarding with really high quality treats (liver cake) when he came back. I also did lots of work at home calling him to me and getting him to sit in front of me, then holding his collar before I rewarded him so he got used to the sit/hold collar/reward routine, and eventually this became second nature to him so he always came to me and sat down.

The other thing I did was teach him a targeting game at home where he had to touch my hand with his nose and was clicked and rewarded, once he'd got the hang of it I'd move my hand around so he had to duck or jump to touch it. He absolutely loved playing 'touch it' and holding my hand out and telling him to 'touch' was a sure way to get him back to me when recall didn't work. I used it sparingly though, so he didn't start to realise he'd been fooled!

The other thing you could try is teaching a distance 'down' so if your dog won't come to you you can get them to go down and you can go to them. It takes a bit of work but it's a really useful command to have. Once a dog has realised that they 'can' ignore recall, they will try it on, so teaching them something new and interesting and making a game of it with lots of rewards involved (but with the ultimate aim of letting you get hold of them when you want to) can often help.

Stating the obvious, but don't ever let her see you are annoyed or frustrated by her not coming back, when you do manage to get hold of her she is the best dog in the world and needs huge amounts of fuss and praise - even if you feel like strangling the little **** :lol:

I agree with everything said before, I wish I knew that a couple of months ago! My 12 month old boy recognised the end of a walk, we go on three or four different ones, he came back for a treat and then dodged my hand to hold his collar to put him on the lead! I walked away and he followed, then, then after a while when he was interested in something else I called him back and asked him to sit for a treat ( almonds) which I give him in my right had, while holding his collar in my left hand. Lots of praise and thank goodness he seems to have forgotten about it although I always leave an extra 20 mins spare time at the end of a walk in case I'm late for work! I think the secret is to make sure that they are all walked out, my secret weapon is my girl who is a bit older and comes like a shot for a treat! Good luck, hopefully you will crack it soon.

hi everyone thanks for all your advice some of it is pure genius and i will deffo try a few of the training ideas she is the type of dog that gets bored easily so this may suit her just right we went for a walk again tonight and on extender lead she still wasnt happy about having to come back but at least i felt peace of mind knowing she couldnt run off and get lost or hurt i will persivere with this and treats etc and hope and pray she grows out of it as in every other way i cant fault her and when we are at home she is like my shadow and follows me everywhere once again thanks its great to have somewhere to air my probs and know others have been through it too and there is an end to it :teehee: :thumbsup:

I've not much to add really to the advice offered above, but I did not notice that you mention her not coming close enough for you to "grab" her. If you are actually lunging at her trying to grab her the game of staying just out of reach becomes much more exciting and she is effectively being rewarded for it. Nonchalent disinterest is the way to go, you called, she didn't come back to where you wanted her to be, so she should get no reward at all ... and to a dog your reaching out to take hold of her collar or shouting at her is a reward ... weird things dogs

Something else you might like to try is talking very softly to her to call her to you when she is just those few feet away ... a lot of commands given loudly in quick succession can just become background noise to a dog who will then lose interest in you, where commands given in barely more than a whisper are unusual enough to make you definitely worth investigating, maybe giving you the chance to start the lead back on for 5 minutes before letting her off training.

Also you say that others walk her so it's important to make sure that everyone is giving her the same commands in the same way/taking the same patient approach to the problem, if training her is to work well.

Don't despair ... we've all seen that look in a whippet's eye the day they realise that you aren't actually fast enough to do anything about it if they don't come back when called :lol:

Good luck :luck:

thanks to everyone for your ideas and info i will be putting a lot of them to use i have a feeling before im finished lol

here is a pic of the madam with my grandson ( butter wouldnt melt hey )