Something Strange Happened Tonight . . .

[WinGus]

Hubby and I thought it was a nice night to take the little one (5 months old) out for a walk before dinner, so when we got home from work, I started to prepare her dinner whilst hubby took Pepper down to the local oval for a run. The oval isn't far, about 100m from our house. I joined them a short time later, and saw hubby trying to restrain Pepper. Both of us had thought she was missing me so he let her run free. However, instead of running to me, she ran straight past me!!! Not having trained a reliable recall yet, we freaked out as she kept running out of the oval. She ran all the way home without stopping!!!

Thank goodness that we are on a fairly quiet street as she did have to cross the road to get back home.

This was really weird - it's never happened before. Was it because she was hungry? Was it because it was twilight and getting darker fast, but then we've been out on the oval before during twilight?! Was it because it was a deviation from her normal routine?!! Can anyone offer any explanations?!?

I think my heart is definitely weaker after tonights' episode!!! :shakehead:

[rugerfly]

sorry, not really funny but i can picture it. Better not let her go again

I'd say she was interested in something when you took her away from home, and she was fixated on it. Could have been dinner. She may also have had a fright. You wont know till you take her back to the park. Just see how she behaves.

[bridgie_cat]

very odd sounding...

off lead run before you got there?

why did he have to restrain her in the first place (or are you referring to her pulling on the lead?)

If she went down there happily (ie not trying to go home the whole time) and had a sudden desire to run home - me thinks either got frightened by something OR heard something/saw something that needed chasing behind you and then went all the way home...

if it was a FEAR reaction - that can be harder to train a recall on... - if it was a "OH - that looks like more fun than you - im gonna go chase it!" - then certainly this will/should stop with propper training...

[WinGus]

rugerfly, after the initial shock subsided, I did have a huge chuckle watching hubby chasing furkid up the street. Never saw him run so fast in my life!

bridgie_cat, yeah, she was pulling on the lead, wanting come back home apparently. There was nothing visually behind me, but I can't say the same aurally. Maybe she did get spooked by something. Normally she'll bark though, and she didn't.

Just weird! We're going to try it again tonight and see if we get the same reaction. Hopefully this time we can stop her from running all the way home!!!

[pie]

Kyzer did this once - the park is across the road from our house, he was going really well having a nice run and then all of a sudden took off at full speed straight across the road home - and straight to his water bowl!

Gave me a fright, luckily it is a quiet street and there were no cars but he is now not trusted off lead until he has a reliable recall and i also take water with me now.

Little buggers!

[JeffnCel]

Buffy ran off on us last night!!! How funny

OH was bringing the bins in and she got out the gate and took off ... so did OH thank goodness we live in an estate. The only problem is Buffy is predominantly black so he couldn't see that she hadn't run all that far ... she just ran and went under our car!! She's not 100% on recall yet, but she did come out eventually We're considering putting some high visability gear on her somewhere so we can see her in the dark

[frufru]

Perhaps she was keen to get her dinner.

[WinGus]

Well, we tried it again tonight, but I didn't start to prepare her dinner. Both of us went together with her to the park. She was fine when we got there, and enjoyed a good run around (on leash), but then started to pull on the lead and as we guessed, she wanted to run back home!! She pulled on lead all the way back home again!!!!! Thankfully we didn't let go of the leash this time so no heart failures!

Amypie, she didn't run to her water bowl, nor did she need to toilet (we have trained her to use puppy pads all the time), so maybe she did just want her food!! She's an eating machine!!!!!!

Sounds like this is common for puppies!!!

[rugerfly]

how weird

[oakway]

Hi Wingus,

You have actually trained your dog to do it with realizing it.

Dog are cleaver, and can be trained easily to respond to situations.

The dog wants to go home for it's tea. That's why it pulls on the way home.

You prepare the meal and as soon as you get home you feed the dog.

The dog is just one jump ahead of you.

No preparing of the meal before, and no tea till till an hour after getting home.

The dog may continue to do this for some time till it realises that no meal is

forthcoming.

So may people tell me that their dog knows when they are going out and they

can't understand how the dog knows this. It is so easy, you usually go through

a procedure before you go out = ie change clothes, shower, get keys, get bag.

Then leave. The dog knows what's happening only you don't realise.

The dog can be outside but his hearing tells him whats going on.

[WinGus]

Hi Wingus,

You have actually trained your dog to do it with realizing it.

Dog are cleaver, and can be trained easily to respond to situations.

The dog wants to go home for it's tea. That's why it pulls on the way home.

You prepare the meal and as soon as you get home you feed the dog.

The dog is just one jump ahead of you.

No preparing of the meal before, and no tea till till an hour after getting home.

The dog may continue to do this for some time till it realises that no meal is

forthcoming.

So may people tell me that their dog knows when they are going out and they

can't understand how the dog knows this. It is so easy, you usually go through

a procedure before you go out = ie change clothes, shower, get keys, get bag.

Then leave. The dog knows what's happening only you don't realise.

The dog can be outside but his hearing tells him whats going on.

Hi Oakway

Yeah, I had thought we may have been training her subconsciously! Our usual routine is to let her run in the backyard for a little while, come inside the house to calm down and then feed her. After mulling over this incident for a couple of days, I think that she is getting used to a routine and when we deviated from the routine, she just wanted to go back home to continue with the routine!!

You're right when you say they are clever things! I think Pepper is ALWAYS one step ahead of us without us knowing!!!

[JAG]

Many moons ago my toy poodle (6 months old) did a similar thing to me. We were happily walking at the far end of the school oval which was accross and down the road a bit from my house. No signs of him wanting to go anywhere and he was quite happy walking along side me so I let him off the lead. Big mistake.!!! He took one look at me and then bolted. It was like watching the tazzie devil in action accross the oval. I was young and fit but no way could I keep up with the little devil. I was panicking as I paid a lot of money for this little show dog and he was well on his way to becomming a pancake if I didn't catch him. I lost sight of him as he rounded the side of the school heading for the road. That's it I thought, squashed poodle for sure. I couldn't run at speed any longer so dropped back to a defeated jog. As I rounded the corner where he was last sighted I was greated by the little black ball of fluff sitting patiently waiting for me Little so and so!!!! I wanted to yell and scream at him but how could I??? I scooped him up, kissed him, thanked god and every other devine spirit in the universe and walked home. Needless to say he never went off lead after that. It wasn't until he was about 2 that I could trust him off lead at the oval. It still worries me today and I hardly ever let my kids run free.

Good luck with Pepper. The thing that did help us was obedience training. We only did 3 level but it was enough to give him some manners and a decent recall. Although that all goes out the window when something catches his beady little eyes. Gotta love those instantly deaf dogs when in chase mode...NOT!!