Question about trusting your dog to run free for exercise ...

[Canis-Lupess]

Hello

I found this information in one of my dog behaviour books and thought it might come in handy for you to use on your dog.

"Recall
This is probably one of the most difficult problems to overcome because, from the dog's point of view, not coming is more rewarding than coming. If the dog does not obey, the walk is extended, if he does obey, the walk is stopped and he is taken home. Ultimately, the responsibility of keeping the pack together should lie with the pack leader, and if the dog is ignoring the owner's command to return, the owner should look at his relationship with the dog in general.
Whenever An owner complains about his dog's failure to return when called, I usually ask how readily the dog responds in the house or garden. Generally he tells me that he has no trouble, but after he has been in my office for about ten minutes and I ask him to call the dog over to him, it usually takes three or four calls before the dog obeys. I am not suggesting that owners like this have told me a lie about the dog's readiness to respond at home, it is just that it has not created a problem and therefore they have no noticed.
At the end of the day, if the owner has to keep repeating the recall command to the dog in the confines of their own home, they can hardly expect the dog to obey them when they are out in the park with all the added distractions of different smells and other dogs. Obviously, they should first improve their recvall at hime and garden before the dog is allowed off the lead in wide open spaces.
Assuming this has been done, the first few sessions should be carried out in a fairly enclosed area, with the dog trailing a light line. One command only should be given, and if the dog does not emmediately respond, the line should be tugged, not as a correction, only to reinforce the command. It is a good idea to feed the dog only after it has had it's run and, if the dog id only fed once a day, changing to two or three smaller meals. with each portion following his exercise, will increase incentive to return. Failing this, taking a portion of his daily food ration to the park should to the trick.
Once the recall response has been improved, the owner should get into the habit of calling the dog three or four times during each walk. Praise the dog and give a tit-bit or play with a toy and then allow him to run off again. This will overcome the dog's idea that being called back is a prelude to going home."

This might also help you if your dog is particularly stubborn....from the same book.

" There is a method that has been proved to be successful in the past and its effectiveness is thanks to a ruissian scientist called Parlov. You may be aware of the research that he did into conditioned reflexes, but if not, one of the experiments that he conducted was on the dog's salivory rate. he proved that, by rining a bell and then blowing meat powder into the dog's mouth, he could quickly get the dog to salivate when he rang the bell on its own. What has this got to do with the recall?
Simply that a conditioned reflex is something that the dog has no control over; therefore if you teach your dog to salivate when it hears a certain sound, you are more than halfway towards curing your problem. If the dog is salivating, it will need to satisgy the physiological urge that has been triggered off. If you have any juicy tit-bits with you, it's a dumb dog that will run in the opposite direction.
Buy yourself a whistle - any whistle will do providing the dog has not heard that tone before. Whenever you want to, give your dog a tit-bit, and I would arrange that part of his daily food ration is given in the form of tit-bits so that they can be given about a dozen or so times a day. Prior to giving him one, blow the whistle, but do not say anything. Do the same when you feed him the remains of his food. If you continue this regime for a few days, you will notice that the whistle will produce the same results that Parlov achieved.
You can then start to blow the whistle when your dog is in the garden and you are in the house. By the time he comes through the door, he should be well and truly drooling. This unpredictable regime of whistle, salivate, tit-bit/daily food ration should be continued until the recall itself becomes a conditioned reflex. Once you stop the tit-bits, the salivation at the sound of the whistle will quickly extinguish."

[Giselle]

Greyt advice by all but I just wanted to add to the whole greyhound thing: most American greyhounds owners are vehemently against letting their dogs off-lead in unfenced areas. We've seen FAR too many cases of lost/hurt/killed dogs. Trust is a very deadly disease. When people say their greys have solid recalls, I invite them to let their dogs lure course, wait 5 seconds (since that it usually one's reaction time), and recall their dogs. I would eat my arm if the dog came back.

On that note, I would also like to add that many English greyhound owners routinely let their dogs off-lead. I assume it's a regional thing. And FWIW, I walk my other dog off lead. It's a matter of training, breed characteristics, and the environment itself.

[Canis-Lupess]

I'm in the UK and many greyhound owners here, mostly racing greyhound owners, don't let their dogs off lead for fear of them injuring themselves mainly but also because they are often really aggressive towards other dogs that might pass by with their owners.

My dad owns and races greyhounds although I have very little to do with it all. I don't like what happens to many of them once their racing careers are over.
I know he sometimes lets his off, mainly when he wants them to have a run and one person holds them and he walks off over the field and then he shouts them and the other person lets the dogs go. They always run straight to him and then he puts them back on lead again.
He'd only allow them to run free on a nice level flat field though or up a slope that doesn't have humps and potholes etc.... Anywhere with humps and bumps would be off limits for running around and he has to get them on lead if any other dogs come into view. He also keeps them on lead if the ground is too hard...say in the middle of summer when there has been no rain for a while and the ground is all hard and dry.

On occasion, he does take them to this really large flat beach. Race horses are trained there etc......it's a couple of miles from the sand dunes to the sea when the tide is out. He lets the dogs off there. I went with him on one occasion.

[borzoimom]

Its highly unusual for a sighthound to be aggressive towards other dogs- they will chase a small animal, but not aggression. However- I have heard many times that retired racers, having been around nothing BUT other greys, have a hard time accepting that a dog can look so different from them. Usually however- this is manifest in shyness not aggression.

[GreyhoundGirl]

Its highly unusual for a sighthound to be aggressive towards other dogs- they will chase a small animal, but not aggression. However- I have heard many times that retired racers, having been around nothing BUT other greys, have a hard time accepting that a dog can look so different from them. Usually however- this is manifest in shyness not aggression.

Ditto. Greyhounds are around other greys their whole lives, they are anything but dog aggresive.

[Alysser]

My dog is perfect offlead. She knows recall if anything, but she would NEVER leave my side outside. She doesn't chase other animals, she does have SOME interest in them if she sees them, but most of the time she doesn't. I always keep the leash on her no matter what of course. I once left her outside in the yard for 10 mins, in a stay postion. She stayed there for 9 minutes. I swear, I was watching her the entire time. She only got out of it to look in the door to see if I was coming.

This proves some dogs can be off lead, others like sighthounds, its not a good idea. I hope to get a rescue retired grey in the near future, or distant future and I already know he/she will never be offleash in an unfenced area.

Someone told me, when I e-mailed a greyhound rescue this question, that retractable leashes are not good for greys at all and if he/she started to run it would snap. Is this true?

And do they have long 30 foot nylon leashes?

[borzoimom]

The longest flexi/lead I have found, other than a check cord, is 26 feet.. Check cords can be alot longer but risk having legs tied up..

[shais_mom]

Someone told me, when I e-mailed a greyhound rescue this question, that retractable leashes are not good for greys at all and if he/she started to run it would snap. Is this true?

And do they have long 30 foot nylon leashes?

pretty much - I used a flexi on my greyhound but it was only 15 feet. I often said if I had one longer I would have to anchor myself b/c she'd knock me off my feet (no easy feat) since they top out at about 30 feet. That is why greys are not supposed to be tied out - they can top out their speed and break their necks. I did tie mine out on a tie out (15 feet) and she clotheslined herself once and from then on never tried it again - but what she DID do was run around and around and around - and unscrew the tie out from the ground! She did that once and started on her merry way but got caught by a tree stump! And there she stayed until I rescued her!