Runaway collie

Please help! I have five lovely Border Collie rescue bitches; the last two are a rescued breeding bitch and one of her last litter. The problem is when we are on walks the mum runs off with any small dog we pass and pesters the life out of it, as well as its owner. She won’t heed my recall at all.

I have had mobile calls from irate people as far as a mile away when I have considered it a safe distance to let her off lead with the others (one of which is her own puppy), but she will remember the last small dog we have passed and slips away.

I don’t want her to spend her last years on a lead, after the sad life she has led, and I don’t really want to spay as she recently had a very bad reaction to anesthetic when having some teeth out. I’m also not sure that it will make any difference.

This is really getting me down and it is spoiling the walks for all the other dogs. Obviously I can’t be cross when I do eventually recapture her, but it seems to me that she does not want to be with us at all, although she is very loving and waggy at home.

Any ideas?
Chris, by email

How do I get my deaf dog's attention?

I have a Springer Spaniel called Molly who is coming up to 12 years old. I've had her for nearly five years. Over the last few months I have noticed that she can no longer hear the doorbell or people entering the house. Due to other health issues, which she takes medication for, she is on a special diet to control her weight.

Because of this weight issue, I have been told by the nurse at the vet's to keep her active, which I have been able to do for the last five years. But unfortunately it is now getting harder to let her off to play with her ball and run around due to her losing her hearing. The vet agrees that her hearing has nearly gone, if not completely gone.

I am teaching her hand signals and she now knows how to come back, but the problem is getting her attention when she is looking away from me. I'm considering a vibrating collar to get her attention, so that I can give her a hand signal to come back when she turns to look at me. Because of the lack of proper exercise due to her deafness, she is slowly putting the weight back on. This worries me as she has hip and leg problems, so she can't afford to pile the pounds back on.

What also concerns me is that every collar I've seen with a remote vibration setting also has a shock setting. I am completely anti shock-collar and I need one with just the vibration. The only one I ve seen is totally out of my price range - does anyone else have other recommendations?

Molly hasn't had a very good seven years prior to me having her, and it's great that she has a new lease of life. But this deafness is now affecting her life.

Please, please can you help with some advice, as I also worry about Molly's safety.

Tracey Topham and Molly Moo, by email

I wonder whether the collars with both remote vibration setting and shock setting can be used on vibration only. Then you would not have to use the shock setting.

It is so sad when a dog goes deaf. When my dear Border Collie Nan began to lose her hearing, I found it really upsetting that she might think I was no longer talking to her. There are of course other ways of showing how we care for our canine friends, and for the dog it must simply seem that the world is going quieter until it is a silent place. They do not, I hope, appreciate that the noisy world is ongoing as a human going deaf would.

For any dog going deaf, their safety is of paramount importance. We all know how deaf a dog with normal hearing can be when in pursuit of a rabbit, for example, and may have no regard for a danger which is fast approaching. With Nan, she did train up to hand signals when I realised that her hearing was failing but, as you say, they only work when the dog happens to be looking in your direction. Eventually, I did have to resort to an extending lead – I really dislike these leads with their clonky handles, but they are invaluable in those instances where you cannot let your dog off the lead for whatever reason but they still need exercise.

Molly’s weight problem is my major concern. To my repertoire of questions for owners of overweight dogs, I have recently added “… and is that hour’s exercise on or off the lead?” This is because an owner proudly told me last week that his overweight dog went for two hour-long walks every day. I could not understand why the weight reduction diet was not working (unless the owner was not admitting to titbits and other food sources) until the owner let slip that all the exercise was on the lead. There is a world of difference in energy output between an hour’s exercise off the lead (which for an overweight dog is realistically no more than a trot) and a plod at your owner’s walking pace, if not lagging behind. I am also an advocate of short frequent walks during the day for older dogs rather than a single long walk.

This is where an extending lead could really help you because Molly can feel as if she has freedom to explore but she would have the security of being on a lead still, and you would know that she was safe.

Depending on Molly’s other health problems and the medication she needs for them, it should be possible to keep her at a healthy weight but it will need constant vigilance on your part. Use your vet practice’s weight clinic – the nurse is running it to help you keep Molly at her ideal body condition, by taking into account the limitations on exercise because of her deafness and orthopaedic problems. As you quite rightly say, with her hip and leg problems she does not need to be carrying more weight than necessary.

Alison Logan, vet

No happy returns

I hope somebody out there can help as I’m rapidly running out of ideas of ways to try and cure this problem. I have a 20 month old Staffordshire Terrier bitch who is a gentle little soul, but is extremely wilful and very intelligent. For the past few months she has got it into her head that she does not want to come back to us either during or at the end of walks. Generally this seems to be linked to the fact that she does not want her lead on, a behaviour which she also exhibits at home when she will often run off and / or hide behind the bamboo when it comes time to put her lead on to go for a walk. But we have tried taking her back to the car without a lead on where it is safe, and although she will come to the car, she won’t get in it and then walks off again.
A little bit of history might help here. She was a rescue but we have had her since she was 13 weeks old. She doesn’t really like being handled and I have always put this down to a lack of handling when she was very young. However, she is very dog focused and wants to go up to every dog she meets. When she was young we actively encouraged this since she was a Staffy and we wanted to make sure she was well socialised. But because she wouldn’t come back if she saw another dog we kept her on the lead until around 10 months old. From that time up until 12 months we let her walk off lead and her recall became reasonably good (although not perfect). It was, however improving. At 12 months she was diagnosed with luxating patella and spent the next 5 months either having no walks or limited lead walks as a result of 3 operations. At the end of this time we let her off again. This was exactly the same time that we acquired a 7 month old Springer as a companion for her. For the first week or so she would come back to us and was very good. But then she started avoiding us at the end of a walk, or worse, running off to explore on her own. Throughout a walk she will come up to us looking for treats, and although she doesn’t walk alongside us, will go where we tell her to and will come when called. But if she thinks the walk is ending or we want to put a lead on her, she hangs back around 5-10 yards away. It can take us up to 45 minutes to catch her, and often we can only do it with some other dog walker’s help (as she goes to play with their dog). Needless to say she is spending more and more time on the lead.
We’ve tried a whistle, different commands, favourite toys, and favourite treats reserved only for recall. We’ve practiced recall in the garden and on an 8m lead. We’ve tried taking her towards to the car and then continuing the walk. We’ve tried playing with her at the end of the walk. We’ve also tried giving her a favourite treat for getting back in the car. We’ve even got crafty and given her peanut butter as she always stops and licks her right leg when she has this, giving us time to get the lead on. But she gets wise to everything after 2-3 days (including the peanut butter trick) and so we’re back to square one.
I really don’t want to have to walk her on the lead all the time as she is generally very well behaved (we actually get a lot of positive comments about her), but it’s getting to the stage where that seems to be our only option. I would be grateful for any suggestions as to what we can try to overcome this problem.
Julia Livesey

Total recall

Please can anyone help us with a recall problem. We have a two-year-old spayed bitch, who is perfect in everything, apart from when she refuses to come back to you when off lead. It is not every time she does this, you can take her out for a few days, or a week, let her off and she comes back. Then the next time you let her off there is no way she will let you get close enough to her to get her lead on. It is as though it's a game, but then she knows she has done wrong, as when you do get her home she goes under the table.
We have tried coaxing her with titbits, squeaky toys, hiding from her, playing ball, ignoring her and walking onwards, but nothing seems to work. We have a long line which we have used, and that is not a problem, she goes to my husband and myself, as good as gold, and as I say it is not happening all the time, it's as though she knows she has us where she wants us.
The dangerous part is that if we go out of the park, we are next to the streets, and if you try to go to get her lead on she runs into the paths of cars. We have also tried sitting, waiting patiently. but have done that for almost two hours at times, until someone helps us get her. If it wasn't for the fact we live in a village, it would be dangerous.
We hope someone, or a few people can give us some help. or suggestions, or anything they think of that we may try to stop this dangerous thing of hers, as I said she is great in all other ways.
Stan Tennant


It sounds like your dog has started a bit of a habit. I think the behaviour will also be partly down to how much
pressure you put on her, in other words how much of a hurry you are in.
Always take her out for a walk with plenty of time to spare, you don't say what breed you have and correcting this problem does depend on breed as some are quicker thinkers than others. I'd start by allowing extra time to walk her. How ever much time you are walking her for try to increase this by an extra 20 minutes if you can. It is also really important to walk her somewhere different most of the time. This way a habit will be harder to form. On a good day you need to put her on and
off her lead several times, randomly throughout the walk. Always finish your walk in a different location, even if you park in the same place you can put her lead back on at random times and random places so you are entirely unpredictable.
If she does mess you about try not to get wound up, try to do some training with her instead and when she does return stroke her, touch her collar but let her go again and repeat a few times before placing her on the lead.
It's always a good idea to combine exercise with training so try to add this to your daily routine and make it part of her walk.
Amy Hatcher, Canine Behaviourist & Dog Obedience Trainer