Today we had a near disaster with my 74 pound, solid muscle, bully breed dog Dakota. A man from the gas company came into our yard and headed for the back yard to mark gas lines so the phone company can take out and replace a pole in front of our house. My husband opened the back yard gate to go see what the guy was doing and Dakota pushed him aside and ran out the gate and into the front yard where the guy was. Dakota circled him at a distance of a few feet. Thank God, the guy wasn't afraid of dogs (too much) and could follow directions! The guy was facing Dakota and looking at his face and Dakota was getting ready to bark at him. I told the guy to face sideways from the dog, to stand still, and not to make eye contact with him. When the guy did, Dakota ignored him and ran out the driveway gate. He refused to come when I called even though he knew I wanted him to come. He ran down to the corner and into an unfenced yard where a dog was tied up. That horrified me because he is very dog aggressive! I have a severely damaged knee and am waiting for surgery and I am supposed to be in a wheelchair and NOT putting any weight on my knee. With the chance of Dakota attacking a dog or getting hit by a car, I had to walk on my left leg and I really tore up the knee a lot worse and will pay the price in pain for several days.
Dakota ran past the tied out dog and checked out several yards and then came back our way and checked yards in a different direction. My husband was after him but he won't come to my husband. I yelled out, "Do you want to eat?" and "Are you hungry?" and "Come and get your food!" He thought about it but running the neighborhood was more fun! My biggest nightmare has always been him getting loose! Usually the one thing that gets Dakota (or any of the dogs) to come running is to offer to feed them! I went in the house and got a can of cat food, which the dogs will nearly die for, and put it in a bowl and took it outside. Dakota had come back near our yard so I held out the bowl of cat food and said, "Do you want to eat? Are you hungry? Come and eat!" Luckily, he came running to eat the cat food and I put the leash on him and my husband closed the driveway gate. I think the man from the gas company was as relieved as I was! Thank God, Dakota didn't bite the gas man! (He is usually friendly to people.) Thank God, he didn't attack another dog!
And, thank God, he came back and we have him contained again! We definately need to work with him on coming when called! For those of you with dogs, do your dogs come back when you call them if they accidently get loose?
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Comments: 37
Most of my families dogs will come when called but sometimes they freak and think they don't want to get scolded so they will continue on their merry way. Usually it is my Mom's Schitzu that does this sort of thing as she is spoiled rotten.
Our dog does come when called, when trained her to do so right away when we got her.
BTW I would use caution feeding your dogs cat food, some ingredients in it can cause a dog to go blind.
So happy you got your fur baby back without incidents.
I understand how you feel. that is the worse when they run off like that. i'm glad Dakota didn't get into any trouble besides leaving the yard.
Sometimes Daisy does that, but she is a little deaf and does not always hear me. or that's her excuse.
I think having an animal that has to be so carefully monitored around people, and other animals, makes life exciting.
Imagine your excitement when he does act on that aggression.
Gosh, what a thrill.
(and if you can't tell, this comment is dripping with sarcasm)
next time.
glad we finally got him.
Lily hasn't gone out of the yard the couple of times she's gotten loose. Maggie will usually listen, but she has taken off on us before. She doesn't usually go far and will actually do a big circle and end up back at home. I'm more scared Maggie would get hit by a car.
Sasha never usually runs, if she does it is to the car or truck. Lol!
You've really taken so many admirable steps with him and it does sound like some of that work has truly paid off - the safety of the dogs he encountered prove that. However, it sounds as though both of you need to work with him on his recall even more. Since you've got surgery coming up, might be a good time for hubby to work with him. Get out those high value treats, happy voice and be consistent about working on it every day until you know that it has sunk into that handsome, blocky, hard head - ha ha! I tell Phoebe that I get to tell her she's bull headed since I am, too!
If your dog doesn't have a rock solid recall then there has to be some other absolute method for safely retrieving them - if you have one who will not return to you, then you have to make sure that they will "Stop!" "Down" and "Stay" so that you can walk to them and secure them. Sometimes we get so bull headed about making them return to us that we forget if we can guarantee that they will freeze in place, we can go and get them. So, if it comes to giving up on the recall, then you'll want to start working on the stop - down - stay, but it will have to be rock solid which means starting out in the house with no distractions and repeating it till you're both bored silly, then moving into the back yard and doing the same thing. Then it will be out into the big world where he will need to stop on a dime, drop to the ground and then stay there even if you have him on a long lead. If you are able to take him to the dog park, that will be the place to practice in the presence of major distractions and off lead. If you can't do the dog park, you might ask to visit the fenced yards of friends so that he gets outside of the familiar home yard.
Hmmm, wait right here for a minute . . . Dogmantics Dog Training TV Episode 2: Pitbulls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbK9ebuVXqw and there are other related videos listed on this page. However, this is the group of videos that I actually went out there to recommend - How to train your dog to: by Kikopup, start with this one or any of hers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2oeOUZ8kls and keep watching a bunch of her videos to get the feel of her style of training/her philosophy - it's really perfect for pit bulls because there is nothing to make them reactive. I think that's part of the problem when people are working with pitties, too many people actually think (and I'm not talking about you, Janet) they have to dominate their pitties to "show them who is boss" and that is a mistake. These babes live to please their masters and we're fools if we boss them around when they will gladly do what we want if we're smart enough to simply show them and not resort to force. There's many excellent positive reinforcement trainers who have books that I use and really appreciate, but this is great to be able to pass around videos, it's so nice to actually see the process step by step!
Thanks, Janet, for being such a responsible pittie parent and working so very hard with Dakota. He's really blessed to have a family who won't give up on him. I'll be praying for your knee surgery - try not to do anymore races on it till it's fixed, okay?
God bless & keep you and yours,
Shauna Russ
Phoebe Amanda PSD, my God-given Happy Pill!
Bekah Sue PSD retired: at the Bridge - always in my heart, until we are reunited!
When it comes to Pit Bulls . . . the beast is often the two-legged animal at the other end of the leash.
When you hear "PIT BULL", think ... Pleasing Intelligent Treasures ~ Beloved Unconditional Love & Loyalty - this puts you closer to the truth about these awesome dogs! By Toni Phillips of Mariah's Promise Animal Sanctuary http://www.mariahspromise.com/index.htm
http://shaunaru.bravehost.com/mygirl.html
http://www.dogster.com/dogs/401894
http://www.roverlution.org
http://server.inalbum.com/show/jodipreis/Message_to_the_Media2.html?296033009
http://www.animaltalknaturally.com/2007/01/20/shining-stars-in-the-war-on-anti-pet-laws/#more-243
http://www.bark-n-blog.com/
http://www.psychdog.org/
http://www.thebereancall.org/
No. My toy poodle sees another person and loses her mind. She starts off with the stubby tail wagging and then she takes off like a bolt of lightening. There is no stopping her then. I have to physically get her.
The Aussie is better than she use to be since she got lost last winter. She was lost for alittle over 24 hours and someone called the number on her tag. I went to get her and she was just a mile from home. She had found an abandoned house and planted herself on the front porch until I could come get and get her.
I think it scared her and now she's much better about not leaving the back yard. Of course it scared the heck outta me, too!
I didn't know dogs can/love to eat cat food.
I am glad the gas guy listened to you instead of being panic. I think I would have panicked!