My Boxer wont come back on comand

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My 4 month old puppy Murphy loves being off his lead but wont come back if he sees another dog or person, he stays with you when nobody is around but takes off as soon as anyone else appears!
Please has anyone got any advise that would help?
 

gordsan

Super Boxer
I have a similar problem with Mason - if he is not ready to leave the park, he will stay just out of arms reach but not let me catch him. If I say 'sit' he will crouch down and start barking as if he wants me to chase him and play. Twice now it has taken me half an hour to catch him and it usually takes the assistance of someone else! He doens't have the 'bolt' instinct to run away - he always stays close, just not close enough - it's so frustrating!! I'm hoping it's just his teenage years kicking in and that we can work through it!!
 

Shefra

Boxer Buddy
We are concerned about the same thing - so much so that we haven't taken Quincy, our 5 month old boxer to an off leash area. Luckily we have friends that have 2 boxers of their own (ages 8 and 2) and have offered to take us out with them to an offleash area where Quincy can follow the bigger dogs (and hopefully come back on command). I guess it was a very effective way for them to teach the 2 years old. Not a situation that is available to everyone but might be a worth while experiment.

All I know is that Quincy doesn't even come in the house or yard if he thinks its going to result in something he's not interested in doing so the open field makes me very nervous. I'll let you know how this "play date" goes.

Good luck:)
 

krzy4myboxer

Boxer Pal
run away...

My Bravo is also very stubborn. If he knows he's not on a leash oh boy oh boy will he have me working out. He will run and run and run until he's tierd. We are in Germany and it's real cold and snowing here and one night he decides he wants to go out for a run. Well it was like 11p.m., cold and snowing. So he ran and ran forever. I got real lucky and this couple passed by with their dog so nosey Bravo had to go check him out. That's how I ended up getting him. But he runs forever. nonoicon
 

Claudia807

Completely Boxer Crazy
Originally posted by Annette Hallet
My 4 month old puppy Murphy loves being off his lead but wont come back if he sees another dog or person, he stays with you when nobody is around but takes off as soon as anyone else appears!
Please has anyone got any advise that would help?

In my opinion the recall command is the most important one you can teach your dog. It can take quite a while to teach it. The recall command must be rock solid before you can even dream of taking your dog off-leash. Four months of age is far too young to expect much from the little guy. Take him to some formal obedience classes and over time you will have opportunities to work on the recall. Be patient - it can take a long time!

Claudia
Green Acres Boxer Rescue of WI
 

Jan

Reasonable Moderator
Staff member
Try carrying yummy yummy treats that he would do anything for. Make a habit of calling him to you, giving him a treat and then letting him go off and play again. You have to make yourself more appealing than whatever is distracting him.
 

Tulsa-Dan

Your Friendly Moderator
The dog is too young to expect this from him. Especially without any serious training beforehand.

The FIRST thing that MUST be accomplished is to establish a reliable recall command from your dog. That means that when you call that dog and say "Murphy Come!" he comes to you EVERY TIME. It may be slowly at first, but it has to be extremely reliable before any off leash distraction work can be trained and you can expect the dog to understand and learn. Murphy is yet too young to be as reliable as he needs to be in order to work mjor, off leash distraction work. You'll need to step back some and take more time and work much more slowly and carefully.

Distraction training is difficult and takes lots and lots of patience and WORK !!! The goal is to have your dog so well trained in recall that no matter what he's doing, even in MID RUN AFTER SOMETHING, the dog will stop on a dime and come to you every time he's called. Sounds impossible, but in fact it can be done and dogs will learn and obey even with major distractions if the proper training and time is spent with the dog working these issues.

So, first, get the dog 100% or as close as you can at recall. Then post again and I'll give you further instructions on "working" distractions and you can beging training the dog WITH distractions, one at a time, slowly and carefully and within a few months, you will begin to be a lot more comfortable and secure knowing that your dog is reliable, even under a major distraction, and will always come to you when called, no matter what. But take it one step at a time and be patient. Rushing a dog before it is ready only serves to confuse the dog and the training then becomes much more difficult.

If the dog is totally reliable at recall, then the distraction work is MUCH easier and MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE and the dog is FAR MORE CONSISTENTLY RELIABLE.

Keep us posted on your progress.
 

Bella's Mum

Boxer Booster
I have the same problem with Bella who is a one years old. I put her on a long leash now when we go a walk as I do not trust her to come back to me. I am working on the recall command and am not going to let her off until I am 100% sure she will come back when called.

I tried the treat method which does work when there are no distractions, but when there is another dog round she will run after it. She was lucky that none of the dogs that she ran upto turned on her and it was also embarising for me having to run upto the other dog owners to try and get her back!

Best of luck and wish me luck too!
 

NgatiPorou

Boxer Pal
I also have a 1 year old boxer, she used to come on command but now shes a bit hesitant, especially when distractions are around. my query is will she still learn at this age or not? as I know when she was young she really learnt tricks fast, but now she doesn't really seem interested.
 
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