Not Listening

[webbdogs]

For medical reasons I haven't had a very active summer with my dogs. Today I took them to the park and they took off! I wasn't too upset because I do understand that they have a lot of pent up energy. When I finally retrieved them I made them lay by me until I was ready to go. Does anyone have any suggestions how I might stop this from happening in the future. BTW-feeling much better now.

[Bailey_]

Sorry to hear about your health concerns webdogs.

But like you mentioned, it's not really surprising that your pups did not listen to you on their first time back at the park.

I personally wouldn't let them off-leash again until you are able to walk them on-leash and gain back some of that focus and respect.

In the meantime, you might want to see about getting a dog walker or putting your dogs a day or two a week in daycare, just to give them STRUCTURED off-leash play time. The dog park is great, but should IMO only be used as a reward. Too many people use it as an 'excercise regime' for their dogs, which is fine IF the dogs are already well excercised and obedient.

[tenderfoot]

The problem is you have to get them paying attention to you and not feeding off each others energy. They need practice listening to you before each other and then around distractions like other dogs and squirrels. Practice their 'come' drills seperately, and on leash to start. Then move towards long leads and then a fenced area. This takes practice and patience, but you have to start with an emergency brake which is the leash.