A man came by my campsite yesterday and asked if I had seen his dogs. That seemed timely, because a day earlier I had lost my own dog for about an hour. She was quite the little drama queen about it, but she has settled down now. I have decided that she will never be allowed off-leash again.
Anyway, the man got his two dogs back, safe and sound. We talked about getting a GPS tracker that talks to your smartphone. I think it would work fine but... he and I had an aversion to a monthly payment, especially if they try to automatically renew your subscription at the end of the year.
The subscription model. Everybody is adopting it on the internet. Or trying to. Personally I am getting better dropping out from anything that wants to charge me something on a monthly basis, forever. It is a real shame that they are scaring me off. Nothing is free and people deserve to be paid for their work. But I prefer to make one-time-only donations at my discretion.
So I don't know what to do. I love seeing a dog run off-leash. If I get in the habit of bribing her to return to me with food snacks, then the dog is imposing her "subscription model" on me. And she will get fat.
Comments
You can 'train' that QTÏ€ to come without a lot of food treats it just takes time.
Does she sit and stay? That is the first step. Get her to sit and stay when you walk away then come to you upon command. When she masters that she should be well on her way to running around off leash and will come back when you call or signal.
Repetition, repetition, repetition...
Or perhaps I don't know what I'm talking about and it is just the breed but I have been told that poodles are smart.
Erik bit me 4 times when we started the training process - talk about discouraged. I was seriously thinking about taking him back to Animal Control but knew that I would have to lie about why I was returning. If I told the truth they would have killed him.
It took me over 3 hours to get him in his harness the first time including getting bit once. The second time didn't take as long and I didn't get bit. He has also been one willful dog about walking on leash without pulling but after two years and many miles he is starting to come around - sometimes.
He was about 4 years old when I got him and probably had been abused. It has taken a lot of time and and a lot of repetition.
Being discouraged is probably the usual state of mind when trying to train a dog. Don't give up on her!