Our 8 month old sheepie/next door neighbors
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| It is never, never too late for training! In fact, if you don't want Jules killed by a passing car as he dashes about, you MUST train him. Remember, it takes dogs a thousand successful repetitions to learn a command, don't expect immediate success.
Jules needs to learn there are specific times: play time, learning time, quiet time, etc. It's tough with a puppy as to them it's ALL play time. Keep after it, remember, a thousand successful repetitions. Go to an obedience class to learn the best way to work with Jules......also it helps both of you to focus on the tasks. Home has too many distractions. Take the kids if they can sit quietly and watch for an hour. They will learn too....and maybe you can use the same commands on them: sit, stay, come, leave it, clean your room, etc  |
| You must have been so scared and embarrassed at the same time!
A little card with "I'm so sorry that Jules ran into your Garden and kicked up such a mess. In addition to the trouble he caused, I am also very afraid that he will get hurt if he escapes out of the house without his leash. So you can see I will do my very best to see that this doesn't happen again." Or something similar. Even if it happens again, and it certainly might, maybe they will remember in the back of their heads that you try very hard not to let this happen. Sounds like you came up with a good idea on the spot to run away! That goes against instinct! When our guy got away and wasn't chasing something, if we asked him if he wanted to go for a ride, he'd come running. Some say go to the car door and open it and *IN* they jump. 8 months is definitely not too old to teach anything, especially "come!". It will take some patience of course, and there are many ways to do it... One way I recall reading about was a long rope for a leash. You issue the come command, and reel him in, praise "good come" (treat?). Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Every day. I'm sure people will come up with better answers for you. |
| I totally sympathize with you! Mopsey does the same thing, and though I neighbors don't mind, they have a HUGE old mastiff that i think will have her for lunch if she ever got in their yard while he is out! Anyway, I followed Kristen's and GrannieAnnie's suggestions to always have treats on me. I am planning on buying a little pouch, like the trainers have, and carry it around. If she runs off, all I have to do is "come" with a treat showing and she will bounce back to me. Its worth a try. Goodluck! |
| Thanks all! What a morning. After this all happened I was upstairs and heard Jules in the kitchen. She had eaten all the leftover bisquits that were on the counter from breakfast. She spent a time-out on her bed. Whew..We have a lot of work. I am going to look into training today. Thanks friends |
| We have had those days ourself. When ours were a bit younger, they would bound out of the house if we didn't close our screen door tight enough. If there were neighbors all the better. They would run up and greet and bounce around them. Most of our neighbors think were crazy anyway. They think why would we want a dog, much less one that big, much less 2 that big, much less one that you actually have to groom. LOL If only they really knew how many cats we had too.
Just know that us sheepie people understand. Most of us go through it or have at least a few times.  Give Jules a hug, Stormi and co. |
I agree with SheepieBoss - never too late for training and in this case it's a must! I've had a sheepie killed by a car after one of these incidents (he was only 10 months old!). 
Find a good training class (positive reinforcement only!  ) and enroll! You should also start to work on behaviors with her - be sure that you get her to sit before you open any door - and she can only go through the door/gate after you've been through and invited her! (they'll teach you this in class I would assume).
The other thing you need to do if you haven't already - get her spayed - they are more apt to "run" and she may come back from one of her jaunts a MOM - and I'm sure you don't need 8-12 puppies running around in a few months!
Good Luck! Kristen |
| Ahhh - I can sooo relate - see my post on "Miss-Understood", I was lamenting on the how crazy our neighbors think Chelsea is.
I thought you would all appreciate this one though, one of our neighbors came bounding out of his house this morning and was about to yell "hi" and then he saw Chelsea in the yard behind me, instead of speaking he just waved and hustled into his garage, she never saw him, so hence no barking and crazy butt wiggling - I guess it's happened.......... I HAVE TRAINED THE NEIGHBORS!! Ha Ha! Up. |
| So far so good on that one wiht Dancer and Sky (touch wood) However, Micaela was horrible for that! She used to take off all the time! If I got out fast enough all I had to do was open and close the car door a few times and yell car ride and she would bound out of nowhere and leap into the car. One time she took off and was picked up by bylaw officers and I had to rescue her out of the pound (50 dollars later). That was when she was about 6 years old. The we built a dog run, 10 feet by 8 feet and 8 feet tall with a chain link lid and concrete barrier along the bottom, because she would dig under a fence, or climb it, no matter how high, could escape her crate even with a padlock on it etc... definitely a houdini. The run was right off the back door, and had a gate, so even people had to go through the dog run and then out the gate to the yard. She had lots of training and was very very smart.... but she just loved to take off. LOL.. constant supervision and a doggie sitter were the only solution. She was in her glory when I took her for free runs along the beach everyday.... she was the fastest dog I have ever seen. |
| Willowsprite...Jules is very fast. I don't think she would run very far after hear near death scare from the fireworks. She just loves to run in circles and play chase. I am looking into a few classes for her. Our dream is to let her and our other dog Jenny run free on the beach, but it is not allowed here. They always have to be on a leash. I am still searching for that perfect "run free" space. I haven't found it yet. |
Weezie Drake does pretty much the same if he gets out and we have all learned to run away from Drake and he comes back. We are working on the come and all but Drake sometimes forgets himself exspecially if the kids are involved. One night I had to chase him down the road during a thunderstorm because Drake forgot all of his training because he loves to run in the rain. Talk about being frightened (me not Drake, he had a blast). As I walked back up to the house, soaking wet and out of breath, my family got great joy from the sight of the two drowned rats. Needless to say my whole family got put into the dog house that night. As everyone else said be persistant.  |
weezie wrote: Willowsprite...Jules is very fast. I don't think she would run very far after hear near death scare from the fireworks. She just loves to run in circles and play chase. I am looking into a few classes for her. Our dream is to let her and our other dog Jenny run free on the beach, but it is not allowed here. They always have to be on a leash. I am still searching for that perfect "run free" space. I haven't found it yet.
One of the things you could do on the beach is attach a long training lead (the rope kind) - they get more "room" to roam - I sometimes attach one to Sydney and if she gets too far - I step on it (only when she's no where near any roads, etc.). Is that against the rules? Are there any dog parks in your area? My dogs don't get much of an opportunity to run free either - but with Sydney being deaf - that could be a death sentence! Remember too - it only takes a minute for an accident. Even the best trained dog could take off if something happened to prompt them (a squirrel, something scared them, etc.). I learned the hard way!
Kristen |
| Since we do not have any dog parks in our town we have been taking Drake to a baseball field that is fenced in. Drake loves to run the bases with the kids.
I learned the hard way that accidents only take a minute when my Laso alpso got hit by a car when I was young. 
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| Thanks for the tips. I love the long rope idea for the beach. I will look into that. It is a beautiful thing seeing sheepies run free. Too bad in our urban worlds that it is dangerous for them. There is no dog park here either. The closest one is 20 miles. |
| You can get a horse training lead, there are lots of lengths, 20 feet and longer. |
| i have a 50 foot training lead for my dogs. works great if we're somewhere with a pond or a huge meadow!! pain to wad back up though...
you can also attach shorter leashes together to make a really long one, but it's more likely to catch on something. |
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