Teenage...

... has hit our Lucky :o). Very hard :o)

When walking in forests at weekends, I have looked for opportunities to hide from him - so he would know it's his problem not to get lost. And it has worked very well - he really is concerned if he thinks he has lost me. Well - was. Now the company of his hormones seems to be quite enough for him :o).

On weekend he found a track of deer and went to trace it. He seemed so excited by what he was doing, that I was afraid he would go too far before he would even notice he had lost us. So instead of hiding, I tried every way to get him coming back. The best arguments (like steady-ready- Rocco let's escape :o) or calling his friend kitty), that always work, just got him bark, but not return. Well, finally of course he did return. But considering that about a month ago we saw a deer in about 50 m distance and he didn't go after it, this was not a nice surprise.

Similar case was on monday evening, when we went for a walk to our beach and as Kelli was with us, ended up on childrens play ground. There's a lot of different attractions and usually I'll be somewhere near and train some tricks with dogs. But as there wasn't anybody else then us, we joined Kelli. Climbing and sliding on chute was fun, but next to that, there's so many opportunities to use the attractions for dog training too. Like sandbox border as agility dog walk and with the help of clicker Lucky learned climbing on stepladder. He was cooperating so well, but then a dog appeared and gone he was. And only way to get him coming back was to catch him. So in future, he can enjoy only very limited freedom.

And I would very much appreciate, if you would tell me your suggestions how to get his attention back.