It's just not like him, but in the last week he's started running away while we're out walking and disappearing for several minutes at a time. It's frightening the life out of me.
Our walks are all in the New Forest and off lead, although I put him back on lead briefly at some stage every walk, just because, and I also do a bit of training. When he's off lead I call him back to me every so often and give him a treat or a pat then tell him to "go play" again. His recall is normally very good, although summer evening walks near rabbit warrens can be a bit of a headache.
The walks are varied. Some of the places are quite open, others are woodland. William is used to ponies, cattle and donkeys and pays no attention. He sees deer quite often and is interested but doesn't chase or track. He's castrated and has never shown any interest in bitches. He says hello to other dogs that are nearby but doesn't run off to dogs in the distance. He's not interested in ponds, rivers or bogs (bless him
).
The only thing that's changed is having Louis, so I guess he must be the reason. Louis is also off lead most of the time and so far stays quite close to me. He likes to follow William or my friend's dog Ruby, but not if they're at a distance. Louis gets most of my attention on walks, making sure that he doesn't drown himself in a bog, run under a pony etc. plus doing some training. But William is still getting my attention too and I often call both of them to me and reward them.
William likes to run a lot and in wooded areas likes to chase squirrels. I'm used to him being out of my sight for about 30 seconds or so sometimes, then reappearing to check where I am. If I call him then he comes back to me. I quite often change direction when he checks in, just to keep him on his toes and not take it for granted that I'll walk where he wants to.
This new running off is sudden and seems entirely random. He just suddenly legs it at speed, not apparently following a scent. We're usually on familiar territory and he runs somewhere that has never interested him before. A few days ago it was under a holly hedge and barbed wire fence into an empty pasture field. Today it was into fenced off woodland along the perimeter of one of our walks.
Has anyone else had this with their older dog when a new puppy has been around? William doesn't much like Louis, but tolerates him. Maybe William is a bit bored? We had to stop doing agility a few months ago because of his back problem. We used to do 2 training sessions every week plus a few shows. Now we're doing 1 class a week aiming for our KC Good Citizenship Bronze, which is enjoyable, but doesn't require the same level of focus as agility did.
Any suggestions and advice will be welcome please.
