The recall command and training is not going well. Long rope, short rope, it doesn’t matter – maybe someone trained him before with this type of technique. When he is on a rope, he will not wander or play ball etc – he seems to know there is a limitation to the length of play area and only hangs around me.
Alas, whether there are other distractions or not, the come command doesn’t work well, unless he wants it to! Thanks, G. Dear G.: Okay, I’m confused. You state that, “The come command doesn’t work, unless he wants it to.” This leads me to believe that dog is not wearing the long line, otherwise you would be in a position to make him come. Which means that you’ve taught your dog to be “leash-smart” or aware that he is wearing the leash, or long line.
The other issue–that your dog doesn’t want to play or leave your side when the lone line is on–is directly related. Here’s the solution to your problem: As I mentioned in the book, you need to have the long line on the dog WHENEVER he is outside& until he proves that he is 100% conditioned. It might take a couple of weeks before he starts to forget that he’s trailing the long line.
For adult dogs like this, I like to let them play with another dog. And be sure not to call him to you, every time he wanders off.Let him feel that he’s free and let him learn to forget that the lone line is on.