We have a family pet dog (King Charles/Cocker mix spaniel). If I (or my wife) take her for a walk by ourselves she is fine off the lead – I can walk for miles across fields and she stays within easy reach and comes on call generally (unless she has a scent and she can take a bit more time but that’s spaniels).

However when we go out as a family (with our two 10 yr olds) she almost always goes running off and won’t return on call – yesterday she was missing for a good 10 minutes and we were traipsing across fields to find her. Once she has run off once on a walk she then seems to settle down and we can keep her off her lead but I am concerned that one day she’ll disappear and get to a road / enter a field with livestock and be in danger.

Anyone with any ideas?????

keep her on a lead.
go to some classes where she can learn recall

Is she called Fenton?

Perhaps she hates your kids?

get one of those 40m long strap leads, split family in two, 30m apart, practice calling her back and forth between the two groups. treats, lots of praise, happy voices, make it a game. Gradually get further apart and repeat. Once she’s got that then stand as a group and call her back when she runs off, repeat praise, treats etc.

Is she just a bit of a dick?

go to some classes where she can learn recall

But she does come on call – it’s just this mad 15 minutes she has when out with the kids.

Perhaps she hates your kids?

Understandable – they are going through a bit of a ‘phase’ right now 🙂

Amputate one of her legs so when she runs away she’ll go in a big circle and come back to where she started.

You probably know all this, but, all them dogs do this. Recall training, plain and simple, under varying circumstances. Including near kids who play fun games with her.

Our last dog, I also just kept on walking him near livestock (sheep) for a good long while – on lead. I also did a lot of recall training with him.

Eventually, he got bored with the livestock (rabbits, deer & squirrels were more interesting) to the point of showing no interest at all, and was responsive to recall when around them.

But she does come on call – it’s just this mad 15 minutes she has when out with the kids.

so she comes on call when she feels like it not when you want her to, which isnt helpful

Do as Perchy suggests and change her name to Boomerang!

so she comes on call when she feels like it not when you want her to, which isnt helpful

Basically this yes, which was the reason for the OP really.

The breed is certainly one which is harder to train to recall.
Whenever she comes back first time, reward with a high value treat. I suggest a small cube of cheese, but some dogs love the stinky fish based treats. They worked brilliantly for my dog:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fish-Super-Stars-Training-Treats/dp/B00SRGPHKW

unless she has a scent and she can take a bit more time but that’s spaniels

Actually that’s not a thing at all – in fact spaniels are probably one of the best dogs out there for recall. If you’ve trained them to come back to the whistle (which is the first thing you should teach your puppy) then they will/should come back immediately regardless of what they’re up to.

Get a proper whistle. Take the dog out with some treats in your pocket and call her back and immediately give a couple of short blows on the whistle – when she gets back [optionally get her to sit and then] give her a treat.
Repeat this a few times but stop calling (voice doesn’t travel as far as a whistle and can get lost in a busier environment) and just use the whistle.
She’ll get it pretty quickly.

The breed is certainly one which is harder to train to recall.

As a breeder I’d tend to disagree with this – but our experience is only with working cockers.

I was expecting a crap joke. Very disappointed.

Boomerang isn’t a good name – they’re renowned for not coming back 😁

Maybe she just doesn’t like you?

Boomerang isn’t a good name

Try ‘Varicella-Zoster’

Whenever she comes back first time, reward with a high value treat. I suggest a small cube of cheese, but some dogs love the stinky fish based treats. They worked brilliantly for my dog:

Yes we do this (either doggie treats or bits of cooked chicken/cheese etc). She is generally quite well trained and responds to commands. It’s just this crazy 15 minutes when out with the family that we can’t fix.

Try ‘Varicella-Zoster’

…or Fred

Although, you’d never be 100% sure it was the same dog each time.

Sounds like one of two extremes. Either “the family” is less interesting than running off, or she’s getting over stimulated.

Either make the family more interesting, or keep that start of the walk calmer and keep her concentrating and focused with some close work.

Mine used to come back when I whistled. She had good recall. Sometimes she didn’t though and sometimes she ran off out of earshot before I whistled. Then she could go missing for ages. Last time was a few months back (after she hadn’t done it for ages), I went home and about an hour later some people went past my house with her! Hey, thanks you’ve found me dawg! (She would’ve made her own way home in the end) (well, one time she waited outside Tesco Express for me (I hadn’t been to Tesco that day), another time someone took her to the vet and they scanned her chip).
Anyway she’s dead and I’m still sad, so think yourself lucky you have a dog.
😥

keep her on a lead.

^This. Why oh why do owners insist on minimal lead work? Dogs should be on leads until you’re in an environment where you’re able to distract the dog from running off (e.g. playing ball in wide-open space away from public paths). And if your dog just won’t be distracted from running off, train it or keep it on a lead at all times. As owners I think we feel dogs enjoy walks more if free from being on a lead, but dogs just like being outside full-stop. Free-roaming dogs cause so much grief to other public space users.

As someone who knows the mind of all dogs, you should be famous. Or something.

Is she just a bit of a dick?

She’s a dog, not a cat 😉

my old collie was ‘generally’ well trained. until he bit someone.

get them well trained or keep them on a lead.

Our King Charles was mad as a hatter off the lead around Thurstaston, several times she got into trouble trapping herself in the top of rabbit holes!

How does she smell ?

How does she smell ?

Like fox shit, i’d imagine

do the children go running off as well? our dog is abit hard to control when the kids are walking with us and goes running off after them. normally she is good at recall, certainly better than the children.

I feel your pain OP.

Ours is just ace when it comes to doing a walk she’s unfamiliar with – attentive, obedient, great recall even with distractions.

On familiar walks we know the ‘flash point’ areas where she might disappear so she goes back on the lead for that bit (we aren’t afraid of ‘lead work’ where necessary) but most of the time she’s fine. I don’t know if it’s a spring thing (as it appears to be so early this year!) but recently she’s disappeared on the last 3 walks in otherwise ‘safe’ areas.

I think as pointed out above, there’s so much more work to do 🙁

do the children go running off as well? our dog is abit hard to control when the kids are walking with us and goes running off after them.

No, they are generally with us walking on paths (I could understand if they were running off and she was going after them) and she’ll be sniffing around then suddenly she’ll be off. In yesterday’s case, she disappeared despite going on the same walk on Friday (just with my wife) when she was fine. It is difficult because we think we have got her to behave/recall (I was working with her lots on Saturday, even down to having her sit on pavement edges whilst we waited for cars to pass and had her off her lead for a good hour without issue) so we tried her off the lead again. I *know* she needs more training and we are doing just that with external help as well as our own training – I just came here to try to get some more advice.

I just came here to try to get some more advice.

Seriously, get a whistle – makes a big difference. Other than that, keep up the training…. she’ll get there.

+1 for sharkbait.
We trained our working cocker to a whistle with high value snacks (chicken/cheese).
I don’t whether or not a King Charles cross will be as amenable but I’d be surprised if they weren’t – spaniels are (generally :)) clever dogs.

Ours still pulls more than I would like on a lead so she isn’t perfect though…

Could it be you are interacting with the dog less when tge kids are with you so the dog finds other things to do? Also if this is the case the dog will be under less control so your recall is after the horse has bolted, whereby the dog is interested in something else not you.

Get the kids in on the recall training. Or get rid of them 🙂

Aa has it. Someone said to me once you have to imagine your spaniels on an elastic band. You need to keep interacting with it and making being around you fun. If you ignore it (they are dogs with quick minds that need stimulation) they will find something else to do ie the rubber band breaks and it runs off.

Often going for a one on one walk is easy, going for a walk with others where you’re chatting etc and not attending to the dog when it’s off the lead means it gets bored and finds something else to do. Easier to put it on the lead of you can’t give it your full attention.

Also by continuing to call it’s name when it’s run off can just reassure it that you’re there still there so the dog doesn’t need to worry about com8ng back.

Need to get the recall training sussed, with a whistle and get the dog back before it goes off/ out of sight.

^^^ Unfortunately I don’t think that’s it – prior to her running off I was giving her attention, letting her go a little way then calling her back and giving her treats to try to encourage/remind her that I had food for her.

Good point about shouting her name though – if she can hear us she’ll feel safe.

Someone said to me once you have to imagine your spaniels on an elastic band. You need to keep interacting with it and making being around you fun. If you ignore it (they are dogs with quick minds that need stimulation) they will find something else to do ie the rubber band breaks and it runs off.

This is pretty much exactly what I was going to say. Work the dog, get it to come back to you, even when you don’t need it to. Dog will not see this as a problem, it will regard it as being worked and will love you for it. Your dog isn’t running off, it is just going to find something more interesting than your family.

Your dog isn’t running off, it is just going to find something more interesting than your family.

But she doesn’t run off when she is being walked alone and she gets no more interaction, in fact probably the opposite.