Some dogs delight in nothing more than running away from you when it’s time to leave the park. Rather than chasing them, consider running in the opposite direction.
Dog picture from Shutterstock
This counter-intuitive tip comes to us courtesy of Kotaku editor Mark Serrels, whose parents bred dogs when he was a child. He shares it in a rather unusual context: a discussion of playing Dark Souls:
The first time I let one of my dogs off the leash it ended in literal tears. She wouldn’t respond to my calls, she kept running off. I chased her around the woods, begging and crying for the dog to come back to me. Zero response. Dead-eyed stares. Later that night I asked my Dad: ‘Why didn’t she come back?’ ‘How do you get a dog to come back?’ He told me something I’ll never forget. If you want a dog to come back, you don’t run towards it. You run away from it.
Not so helpful if your dog runs away out the front door, but definitely a possibility when you’re out for “walkies”.
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2 responses to “To Catch A Dog, Run Away From It”
When my dog used to bolt out the front door as a puppy, I would pretend to have fallen over and hurt myself – she’d come racing back to see if I was ok.
It only took a few weeks of dog ownership to work that one out – the last thing your dog wants is for you to disappear. A few games of hide and seek (outdoors or indoors) will reinforce that idea.