Strangers calling your dog's name.

iguana

I walk my dogs everyday in a riverside meadow park near my house. It's a great park for dogs like mine, springers, as there are lots of bushes to explore, stagnant ponds to wallow in, muddy ditches to hop in and out of and a reasonably clean river to swim in, so they aren't smelly disgraces when we leave.;)

Yesterday the dogs were having a swim. Atm Toby just wants to play river fetch, while Dougal prefers bounding around the banks and swimming back to me. (Which is the opposite to how they liked things 6 months ago.) So while I was playing fetch with Toby I was watching Dougal splash around and at one stage he was getting a bit further off than I liked so I called him back. I just called out "Dougal" and gave a whistle and he started to head back to me. The next thing some people on the opposite bank started calling "Dougal, Dougal." Luckily as they did he was making a big splash into the water and didn't hear them.

A few weeks ago something similar happened. Dougal was running between me and my husband, who had detoured to bin a poo bag, and I called him back to me. He ran over to me and was trotting along with Toby, when someone on the otherside of the river started calling "Dougal." That time both Dougal and Toby heard and shot off to see who was calling.

It has me quite annoyed and a little bit worried. Either it's people play-acting, which is extremely irresponsible as who would call a random dog to them. Especially when they are across a river. Or it's someone trying to steal the dog. Luckily the dogs come back when I call them, but I'm not overjoyed about it and I guess this is a rant more than anything. Alternatively, I guess there could be an escaped parrot in the trees.

luckat

Train your dogs to a specific whistle of a couple of notes, and always reward them when they come.

And if others call them, run as fast as you can the opposite way, and your dogs *will* follow you.

iguana

luckat wrote: »

Train your dogs to a specific whistle of a couple of notes, and always reward them when they come.

And if others call them, run as fast as you can the opposite way, and your dogs *will* follow you.

My dogs respond in different ways to different whistle sounds. I have a whistle sound for each of their names, one to tell them come back to me and another for stop what you are doing but continue to play. Unfortunately my husband can't whistle so they also need to be used to voice commands.

Beth

Thats kind of worrying alright.

What about a dog whistle? Train them to come back to him and only him on the dog whistle. Randomers arent going to have a dog whistle in their pockets while out for the day (I hope!) or maybe train for a specific way of whistling with it such as 2 short bursts. Even if they had a dog whistle on them, they cant hear the specifics so couldnt copy

peasant

Mine are such little attention whores, all anyone needs to say is "Helloooo little doggy" and they're off

They DO come back when called though ...eventually.

giddybootz

a couple of months i was walking one of my boyfriends dogs (she is a cairn puppy) in our local park when some middle aged guy drinking dutch gold (not joking!) started calling her name after hearing me call her. luckily she was on a leash but when he called her she kept straining to get over...she is attention MAD!!! so he took that as a sign to come over and tell me all about his jail stint and drugs stash!:eek: i kept trying to get away from him but he would start calling his name like mad and ask all about her breed and how much she cost etc!!! i was so worried he was gonna punch me out and rob her!! in the end i had to just pick her up and pretend i saw people i knew and leg it!

i dont know why you would start calling a strangers dog to you..its so rude and irresponsible.

Keith186

I'd say they were just shouting the dogs name because it was Dougal. They probably thought it was a funny name for a dog. Wouldn't worry about it too much unless your in a rough area or there's known to be anti social behaviour where you go walking.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Keith186 wrote: »

I'd say they were just shouting the dogs name because it was Dougal. They probably thought it was a funny name for a dog.

I was thinking the very same thing, don't take offence OP its a lovely name but some people might find it funny .

But I guess that doesn't make it any less worrying.

SuzyS1972

peasant wrote: »

Mine are such little attention whores, all anyone needs to say is "Helloooo little doggy" and they're off

They DO come back when called though ...eventually.

know the feeling

MissyN

iguana wrote: »

My dogs respond in different ways to different whistle sounds. I have a whistle sound for each of their names, one to tell them come back to me and another for stop what you are doing but continue to play.

Oh my GOD !!! Do many people have these sorts of whistles other than farmers ??? Your dogs know different types of whistles ?? Thats fantastic. Did it take you long to train your dogs to know those whistles? Sometimes I say things to my dog and wish other people didn't know what I was saying so those whistles would be great for me. (So sorry for getting off the topic here )

Rory123

I feel extremely uncomfortable even just thinking that somebody would try this on you. Dogs are for everybody to enjoy at times but this is YOUR time with them.

Lets just say that if this was your kids, and not the dogs, playing in the park and someone was calling at them like that, they would have the police to answer to.

...(I know that children are far more important than dogs... yadda yadda yadda... before I get berated for comparing pet dogs to children)

iguana

The thing that bugs me the most is that I can't see whoever is calling him. There is a path on the opposite bank, but it is up a slope and the slope has trees and bushes growing along it. And they are calling him across the water. It's not a very wide river, about 10m, but I can't believe anybody would be so stupid as to encourage a dog they don't know across a river.

I think if it happens again I'll try getting a dog whistle and training them to respond to that. It's probably just some idiots messing, but you do hear of dogs being stolen and the owners ransomed. It's fairly common in London, last year the Met had to set up a special unit to deal with it, so it's best to be safe.:(

iguana

MissyN wrote: »

Oh my GOD !!! Do many people have these sorts of whistles other than farmers ??? Your dogs know different types of whistles ?? Thats fantastic. Did it take you long to train your dogs to know those whistles? Sometimes I say things to my dog and wish other people didn't know what I was saying so those whistles would be great for me. (So sorry for getting off the topic here )

It's just something I've done with them since they were young. I get sore throats fairly regularly, so it's handy for me not to have to rely on my voice all the time. Once they got to understand what the voice commands meant I just added a certain whistle every time I called them or gave a command. After a while I stopped calling and just whistled. They also respond to some hand signals and finger clicks. They aren't perfect though, they are each stubborn in their own way, and can go through phases of testing their boundaries. We moved house this year and they each tried at separate stages to see if all the old rules still applied in the new house.:rolleyes:

Calling them off a scent, or back from a cat or squirrel they want to chase is still pretty tough. You could offer each of them a steak to come back and I'm not sure they'd care.

MissyN

Rory123 wrote: »

...(I know that children are far more important than dogs... yadda yadda yadda... before I get berated for comparing pet dogs to children)

I make comparisons like that constantly only to get daggers from parents of children so I'm just glad other dog lovers do it too. These humans with their kids eh !