I’ve got a Lab who’s very scent motivated. So much so that the moment he’s out of the backyard every other part of his brain shuts off and he’s just in Smellsville. He’s totally fine in the house and in the yard but the moment he’s out it’s a pain in the ass to get him back. And I honestly have no clue how I can keep him focused enough to train him outside our fence. It feels like every time I try we just end up reenforcing bad behavior because he’s pulling and no longer acknowledging me. I’ll even have the smelliest, tastiest treats on me and he doesn’t even care!

I think the main problem came in with how we didn’t walk him much as a puppy due to issues with neighborhood dogs trying to attack him (it happened 3 separate times) and because we had a big, fenced yard it just made more sense to run him there. But I wish we stuck with it more for the times we do want to walk him/when he gets out.

Aaaand then there’s my golden retriever who also got out one time (along with the lab) and came right back after I called him 1-2 times as soon as he got out. ~sigh~