Before you and your dachshund can leave the park after a fun walk, you need to put him back on leash again. You wish you could just skip this part, because it always ends with you being super annoyed with the fact that your dachshund completely ignores you and your dachshund having the time of his life. There has to be another way to handle this, right?
Thankfully, there is! A lot of dachshund owners experience the struggle of their dachshund completely ignoring the command ‘come’ or ‘recall’. Not only does it wash away all the fun you had together during your walk, it can also result in very dangerous situations.
But WHY is your dachshund not listening to you? Here are a few reasons:
1. Dachshunds are stubborn. VERY stubborn. This means they need a lot of practice and a lot of treats to finally start listining to your commands. So next time you are in the park, show your dachshund you have lots of nice treats in your pockets. Before you unleash your dachshund, you give him some treats and act like he already did a great job coming to the park with you. Then, when he is off leash, reward him every time he even looks at you. So as soon as you make eye contact, you kneel down, and start praising him abundantly, feeding him treats as soon as he comes near you. This way he will see coming to you as a fun thing, and you will get to choose when to put him on leash again.
2. Your dachshund simply doesn’t know the command. Only thing you can do about that is to teach him the command.
3. Coming to you = Fun is over. When you want to leave the park, you need to put your dog on leash. Your dog will only associate this with the fun being over. So what I always do, is that I put my dog on leash, but then don’t leave the park right away. I first give her some treats, then we walk a bit more and after all that we can leave the park. This way she does not associate coming to me with leaving the park.
4. You chase your dachshund when he won’t come to you when you call him. We all know that dachshunds love to be chased, so they will only run away from you faster when you start chasing them. Instead, choose a place you want to stand, kneel down and start yelling his name and the command like you are the happiest person in the world. Why else would your dachshund listen? Coming to you needs to be associated with fun.
Try these things the next time you are in the park with your dachshund. Success is not guaranteed the first time (like always when working with animals), but if you keep on pracitising and never lose your enthousiasm, you should start noticing a positive difference in your doxie’s behavior in the park.
