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try using a 10m training lead, it can be dragged along by the dog but is much easier to grab than a jumping hound. they can be useful to help keep a dog a little closer to you, you can give commands like "easy" and apply gentle pressure to the line when they are getting too far away, and train a "stop"command where you actually put your foot down and get them to stop
then when you want to go home swap to a normal length lead.
dancing james-
I might try that....I've seen a pal of mine using one for his lab. It's so frustrating though...up until yesterday, he was perfect (apart from hanging off Lola's tail when she chased her ball!). He would stay close and I would regularly recall him and he would come back, I'd stroke and praise him, then he'd jog off again, to join the others. I've had a few dogs over the years, including a boxer, and have never had an issue getting them to do the basics....I don't want a show dog, I just need them to come back when I call them, pretty much. I hate having to have a dog on a lead when he doesn't have to be....ill take one of the kids with me next time, in the hope that I break his memory of yesterday's incident....we just might be able to get him back to where he was!
stedlocks
My new addition, Chester, caused me major panic yesterday....
I'm lucky, as I have loads on fields and woodland literally on my doorstep for walkies, but we have to cross one busy road and go through a hole in the hedge surrounding the rugby club. Normally, I get them to sit until the road is clear, then we enter the field and I can let the three of them off the lead and they can run around to their heart's content.
Mr Riley and Lola are very good when it is time to go back on the lead and head home, and up until yesterday, so was Chester, but he was reluctant this time.....the bugger kept bouncing around, just out of arms length, and had clearly not had enough walkies! I didn't know what to do, and was in the middle of calling my son to come and help round him up, when he decided that he knew the way home, and made a dash for the gap in the fence at full speed.....I literally put my hands over my ears and squeezed my eyes shut, as I didn't want to hear him getting run over.....nothing happened, so I looked through the gap after tying the other two up to a post, and he was sitting on the kerb, with cars whizzing by, looking at me.....to cut an even longer story shorter, I pretended to feed the other two food, and caught the little git.
So it looks like separate walks, with Chester on a retractable lead for the foreseeable......I hate having to keep them on when they don't have to be.