Letting a high-drive dog chase a squirrel near a road is just BEGGING for trouble. It wasn't the lack of leash that was the issue to me, it was allowing him to chase. If he's so high drive that he can't be called off from chasing a squirrel no matter how much training is done, then I agree he should be leashed at all times when he leaves a safely fenced area.
Dreeza, you should be more careful with him. If you want to walk him off-lead, please consider teaching him a good solid recall command before taking him in an unfenced area. The whole situation you described could've been averted if he had a recall and you said "Oakley, here" as soon as he started off after the squirrel.
RD, thanks for the logic of the rest of your post. I just wanted to specifically address this...I know its a long thread, but I wanted to make sure that people saw this much.
Oakley IS trained to recall from chasing!!! He is also trained NOT to chase unless it is OKAY. (And even when it is "okay" he STILL is not allowed to, and WILL NOT step into the road!!)
His recall off chasing is *extremely* reliable.
When he is given his "ok" command, he is free to roam/chase/play. I did not see the squirrel...the thing seriously came outta nowhere...and by the time I saw it, I had a split second to react...heck, I am pretty sure I said "COME" as Oakley was flying through the air, haha.
The situation of a squirrel coming out of nowhere *has* happened before...its not a huge deal, b/c normally I react immediately, and Oakley will stop w/in like 5 feet of where he started, and turn tail and come back to me. Normally Oakley 'stalks' the squirrels, which gives me plenty of time to tell him he isn't allowed to chase (which is the vast majority of the time, cause there are only certain places I allow him to chase)...
Labra...HAHAH...OAKLEY??? "naturally behaved?????" I am pretty sure anyone that has been keeping on with anything vaguely Oakley related can laugh along with that one. The dog was a friggin nightmare...thats why we had to pay huge bucks to get him PROFESSIONALLY trained. Our trainer personally described him as one of the most "stubborn brattiest" dogs he had ever worked with (and he has worked with 1000s upon 1000s of dogs)...course the trainer said b/c of that, he is one of the few dogs he would consider keeping if given the chance
Also Tankstar...did you even read what I wrote? What people? The people looking at me from outside their windows?? You think I give a crap what they think? gimme a break. Oakley mainly walks on the sidewalk, sometimes along the edge of people's property, but i mean, he does zero damage...we dont let him run all over people's yards.
Where he was walking FYI, is technically CITY property up until the person's fence...so once again. Stop assuming.
AMY...ever tried ignoring comments like that? If you think they are so "childish" then just get over it...why are you dwelling?