Hi I have a 7mth old collie/springer puppy called Kelsy and she is lovely but we have a couple of problems which is geeting me a bit upset as I want Kelsy to be safe and healthy.
1.When I take her for her walks and leave her off lead she will not come back, she loves to play with other dogs and chase,and I love to see her playing but it ruins it when she will not come back, I very often have to ask others to grab her, she is not treat orientated at all and I have tried a toy tempter but to no avail. Would it be better if I didn`t leave her off at all and would she then use all her energy up.
2. the other problem is she doesn`t eat very much we have tried everything from changing her dried food to adding some wet food, she does eat it if there is wet food mixed in but then she has the runs. Even after all her exercise she doesn`t eat anything. She is very active and can run like the wind so surely she is hungry! She carries no extra weight and weighs in at 10.6kg you can feel her ribs. We don`t feed her any of our food at all.
Please could you advise on some way of helping Kelsy and us too.
Thank you Lynne Harper

You should be sure she has a good recall before you even think about letting her off lead. Use a lead first. Praise her when you call her and she comes back. Then go to a bigger, longer lead. I had my dog coming back to me on a thirty foot training lead before I trusted him off leash.

As for the other question, when was the last time she was really looked at by a vet?

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Originally Posted by Sariss

You should be sure she has a good recall before you even think about letting her off lead. Use a lead first. Praise her when you call her and she comes back. Then go to a bigger, longer lead. I had my dog coming back to me on a thirty foot training lead before I trusted him off leash.

As for the other question, when was the last time she was really looked at by a vet?

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Thanks Sariss will try that, and yes if she continues not to eat her food then I will be taking her to the vets, I have already asked them and they were not too worried, but I lost a puppy before Kelsy and you know what its like, you tend to over worry.
Thanks again

Kelsygirl

Definitely always better and safer that your dog have excellent recall before you allow her off a leash. You can get one those really long horseleads, and use that to start training her on her recall. What I do to practice, is at home I put my dog on her leash, and I say "Lady, Lady, LAdy" really excitedly and happy, and she gets excited and comes running over and I treat her. Try to not use the word "come" until you are fully certain that she knows what that words means. Try using "here" or "lets go" to start with. Get her really excited at the idea of coming to you when called.
I would not allow her off the leash in an open area until you know that no matter what is going on around her, she will come to you when called.

Dogs won't starve themselves, but if you don't think she is eating enugh, get the vet to check for a broken or chipped tooth. If she chews on sticks, she could also have a splinter, although you would notice a lot of excess drooling with that one.
If your vet isn't worried about her weight, then chances are she is a healthy dog. But you could always get a seccond opinion if you feel she too under weight.
If you want to try and put a LITTLE extra weight on, you could try a fattier trets, such as freeze dried liver or hearts. But becareful, any new food introduced should be done slowly to avoid the "runs".
Do you give a regualr treatment of de wormer and heart worm? And has she been spayed?

Thank you for that Aurora, I have decided now not to leave kelsy off the lead any more until she will actually come back as it is too stressful when she won't.

And I am hoping that I have had a bit of break through with her feeding today, she wouldn't eat anything this morning, but at 2pm I gave her food to her but had mixed some warm water with it so that it looked like gravy and she ate it all, so hears hoping that it's the start of something good.
Thank you for your help and advise.

Regards

Kelsygirl