[Beckysmom]

Okay, I am still having trouble finding moments when my dog is not either attached to me like a barnacle, or so involved with something interesting that I don't want to call him for fear he will not respond. Especially when we are outdoors. He will recall beautifully in the house, but what I really need is a solid recall offleash out of doors. I am looking for more ideas if any, and I had an idea myself, but thought I should run it by people and hear whether it is idiotic (probably it is--I have a gut feeling it may be idiotic) before I actually try it on him.

We made great progress on recall when I had a friend to help, but that is too rare. (I am single and live way out in the country, so as a practical matter I conduct my social life when in town, and relatively rarely do friends come out here.) And unfortunately I cannot borrow the neighbor kids to help as I could with my last puppy, because this guy is too big and strong.

So I am wondering if there a way to mimic the two person situation with only one person and here is what I thought of:

suppose I take a 50 foot long line attached to him at one end and with a way to attach it to a stationery object at the other end, say a stake in the ground and a bolt snap to hook the long line to the stake. Now, suppose I walk with the dog and go around a tree and then keep going so that the tree with the long line around it acts like another person applying restraint so he can't keep following. I head back to the place where the other end is attached and undo it. (presumably he is not smart enough to have already gone back around the tree the other way and gotten back to me). Then I give myself a little slack and start to run away from him while calling him to come, and then drop the line so that he can do so

Would it work? Or would the line get stuck and mess him up and give him an inadvertent leash correction right at the worst moment? Has anyone tried such a thing?

I don't suppose there are any other devices that would do this same thing? Something that I could release at a distance but that would not leave a trailing line to possibly be stepped on or to get caught on the tree or in the grass?

How about if I left the long line attached at my end and used those little plastic doodads that came with the Springer bike attachment and are meant to break with enuf force right up at a harness? That way the rope would not drag behind. Course, I would only get two shots at my recall and then would be out of little plastic doodads.

Oh hey, are there breakaway collars or harnesses for dogs where the part meant to breakaway can be reattached to use again and again? (and would have to be in very big size) A harness would be better than collar for this, because he is supposed to pull when on harness, not when on collar.

If there are not, I think some of us should get together and design such a thing!