My six month old female Jack Russel has frequently started to run off after scents on walks.

by Rebecca
(Wales, UK)

I was wondering if anyone could please help advise me on where I'm going wrong? We have a six month old Jack Russell bitch Lilly who is perfectly house trained and is usually excellent at recall in different situations, but over the past week or so she has started to frequently run off on walks to follow a scent.

We exercise her well with a free run over the mountain in the morning and a long lead walk in the evening, we play with her throughout the day rotating the toys she has and keeping 'special toys' in our possession. I put her food down at different times of the day so it's not always there as I read keeping control of food also helps. We practice recall with her everyday with treats and bonus treats and have also just completed puppy training. We do our very best to socialize her and she's excellent with other dogs and children. But when she seems to pick up a scent all training goes out the window!

If anyone could please help advise me on where I'm going wrong I'd be so grateful. I'm just so worried now that one day she'll run off and onto a road, and I really don't want to stop her free runs as she enjoys them so much.