My Mastiff is 10 months old and has just recently within the week began to wonder out of the yard, and when i call her, she will look at me then continue walking away...as if she were telling me "what, i am going to do whatever I want and you can't stop me" Is this part of the adolescence stage, has anyone experienced this before?
we had the same problem with our female years ago. She was the alpha in her litter and she like to be in charge. We ended up having to only let her out by herself and not with our mastiff male. We also put in an underground fence, but that did not work with her as she was able to realize that if she ran across it the fence would only shock her for a few feet then she would not come back. We did end up getting her a training collar, which has worked out great. We never even have to shock her just put the collar on and she knows to come back now when we call. Best of luck! They are amazing aminals!
Mastiffs tend to have a very stubborn nature. We've had really good luck with clicker training, and all of my dogs come instantly when I call them. It requires you to walk around with treats in your pocket and a clicker around your wrist at all times for a couple of weeks, but it's totally worth it. I am working on an article on the basics of clicker training and will post a link to it here as soon as it's complete.