I have a 7 year old Doberman pinscher. inside the house she listens perfectly to my commands. outside is a different story, if we are in the fenced in yard she will still listen. as soon as we leave the yard she just wants to take off an run and I can never get her to stay close to me. what I am wondering is what would be a good way to train her to stay close to me when she is not on the leash? I enjoy the outdoors and I would like to take her with me when I go on hikes and stuff but I don't wanna have to have her on the leash all the time but I am afraid she might just take off. ive tried a few different things but nothing works, its like if she knows she has the freedom to run, she runs. in the yard I guess she knows she fenced in so she will listen and stay close to me. anybody got anything?

...get her one of those tracking collars hunters use on their dogs... ...usually dogs stick close to the one who loves them though...

Great question I have had 2 beautiful Dobermans in my lifetime and love to hike also, so here's what I did. I keep the leash on at first because their enthusiasm then take it off and let them run free if I call them and they did not listen I made them go back on the leash, eventually they realized that I wanted them to stay close and I rewarded them with field snacks. It took a little while but it worked great, they are super smart dogs and they train easily. Best wishes to you

At 7 years old, it's not impossible, but training will be difficult. It's almost like teaching a middle aged person the latest technology. Some will catch on quick. Some will probably never get it. Then some just need some time. Patience.

Have you tried Googling the dog trainer Caesar Milan I think his name is. The dog whisperer. I used to watch it all the time and mostly it's simple things that make the difference.
You should always walk out through the front door first with the dog on the leash behind you. This will let her know that even outside the home you are still the pack leader.
This is what I mean by simple things.
If outside and when you call her, when she does come back to you then praise her a lot, she will learn that coming back pleases her master and all dogs love to please their pack leader.
Good luck with her, I love dogs but they can be a headache outside and sometimes they spoil a nice walk. They don't know they're doing it and they just need to be shown.

Keep sausages in your pocket? Ain't no dog I know that would run away when you have these on you!

if I let her off the leash she wont necessarily run away, but she goes further than I would like her to. Dobermans are very smart dogs, I think theyre considered the 5th smartest breed in the world. I tried the whole go outside first and make her follow me out but that hasn't worked. I wanna take her camping with me this summer, I just don't want her wandering off into the woods. anything else she listens to me perfectly, this is the one thing I wasn't able to get through to her haha. I was just wondering if there is a specific exercise I can do with her to get her used to staying next to me and not wandering off. like I said I don't think she will run away completely but she goes further than I would like. seems like in her younger days she would go pretty far but the older she gets she doesn't stray as far but im afraid to just let her off the leash now and see what happens. last time she got off the leash when I called her she came right to me, but I don't trust that she will do that every time. im pretty confident she can still learn things at 7 years old, im just not sure how to go about training for this particular type of thing.