I have a 9 month old Spanish Mastin, when I let off leash on the local park comes back to me but does not come close enough for me to put his leash back on HELP!
First off, I'd advise not to let your dog off leash in public until he comes back when you call him. To get to this point, you'll need to work with him at home as much as you can - every day. Keep his lead on at home, but let him wander around with it dragging behind. Call his name, use the command "come" and entice him to return (you can use food, excited voice, a toy, crouching down and clapping your hands, etc). Get him to the point that he will return every time before you start taking the lead off at home. Keeping the lead attached helps give you an extended "arm" to potentially get ahold of to tug a bit and let him know he should be coming back. DON'T drag him back to you - it needs to be a pleasant experience that he gets rewarded for, not something he's forced into.
Keep working like this at home and at friends houses or places like that, and only when your dog is 100% on coming back, THEN you can reliably and safely let him off lead in public.
