Attention new puppy owners! Let your puppy off the lead.

How are you training him not to pull?

When you are not toilet training in the garden have your puppy on a long line. Attach the long line to the harness. Reward the puppy for checking in.

Do not let your dog off lead until you have a rock solid recall.

Are you able to fence your property?

 

I’m training him by turning my back and ignoring him when he tries to pull me away in his own direction. Then he comes back I reward him then reward him for walking the direction we are supposed to be going in (when not pulling). Is that right?

Long lead is a good idea and yes we may be able to fence part of the garden off for him.

 

I think I understand what you are doing. And it sounds correct. Just one thing. When your puppy catches up to you after you have turned and walked in the other direction, make sure you reward him when he he right next to you. In doing so, the lead will be loose not taut and you are getting the dog to learn that when he does not pull and is next to you he gets a reward.

 

Thanks for the advice Michael!

 

I don't feel confident enough to let Willow off the lead as it's a housing estate and worried she will run onto the road.
I have a flexi lead that let's me train her to come to me and still have some control.
I have just found a field for hire at £10 an hour it's a 20 min car drive away so will be taking her there for a few sessions until I know she is responding well to recall.
None of the fields are secure locally and there are no puppy classes that are local.

 

I did a search on the web for dog fields to hire and found a secure field for £10 an hour.
There maybe one near to you, you put a postcode in and any registered near you will show up.
You can let them off in safe environment and see how they react.

 

Just an update! Managed to secure the garden and Reggie had his first off the lead experience last night.

He was amazing, stuck by my side the whole way and came back when called, normally on the first call as well!

 

Definitely wish I saw this when we first got Nora. She is 9 1/2 months now and I would love to let her off lead especially when I take her hiking and there aren't many people around.

Also we started taking her to daycare when she was good to go with her vaccinations and she was about 6 months old, and they are mostly off leash at the daycare all day. They always tell us how excellent her recall is and she always comes when called.

However with my wife and I it can be a hit or a miss. I'm guessing we would have to start really training in recall instead of just letting her run free?

 

I absolutly love having our pup (12 weeks) running free. She have a very good recall already, and we are training it every day.

BUT, she have started to eat poo. Not her own, but other dog's. It started a few days ago and now it seems like her entire walk is only about finding poo to eat.When she finds it, no recall in the world can stop her from eating it. It's realy ruining all the fun having her off the lead and I feel forced to have her on the lead as a way to at least have some control over the disgusting habit.

We have a vet visit planned next week and I will talk to them about it. But if anyone else here on the forum have any good insights on the problem, feel free to reply, as we both ( me and the pup ) would love to leave the lead in my pocket.

 

We have a chocolate Lab puppy 17 weeks old and we had her off lead form the very beginning and she was wonderful. Now she is ignoring us and picking on when she want to listen. She is very smart and learned to sit, lay down, ring the bell when needing to relieve herself and came when you whistled. She has learned stay as well. What has changed and is this only a phase?

 

The other part is she eats everything and when she does come on command, we are not able to distract successfully enough to get her to stop eating things she should not.

 

I worry about my 15 week old lab eating things he shouldn't when off lead, mainly plastic. It's bad enough when he is on the lead but left to his own devices he will find it, or something worse.
I have only been letting him off lead for the past few days so he was 15 weeks his first time. Fortunately I saw this thread about letting them off asap. I have been doing recall in the garden with him since we first had him at 8 weeks. Last Friday we took him to a big field with some cut up sausage and a whistle and he was great. I did it on my own with him on Saturday and he never left my side but i think it was because he knew i had sausage and not because he was nervous to move away. Every now and again he would sit down and i would go on ahead and as soon as i went to whistle he ran to me which is great but i think it was only because i had sausage! I worry what will happen when there are other dogs and people about and he is distracted.

 

We got are girl a few weeks ago but could only just start taking her out today as she had to had her vaccinations. We are very lucky and we live surrounded by fields in a small village. We have just got home. We headed for the nearest footpath and once safely on the footpath I took a big deep breath and took her lead off. She trotted along not going far from my side. If she did get a few feet away I called her and she came straight over and I gave her a little treat. It was absolutely amazing. I would never have dreamt of taking her off lead this soon if I hadn’t read this thread.

 

Captain is six months old, and there have been many times where i had a plan, knew what i was going to do to execute the plan, and still felt uneasy. I know there are so many things that can go wrong, and even more that i havent thought about. as i continued doing these activities i learned very quickly that they usually provide the best rewards for Captain as well as me. He becomes a better dog every time, and it really is noticeable. He becomes more obedient by the time we leave, and because i continue to proof the training until the next time, he strengthens his behaviors.

Keep taking deep breaths and working with your pup. It will have great benefits.

 

Dallas is off lead far more than on lead. He’s only on lead when we are in places that he absolutely has to be, such as at the campground we go camping at on the weekends. Or going for walks down our road (not an every day occurrence for him, just when I’ve been forced to crate him longer than normal and he needs extra “focused” exercise)... with the use of a whistle/clicker combination, it’s rare for him to ignore the recall signal. Just in typical Labrador fashion, he sometimes gets a little... distracted... and needs an added incentive. Our Husky is wonderful in assisting with this! Dallas wants everything Ashes gets, and will come running full tilt if he thinks Ashes may be getting an ear rub that belongs to him. (Though, he’s in the phase where chewing my hand is way more fun than getting the ear rub he stole from Ashes)

 

I am so glad that I read this thread as it gave me the confidence to let Dennis (12 weeks) off the lead when we took him on his third walk outside of the garden. He has total freedom in the garden with lots of space and so have been practicing sit, stay and recall with treats. Now need to progress to whistle training for outdoor recall - so am following the tip about sausage and will give it a go. Finding the right treats seems to be crucial!

 

Tala who is 7m choci lab was brilliant at staying close until she was 6m old. I use a whistle and one day as I walked onto field n carried on she plonked her bottom down n sat there! I used my whistle n stood there waving my arms chicken in hand and she looked around her spotted a loose Staffy coming onto field and ran towards it ! Luckily it was friendly since then I keep her on long lead practise whistle recall n reward and only let her off if its safe with no distractions or she would be off again until such time as she 'gets it' that I do not want her to run to others .... its frustrating but safer

 

But what if you live on a busy road? I have an 8 week old black lab. I'm terrified of him being hit

 

We also live on a busy road, so I drive my pup to a local field

 

So grateful for Pippa's advice to let them off lead at such an early age. One question - is there a reason not to use their name for recall? For example, could we say "Cooper come"? I've been whistling which seems logical (and has always worked for my older dog) but my partner can't whistle.. thanks for any advice!