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

Help!

I've just seen this post and I think that we've left it a little late for the off-lead training! We have a 15 week old Lab, we have done little bits of recall training at home and taught her to sit, mouth manners etc but she wasn't allowed out until 12/13 weeks (2nd vacination) and we've only had her off the lead once in a big open green field which we have to drive to. We can now walk her to our local park which is about 5 mins away so she is always on her lead until we get there (too heavy to carry / busy roads etc) but it is also so busy in the park at the moment because of lockdown there are puppies / dogs / toddlers everywhere and she gets so excited and although we are working hard to help her to sit and not jump up it's just too exciting when strangers approach! I think if we took her when it was quieter she would come back but I'm worried that she'll run off and jump up at someone or we'll loose her.

Any tips much appreciated. We are going to try taking her early or late so that the park is much quieter to try tomorrow.

Thanks

 

Hi Shilyer, I have only just joined up and have a19 week old lab who I have not let off lead yet either ....wish I had found this forum earlier .
Elton ( back lab puppy) is a real jumper when he first meets people as he is so excited to see them . i am terrified he will jump up on child or really annoy other walkers ? Its now over a month since your last post ....did you have any success and if so have you got any suggestions??? So worried I have left it too late ..........

 

@SarahJJ & @Shilyer

Please don’t worry! Pippa’s post is about encouraging people to feel brave enough to let them off when they’re so tiny that it fills most people with dread. She wouldn’t have intended this as a: ‘oh well you’ve missed the boat, should’ve know better’ post!

We didn’t start working with our pup off lead until he was 5 months and then COVID hit and the advice was to not walk your dog off lead for a period of time. So we have only really been working consistently on his recall in a distracting environment I.e. not the garden, properly outside, for about 3 months. We’ve got a 8/10 recall most days unless he’s feeling particularly adolescent! We are not done but I am proud of our progress.

It’s hard work at any age to build a reliable recall and letting them off is nerve wracking at first. I’d suggest to work through carefully each step of a training recall method, build in difficulty and proximity, do it consistently (with the use of a long line if you can) and you will get there.

We found rewarding for Check Ins for building value in proximity really effective and there’s a Rattle Box Recall method with Absolute Dogs which has worked well for us too.

Management of the environment is really important when building and proofing recall, we walked off lead awfully early or in really unusual places so we could near guarantee other dogs wouldn’t be there in the early days. It’s only recently that we’ve felt confident to be a bit more social with our dog walking and even then we choose our location (remote or more social) based on how the dog is that day.

Finally, we have a back up, our boy is really motivated for a specific green ball. When we need to let another dog pass by us or walk through an area I’m concerned about, green ball and frisbee come out and we play fetch over that stretch of ground. If your dog has that same motivation for something, a tug toy, whatever, keep it special and have it out just for off lead walks and use it in ‘emergencies’.

Above all else, don’t fret, pick a method, make a plan, and start.