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

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

I agree 100% with Pippa.

But, we had no choice with Gypsy. She is a Guide Dog puppy, which means I have to go by their rules.

They are allowed off lead two weeks after their third vaccination.
With new puppy walkers you have to go with your supervisor for the first one.
So Gypsy was nineteen weeks before being off lead anywhere except the garden and house, and at training classes.

We did recall training from the garden and different rooms in the house - we always whistle feed her too.

So, yesterday was my first free run with her on my own ever! In the woods.

She was wonderful! Never went more than ten metres away, watched me like a hawk and recalled as per Guide Dogs (They must sit in front, touch with nose, then we must get their collar then treat - we must do it with our eyes closed so that they get used to us feeling for their heads).

It worked!

GDs reasoning has mostly to do with their fear of Parvo - they lost quite a few to it in the past. I asked about recall and my supervisor said it goes well if a strong bond is built up between pup and puppy walker and they have done plenty of practice at home and in class - whether the dog has been let off before or not. She was right!

Now I am not allowed to let her greet any dogs out and about for two weeks (she meets, trains and plays with plenty of Guide Dogs and pups, and she has Tatze at home, so she's not deprived of dog company) until her recall is really sound in all different places. She can't go for free runs with Tatze for three weeks as she can't learn to rely on her, she has to learn to be safe on her own first.

Anyway - she LOVED her run and so did I! It was very special after all that time. She was overjoyed, and revelled in all the new smells and sights. It's wonderful to see her discovering the world outside shopping centres and buildings for the first time! We are off to the reservoir today ;D ;D ;D

Here is a photo from yesterday.

 

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

She is just too beautiful!

Very interesting too re: GD training. In hindsight I think it would've helped enormously if we had worked more on the recall at home, garden etc...The pressure we felt to socialise meant that he was allowed to meet lots of dogs/people quite early on, and he feels that is OK, now we have introduced more rules, ie when on lead no meeting dogs, and going back to basics on the recall, he needs proofing again with other dogs off lead. I wonder if more "controlled" socialising when he was younger, would have helped.

 

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

I don't know if it's simply about the temperament of the dog or the more controlled training.

Gypsy was carried in public far longer than a pet dog would be, so she did lots of meeting people, just in arms more than on the ground. Now, of course, she has to learn to ignore people (and everything else!) completely when on lead.

But Gypsy has been much easier than Tatze on recall, 'tho Tatze has always been fine, it took much more gradual training. Since the whistle feeding has returned to our house Tatze has started being much sharper in her recall. I'm not sure why we stopped using the whistle at meal times, it's back for good now!

 

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

I started doing the clicker recall with our puppy in the house while we were waiting for his injections, as soon as he was able to go out we took him to an area where it was safe to let him off his lead with no other distractions around. My heart was in my mouth but all my training paid off. He is now 15 weeks old and fantastic off his lead. He walks by our side. He constantly looks to us for reassurance. If he stops to sniff we carry on walking and he catches us up. We put his lead back on if near a road or when we see some other dogs as we don't know how they will react. But always let him interact with other dogs as well. Best thing we ever did. Lots of praise and rewards works really well too.

 

My puppy doesn't mind being on the leash so I don't think I need to teach him recall.

 

Are you never going to let him off the lead to run around and stretch his legs? That would be very sad! Dogs don't naturally walk at the same pace as humans, so forcing them to puts a lot of pressure on their joints. Letting them run around off leash is important for both their physical and mental wellbeing.

 

Does anyone have suggestions on where I can find safe places to let my puppy off leash? I live in an American city. The entire county has a leash law defining a leash as being 6 feet or less. I live in an apartment/flat without any outdoor space. There is an off leash dog park but it is unfenced and right next to a road coming off a blind turn. I have been stretching the leash law by using a long line in the city park but I want my puppy to learn to stay with me off leash.

 

Hello mjaynes288, and a warm welcome to the forum.

Most members here are from the UK and Europe, although there are a few people from the US.

(You can see where everyone is here: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=zgQiS9cKPcNk.kjQDvs0NIL7s_

In the Europe we don't have the leash laws that are common in the US. As far as I can see, people who live in countries with leash laws use dogs parks, some beaches or join dog clubs where people get together to train their dogs in enclosed spaces. Perhaps you could look for a club? Your puppy might be a bit young but perhaps there are puppy classes in dog clubs that also do things like agility or flyball? Things like that where the dog can exercise inside an enclosure.

Other than that, I suppose you'd need to head out of the city to hiking trails and so on?

 

Ive just started training classes with Murphy and they have suggested using a long line (10 metres) at first which they can trail on the floor - unless in an enclosed area like a tennis court. Has anyone else done this? Im guessing its as a just in case option, you have something to grab with your foot but he gets free running? He will come in and out of the garden to his whistle fine, and is a mummy's boy so I think he would stay pretty close, but I would be worried if he saw something super interesting on the horizon!

 

I guess it depends what inherent dangers there are where you're going. For somewhere with no traffic, I don't think it's necessary. Here are a couple of (very poor) pictures from Willow's first walk, off the lead. She just ran full-pelt between the two of us when we called her, and the rest of the time trotted along beside us, getting no more than a couple of metres away. It's a big, scary world out there and your puppy knows you're their safety net.

 

I've always used a mixture of off lead, long lead (10m) another long lead of 5m and her ordinary lead which is adaptable from short to around 2m. When very young and going on our dog walks with our trainer we used to use the 10m lead but Juno spent most of the walk off lead and we ended up carrying the line. I used to practice my recall in the garden on the 10m line, particularly as my garden isn't 100% secure and very difficult and expensive to do the work. Although Juno was OK with the trailing lead I found it better without as soon as I had confidence in her recall - and some brilliant treats as well of course.

 

The other thing that I would be concerned about completely off lead would be the amount of running they could actually do - as I know they should only get 5 mins per month old - so for Murphy next week when he can go out properly this would actually only equate to 15 mins a day - which if I split into a couple of walks is barely any exercise! I am so looking forward to him being old enough to have proper walks! Because he is so active in the garden and we are in and out I dont want to over exercise him!

 

Juno used to have just one walk a day of the 15 minutes but I didn't worry about her being off lead for it and running around, I used to time our walk to 15 minutes (7.5 minutes each way). Apart from that we used to play in the garden on in the house and I used to do some training in the garden of about 10 minutes each day which seemed to work for us. My understanding is that running around off lead for 15 minutes isn't as tiring for them as walking on lead for the same 15 minutes as they are not trying to match your pace and are free to sniff, run and of course practice recall.

 

Thats interesting - so actually would it be better to drive somewhere with Murphy and let him have some off lead time than the 15 mins lead walking? Im just looking forward to being able to put him on the floor and not carry him all over!

 

Definitely. It's far more impact on their joints to be on the lead and on hard surfaces, so if you can drive him to a park or similar, where he can hoon around like a mad thing for 15 minutes, that would be ideal.

With being on a lead, they don't get to choose their own pace, so it's a forced movement pattern for them, whereas when they're free to move at their own pace, everything is natural and they can pause if they're tired.

The five-minute rule is also five minutes for every month up to twice a day, so if you're walking a three-month-old twice a day, you can take them out for fifteen minutes both times.

From the Kennel Club website:

A good rule of thumb is a ratio of five minutes exercise per month of age (up to twice a day) until the puppy is fully grown, i.e. 15 minutes (up to twice a day) when three months old, 20 minutes when four months old etc. Once they are fully grown, they can go out for much longer.

 

Even if you're letting the pup off lead, though, it probably is a good idea clipping and unclipping the lead a few times during each session, giving a treat each time you put it on, to enforce the idea that a lead is a good thing. By doing this from early on, and introducing short bouts of lead walking mixed in to off-lead walks, my two come trotting over and sit down by me when they see me get out their leads, rather than shying away from something that signifies the end of fun time.

 

Thanks so much for that advice! I am super excited to see him hare around at the weekend. We live about a 7 minute walk from a very large gold course one way or a 2 min walk to some allotments and woods the other way - so Im thinking a little lead and off lead in the woods then a drive to the golf course where he can have the 15 mins off lead! Didnt know it was 15 mins twice a day, this is GREAT news!!

 

I always mixed up the off lead and on lead walking as well plus some recall just for the fun of it. I take Juno out in the car roughly every other day so we can have a different walk, different smells some have off lead opportunities, others are on lead only at which point I use the 5m lead and let her meander as she wants only rule is that we can a loose lead.

 

You will be pleased to hear that Murphy loved his first proper on the floor outdoor walk today! we drove to a lovely place near us with lots of lawns and trees,but not too many dogs - although he did so well on his long line - spotted a couple of dogs and was interested but came back to me when I called him - very proud - nothing at all to do with the pocket full of cheese I had Im sure! Was so nice to see him out being a dog at long last!

 

How do you handle this issue if you just recently got the puppy and she's already 8 months old? She was in an environment where she was outside most of the day and inside at night. I don't even know if she was ever walked on a leash or not. I really don't know what they did with her. She stays with me in the yard pretty well.