Henry is now nearly 7 months old and the breeder told me to keep him on the lead until he is one. I know about being careful of his joints and I do worry about his legs having had 2 labs in the past who suffered with arthritis in later life. George, my 8 year old lab, has no problems with his legs thus far and I take both him and Henry on the beach every day for their main outing. Henry is really keen to play with the other dog and these walks are a nightmare of him pulling on the lead. George is no trouble at all and just gets on with his stuff and when he was the junior dog (our darling William died last year) as far as I can remember pottered about quite happily in the wake on the senior dog. Henry is fine walking on the lead in other places and is doing really well with recall at dog training and practices in the garden. The other day I let him off the lead whilst we were on the beach for a short time to see what he would do - hoping that he might just join the other one for a sniff and a ferret about but he was so thrilled he ran like a loon at poor old George and I had to rein him back in immediately. I was too concerned about his legs to let the experiment go on and to see if he would settle after a few minutes - does anyone have any thoughts on this please? My only other thought is to try walking them separately on the beach and letting Henry off his lead to see if he is calmer when out on his own thanks
Wow, my puppies were not ON the lead till about 4 months old. AT 7 months I think you can expect pretty wild zooming around that will only increase as he enters his "teenage" time and might be exacerbated by it, being off lead, being so new to him. If he is a danger to your older dog then I guess they would have to walked separately. I really doubt Henry would be any calmer on his own, he's at "the age" most are their wild and craziest. AS for Henry's legs, honestly, I have never heard of a breeder saying a dog needs to be walked on lead till one year old. In a Lab joint closure may not be complete till later than that though only an X-ray would tell you for sure. Life is a risk, I'm sure some wild running around hurt some dog's leg. We went off leash from day one. We tried to avoid the things specified in what I read in the 5 minute rule, straight lines, constant pace, hard surface, keeping up, too fast, too long (and/or) even though those were cited for ON lead, we followed loosely for off as well. In this rule of thumb you could be walking Henry ON lead for 5 minutes per month of age twice a day, so two 35 minute leashed walks a day. Off lead in this rule is unlimited because puppy can avoid the stresses imposed by the lead by lying down, changing direction, speeding up, slowing down at will. Except Oban did not know when to stop and I had, several times, to physically step in and say, that's enough, a time I guessed at. Good luck. Can you call your breeder and ask about this? It's good to follow what your breeder says. My breeder didn't say anything like that. Maybe I misunderstand what you mean by "the breeder told me to keep him on the lead until he is one." ?
Hi , I`m sorry but I have to say that your breeder is wrong , I am shocked that you were advised to keep Henry on his lead until he is a year old . Pups are so easy to train off lead whilst they are young , whereas frustration will set in if he isn't allowed freedom to run, plus possible fear of other dogs . Its true that we have to be aware of exercise, or rather over exercising whilst they are pups, but this doesn't mean that they must be kept on lead, it just mean employing common sense and not allowing them to leap around too much . Please let them off together, let him have some fun , he will be just fine
Your dog needs exercise and no better way than to let him go. If he doesn't use those leg muscles I'd say he'd be much worse off. Everyday my 6 month lab does laps in the backyard after our 20 minute walk. Do I fear he may have issues when he's 8 or 9 years old? No. Going crazy for a few minutes makes him happy.
I let Harley off from day 1. Unfortunately I have heard of breeders telling new puppy owners to keep them on lead until they are 1. One place I walk there is a 14 month old boxer. Her owner was told not to let her off until she was 1........I met him when she was 6 months old and he uses a long line now, but won't let her off as unfortunately she runs off.....new found freedom!! I would suggest a book called Total Recall by Pippa Mattinson. Work through it stage by stage to have a solid recall when you are out and about, then you should be ok to let him off lead anywhere. At the minute he sees it as 'freedom' and it is new to him. Good luck
Keep a dog on the lead until it's a year old? I think that's a bit bonkers. Exercise in moderation for a young pup, sure, but keeping it on lead? That doesn't sound right at all. You now do have a teenager who presumably hasn't been off lead outside your property before, so you are going to have to think very carefully about how you go about getting him to be ok off his lead. What kind of exercise does he get now? Does he run around in your garden? You do also have to think about how fit he is - going absolutely crazy off lead when that is something he is not used to doing probably isn't all that great so just like a human, build up exercise gradually.
Hi and welcome, you really have been given some old school advise there. Have a look on this site somewhere there is a sticky thread about letting your dog off a lead from day one. This model really does work and whilst you have to be mindful of young joints exercise in moderation on soft surfaces is fine. Recall is so much easier to proof too. Have a read of Total Recall and unclip that lead. Have fun, Emma and Meg .
Hi Lynn, what a shame that you got that advice from your breeder. It really is hugely beneficial to let puppies off the lead from day one, since young puppies have a natural instinct to stay close to you for safety, which you can use to start your training of recall and generally hanging around. But, what's done is done, so there's no point crying over spilt milk, as my gran used to say. Pretty sure I've never been that upset over spilling milk, anyway. There are lots of ways to approach this, but the main thing is making him think that you're the most exciting thing in the world. This is going to be tough with a teenager that's never experienced real freedom before! Do you have somewhere that's safe and enclosed for him, but with enough room to run around? I'm thinking of an enclosed field or similar - something that is like the big wide world, but has boundaries so you know he can't just run off. If you can find somewhere like that, it would be perfect to start off with. Be prepared to play lots of games, make lots of silly noises, have an arsenal of amazing treats (warm roast chicken with its skin and dripping in juices is a favourite here) and reward him massively for giving you any attention, and for coming to you when called. I'd be tempted to get some 1-2-1 sessions with a force-free trainer who can see him in action and help you out with making yourself irresistible to him. As Julie says, if he's not had his freedom until now, you may have to be careful that you build his exercise up gradually to increase his fitness bit by bit. Unless you have a massive garden that he can run full-pelt in, he won't have the musculature or cardiovascular strength of a normal 7-month old. I agree that Total Recall is definitely worth a read and you can start the initial stages at home. But the ideal is not just that you have a great recall, but that you have a dog that doesn't need to be recalled much - one surefire way to destroy any recall you do have is by using it over and over to call him away from having fun!
Totally agree with all the other comments. I've never heard before the advise that you should keep your pup on a lead until they are a year old, and really can't see any justification for it. My dog trainer when I lived in France had a puppy four weeks younger than my girl, her puppy Jen only went on lead for walking in town or crossing roads. Apart from that she was off lead from day 1
Have just returned from the beach with Henry and George- my fear was just the potential damage to his legs if he was zooming about - he will always come to me as we've been clicker training for months (also George will always rock up for puppy treats ). I let Henry off and he did zoom a bit but then gradually settled and came when called. I didn't put him back on for several recalls and then put him back on the lead for a bit before we left the beach. I will increase his time off the lead each day as the beach is very safe and not many people are down there if I chose my time carefully this time of year. Thanks for all advice - I wish I'd ignored the breeder but thought she knew best
Hi Lynne, I merged your threads so everything could be kept in one place for people who are following
Another good thing to do is put the lead on and off a few times during the walk, and treat him well each time. This way, he won't come to associate the lead with the end of the walk. I'm glad you had a good time and he got to have a zoom!
That's lovely @lynnew Don't beat yourself up over the breeders advice, you were only doing what you thought was best , but it was actually the worst advice I`ve ever heard, but never mind , so pleased that he had a brilliant time
Hey, it's not your fault - of course you should be able to rely on the breeder to know! But in this case....just happens to be wrong. Henry is going to have a great time now as you gradually let him off lead and work through the recall training. You are going to see a LOT of high quality labrador zoomies, I'm sure! Looking forward to hearing about Henry's adventures. Have fun!
Just an update on Henry's progress - we are having a great time and he really enjoying the beach outings. I am not pushing my luck and we are obviously still obeying the five minute rule for exercise which means 35 mins at a time. The only time thus far I've had a bit of a wobble is when there was a seal close to the shore and he joined George in the sea in an effort to get to it - I had visions of wading in to get him ( the North Sea in March is not exactly sweating hot but would have been preferable to him washing up in Holland) . Mercifully he followed George out and then ate a dead herring with great gusto - but thankfully no ill effects . Just returned from this mornings outing and he is currently asleep on his back with all four feet in the air. Now to wash the dead seagull sticky stuff off of George's neck ...................
Great to read , I`m so pleased that Henry is enjoying his off lead romps We know all about dead seagulls and other disgusting things too
So lovely to read this! We've only taken Pongo to the beach once, and he wasn't too impressed (he didn't like the way the water kept sneaking up behind him and DUMPING on him, not fair, water shouldn't do that....). And I have to say I did have nightmares about him swimming out too far and getting swept away! Sounds like Henry is having a wonderful time.
Luffy is now coming up to 10 months, but unfortunately, we have not been able to be off leash as he has only just recovered from his 4 and half months of suffering from panostieosis. This has had repercussions as the last time he was allowed lead free was in Nov! I'm now very overly concerned as to whether he'd zoom off into the bushes with his new found freedom. I'm now thinking as a precaution to invest in one of those 10 meter leases and slowly build on his recall which is currently atrocious. Good luck with Henry.
