off-leash

[ohmai]

ohhhhh-tay.. So I went to walk my puppy today at night.. stubbed my toe (OW!), puppy started pulling real heard, leash slipped, and I had to try and catch him.. and unfortunately he acts as if its a game, me catching him. Doesn't come when called, and there were CARS going by, which seriously terrified me poopless.

Noww.. does anybody have any suggestions about anything I can do with my pup to teach it to be reliable off leash? I'm teaching him the basics right now in a no-distraction zone, so it's quite different when there's a whole world out there.
Are there any classes? Books perhaps , or even advice from you guys?

 

[Fran27]

How old is he? I would never even consider taking my dog offleash unless he was perfect with a leash first, and responded to the recall command perfectly. It's way too dangerous.

 

[Summer Magic]

Practice practice practice, My sheltie has been off leash at home just this year and only in our own yard. Recall is a very important training for any owner and dog. I understand that what happened to you was an accident but you really need to teach recall to your dog for his own safety.

Start the process in the house, with really high value treats and call him to you. Give him a treat each time he comes, and never never call him to you to do something unpleasant to him (like nail clipping or bathing, or punishing) If you want to do these things to him, go get him dont call him.
After he's gotten the idea of coming for treats then take him outside on leash in a secured area, or on a really long training leash. Call him to you after he's allowed to get a good distance away from you (usually the full length of the leash)call him to you, if he doesn't come gently gather the leash up so he does come to you and treat him. You may need to carry treats with you for a long while, Magic is still getting treats for coming to me and she's been with me for 2 1/2 years!

 

[Athe]

Puppies are the easiest to teach recalls to, and they are wonderful liitle learners. With puppies, I take them to a safe place, perferable a baseball feild at first and play come catch me games. I run away from the puppy and let the pup chase me, when the pup catches me I play with the pup. Rewards are lavish. Pup's love this game, unfortunately most people have this desire to chase their puppy this is going to teach the pup a new game, or play avoidance. It's a natural instinct for the pup to run away from the chaser...it then turns into a game and can become a hard thing to train out of the pup. When the pup gets used to the catch me game, I then start playing with the pup, if the pup gets far ahead and starts sniffing something I use this as a valuable training tool, I walk past the pup with out reaching for the pup and ignoring the pup. The pup soon learns that every time you walk toward him/her they are not going to be put on a leash etc.
Once I am comfortable that the pup loves to come to me, I then venture for a hike in the woods with little distraction...or I take my dogs which have reliable recalls...a pup learns a lot from adult dogs...they watch and imitate what the older dogs do. I play hide and seek games with all puppies I take out (my friend breeds, so I take all her puppies out). Hide and seek teaches the pup to keep the human in sight at all times. I love this game, when the pup finds you you can either reward with lavish praise and roll around playing with the pup, or lavish praise with food rewards.
This same method has worked wonderfully even for my 2 rescue dogs one of which was a feral dog. I live out in the country and own 5 dogs, I have to have a reliable recall...there is no way I could enjoy hiking with 5 dogs if I had to keep them all on lead...that would be really bad experience. Make your pup "want" to be with you and they will never leave your side.

If you want to pick up some books on early puppy learning...pick up anything by Jean Donaldson or Dr. Ian Dunbar.

 

[Adrienne]

If your pup gets away from you try crouching down and jumping around a bit (looks funny but it works most the time) then run in the other direction while yelling fun stuff and waving your arms around. Your pup will most likely think "what the heck is that crazy person doing, I must go see!" Other than that everyone elses advice for teaching reliable behavior is right on track!

 

[poeluvr]

never chase...follow a bit call him with treats or whatever...my trainer says if u chase him he'll always run, its way funner then being walked and it tells him he has dominance over u

 

[Dreeza]

hehe or try falling down...just make sure he sees you...my brother and i had fun doing over dramatic death scenes when oakley got loose (out neighbors prob thought we were nuts! haha)

oakley would then come running over to investigate what the heck just happened....since your puppy will most likely be on a leash, you should be able to get ahold of him easily.

With oakley, it was hard, cuz he wasnt on a leash, so you have to veerrryyyy slowly get his collar, otherwise, he just runs away again

what works is lots of treats too...but chances are, he wont come to you to get them...i would throw them at oakley, bringing him closer and closer to me, and then put a few by my feet, where he wouldnt even notice that i just got his collar hehe


it is a very scary situation...i dont know how busy your roads were...but i was keeping a very close eye on oakley and the road, and if a car was going to come, i was going to be in the middle of the road, stopping it...

 

[bridey_01]

Athe has some very good ideas there, which I also implement. Also, if my pup doesn't come the first time I call it, I walk off (note, must be in a safe situation!) My pup quickly learns that if he doesnt follow, he gets left behind!