On lead vs off lead walks:come and give me your views and experiences.

[littlewhitebag]

I have an 18 mth lab. I am lucky to live by woods/beach/golf course so part of almost every walk my dog gets is off lead.

This week i have a virus and i have no voice. I had a nightmare yesterday as i suddenly realised, after i let her off on the beach, that i couldn't recall her.

Today i decided for the next while, until i get my voice back, all her walks will be on lead. We had a lovely on lead walk this morning for around 50 minutes. However when i walk her on lead i sometimes feel she is not getting really good exercise and i feel a little guilty.

As i walked i wondered what other dog owners do and how their dogs respond to on lead/off lead walks? Are on lead walks all the time sufficient? Do dogs even need to be walked off lead at all?

I would love people to share what they do and their experiences.

I'm similar to you in that I'm very lucky to have a big park at the top of the road so pretty much every day she has an off lead walk playing fetch with balls in there and it has the added bonus that it gets my sleep refusing baby to sleep for her nap . On the rare occasion she has an on lead walk only she still seems shattered after it but definitely doesn't seem to enjoy it as much. She's actually better behaved off lead and definitely needs the exercise as she gets very bold if she's not properly walked!

I know what you mean BettyOff about them not enjoying lead walks as much. She padded along but looked slightly bored compared with the look of joyful abandon she has when tearing up the beach and jumping in the waves. That said, she is now crashed in her bed exactly as she would be after her off lead walk.

Sorry to hear about your voice, whistle training is an excellent way around the problem and really helps with recall, as it's always a consistent sound and essentially the dog is conditioned to hear the whistle and instantly think 'reward' so instinctively heads back to you to get that reward.

On lead walking is often used to build muscle tone and condition in dogs. It does wear them out, if you go far enough and at a decent pace. Ideally dogs should get a bit of both, (with the usual caveat relating to restricting pup's exercise until skeletally mature) but it won't do them any harm to have a couple of days with just good on-lead walks.

Can you perhaps walk on lead somewhere totally new to your dog? That's more likely to wear her out mentally as she takes in all the new sight, sounds and smells etc.

Alternatively, nip to PAH and pick up a long-line, then you can give her some degree of freedom, to sniff and investigate her surroundings, but she'll be under control and you don't need to worry about losing her.

If you feel she's bored with the lead walking, you could do lots of short training sessions, working on hand signals, to stimulate her mentally until your voice is better.

moosemama we are doing whistle training - it is a work in progress.

I am lucky that i have a big garden so i can take her out and do a bit of chasing or a bit of training. She responds quite well to hand signals in the closer confines of the garden. It doesn't work so well when out in exciting places!

My dog has, um, issues...

He's on lead apart from at weekends where I can take him somewhere secure and no walking on lead is not the same as tearing about somewhere - but he definitely does still enjoy walking and it tires him out just the same. Well, I walk him further because he doesn't get off to be fair.

I do training while walking, so walking to heel, watch me, that sort of stuff, he likes that. I vary our walks so he's getting to see and sniff different things and sometimes I take him where I can use the longline or flexi.

I think ideally getting off lead is preferable, but, he's not suffering without it if you see what I mean.

My dogs are trained to recall on a whistle, funnily enough I did forget the whistle one walk, they both recall far quicker to the whistle than to their names!

My dog generally has 3 walks a day ,in the summer they will normally all be off lead ,when the local fields turn into a quagmire he has 1 off lead and 2 on lead ,when it gets frosty we will probably be 2 off and 1 on . TBH as long as he gets a really good run once a day it seems to make no difference to him . This regime is purely down to how many times a day I'm prepared to clean up all the mud / wet that is involved with him being off lead .I think that the important thing about on lead walks is to vary your route so they see different things .

My two dogs are walked off lead twice a day which they love particularly chasing each other! During those walks we practice recall, wait, stay, watch me, go on etc With our labradoodle puppy we also practice on lead walking because we don't do it very often and she still pulls!

I would also suggest a whistle because if the wind is in a different direction your voice might be carrying very far!

I did on lead walks every day for 4 days as i am still unable to speak properly. My dog seemed perfectly happy with this. DH has walked her today off lead to give her a huge run around. I am happy with this and the dog has been very understanding.

We have greyhounds, and the majority of our walks are on lead - they still manage to have a great time, sniffing etc. Off lead does happen but varies considerably depending on where/when we are. Quite often, weekday walks will be mostly on lead, with weekend forays to off lead adventures. Similar for many grey/sighthounds, and they are very happy, fit, and terrific at loose lead walking. DH also takes them running with him on lead, and they really enjoy that.