What age did you let your dog off the lead?

[heatseeker14]

I’m wondering when would be good to let our 14 week old pup off the lead. He is generally good at coming when called in the house. At the moment he is on the lead when I take him out for a walk and in our garden when he needs to wee/poo.
Think I need to start teaching off lead recall in our garden and then work up to a quiet space outdoor elsewhere.
Everyone I meet say I should let him off sooner rather than later, but I’m worried that he will pester dogs and get attacked. He doesn’t seem to read signals other dogs give out because he is super excited. I don’t think it is right to let him loose to annoy other dogs and their owners.
Please can you tell me what age you let your dog off the lead?
Did you use a long trailing lead to begin with?

[Spidey66]

About 4 months, tried her on a long line first. Her recall is usually OK, unless she's distracted by other dogs.

We won't let her off the lead on streets, her road sense is zero, if she's distracted by a cat or something, she'd think nothing of running out. She loves loves loves the park so no chance of her willingly leaving it!

[ritatherockfairy]

Agree with everyone that says the sooner the better. I never used a long lead but we discovered the power of the whistle very early on. For some reason he will ignore my voice but the whistle stops him in his tracks and makes his take notice.

[Shambolical1]

If he doesn't recall, stand on the end of your long line then pick it up. Call him again (make sure you tell him what you want him to do, don't just shout his name over and over again). At the same time, give a few tugs on the long line. You don't want to be dragging him back, but to be 'nagging' enough on the longline to distract him from what he's doing. Little repeated tugs, just enough to make his tag jingle.

As soon as he turns towards you, shout "Yesss good boy!" or whatever your praise word is. Leave off the lead tugging, get down low and be really encouraging as he runs back to you. Move backwards a bit. When he gets all the way back, reward him with high value treats.

You can practice this with all sorts of things, not just other dogs: come away from the park bin, ducks on the pond. All the distractions.

As long as he is always praised and rewarded every time he comes back, he'll learn that recall is a good idea.

This is also the thing to go back to when the teenage phase arrives.

[nothingcanhurtmewithmyeyesshut]

Right from the start when her legs were still short enough that I could catch her!

[heatseeker14]

Thanks Shambolical for your advice, very much appreciated. He ignored me the other day when he was distracted by a scent, probably from a squirrel, so I need to keep using the long line for now.
It looks like the majority of you let your puppy off pretty much straight away. I wish I had let our puppy off the lead sooner. Was just too chicken 😳.

[makingmyway10]

we let our 6 month l;ab puppy off the lead at about 17 wekks. It is so scary at first but generally they stick close until teenage hormones call! They then get selective hearing and need food incentive to always come to call.