When /how to Walk off lead

[MildredPuppy]

This is probably a stupid question but how do you start walking off lead? My husband has always had dogs(retrievers) but this is my first and its a cocker.
He recalls in the garden but on a walk he cant hear us if there us another dog and i feel fairly sure if he wasnt on a lead he would just run after any interesting scent.

How old is he? A young puppy (12-ish weeks) will not stray far from you and will come back readily. If you're a bit worried, or he's a bit older, let him trail a longline, so you have a little more control/ chance of reeling him in.

Use every walk as a chance to work on recall-and-reward, recall-and-reward. I've been doing remedial recall with one of my dogs (she gets away with too much with DH, who has been walking her a lot as he's WFH), and the other day I realised that I'd recalled her 6 times in less than fifteen minutes.

The reward doesn't have to be a treat - it can be praise, or a toy.

Oh - and don't save recall up for the end of the walk only, otherwise the dog soon learns that recall = lead=> home. It doesn't hurt to pop the lead on for a few minutes mid-walk, either, just to prevent the puppy learning that every time the lead comes out, the fun is finished.

Buy a 20ft long line which trails along the floor but you can hold the other end or at least stamp on it if you need if recall doesn’t work. Practice recall with the safety of that but he’ll feel off lead. Not an extendable lead though. It’s called a training line.
We let ours off lead from the first walk which to be honest helped as we practiced recall in exciting places at a time he wanted to be near but we still crack out the long line if we’ve been a bit lax and he needs a reminder.

We let our cockapoo off lead the first walk in secluded area and gradually worked towards busier places. Her recall is pretty spot on now - a great recall treat is Primula squeeze cheese!!

Thank you. He is 14 weeks. We do practice fecall a lot but its not 100% by any means

@Claudia84 - that lead sounds good. Whats wrong with extendable out of interest

I would go somewhere very quiet and let him off while you are walking ideally with an open area so that you can see d dog. Then call your dog if he goes more than a few yards away every time ie lots of noise, good boys, treat pats etc. Don't let them go beyond the distance that you can be confident about. Repeat and repeat but gradually the distance can be longer if you are happy.

Hmm I have a similar age pup. Who’s recall is good when there are no other dogs about! At what point do they lose interest in other dogs! Or is recall still not properly learnt? It’s ok when the other dog wants to play but mine still is excited to greet all dogs, is this just a puppy thing?

You need to be more exciting than anything or anyone else. Always have treats in your pocket and make sure he knows it. To start with every time you call him back he gets a really tasty treat. Bits of hot dog sausage, chicken, soft cheese in a tube ect. It needs to be high value not kibble.
Start on a longline if you feel more confident that way. They must be on a harness not a collar with a long line as they can do serious damage to their necks. When you first let him go give him a good few minutes to run and be free and explore before you start calling him back. Let the excitement wear off a bit. This may mean you need to find somewhere quiet. I'd suggest trying to find a secure field somewhere.
Then start calling him to you and treat him straight away every time. If your struggling to get his attention squeaky toys in your pocket work well.

[quote MildredPuppy]@Claudia84 - that lead sounds good. Whats wrong with extendable out of interest[/quote]
The mechanism can break which gives you no control (particularly if say you’re using it short by a road), or even worse they can just snap, or if they get wrapped around another dog (or your legs!) you’ll get pretty bad rope burns, and also they work on always being taught which is no good if you’re practicing to walk on a ‘loose’ lead.
I know lots of people like them and I thought the above was an exaggeration til we used my mum’s spare one and DH ended up with a burn on his hand when it got tangled through a gate! Still has a scar.

Really recommend Pippa Mattinson Total Recall book.

Whats wrong with extendable out of interest
They can fail (they have a reputation for falling apart, or extending completely, when the dog pulls really hard). They also tend to have a long section of very thin nylon rope which can give people nasty friction burns if it gets wrapped round a leg. There are also horror stories about what it can do to fingers.

And if you walk your dog one, with it unlocked, it effectively teaches your dog to pull.

I can think of a couple of situations where I'd use one, but I don't own one and probably never will.

x-post

Extendable leads are the worst. I saw a man gazing out to sea once, unbeknownst to him his little dog had wandered straight across the cycle path with the lead acting as a barrier to a few angry cyclists. He was blissfully unaware of the rage behind him 😂

I thought it was lucky that it was a cycle path and not a road.

Long leads are best. Defo work on the recall, cocktail sausages and cheese are favourites in this house.

I can vouch for the 4 finger injuries with a nylon extendable lead. Never again.

We practiced recall in the garden every time pup was taken for a pee, then in a quiet field, used high value treats at first. Trained her to recall with a whistle at about 4 months, then I don't have to shout like a fish wife to get her to come back. She's fab at it now. 5.5 month old sprocker.

Extendable leads are fine if they’re used properly... it’s just that most people don’t.

Most people don’t need them either, long lines are better for working on recall, but extendable leads used sensibly can be useful for dogs that aren’t getting off lead for other reasons.

With a puppy - once they’re fairly reliable in the house and garden, you want to be practicing it when you know he’s likely to succeed... so big open spaces with no-one else around, not when you actually would need to recall him from something yet.

So using a longline if another dog appears somewhere, you don’t even want to try recalling him until you’re pretty sure he will do it, you just use the longline without recalling him. If they then go on to greet each other or play or whatever, it’s then separate from when you were recalling him before.

Basically the more chances they get to ignore you, the more they will treat it as optional, and you don’t want to try recalling him from distractions until you think he actually will do it. (I mean you might still have to use the longline as back up, but the plan was setting him up to succeed rather than testing it too early)

Thanks all. Some really useful advice

Recall should mean better things are about to happen not the fun stops here. Which is what happens when most dogs are recalled.

14 wee old puppy you have at least 3 occasions every day at meal times to practice recall.

Practice recall at home before you take it out and about.

Recall means a fast run back to you do not be happy with a potter and a mooch on the way - if you are you will have mega recall issues later on down the line.

There is no way on earth you can make yourself more exciting that the environment eg squirels other dogs etc so work on making recall a reflex response.

Set your dog up to win so never recall if there is a chance your dog will not take any notice. Only call when you can work really hard to get the fast run back to your response. So have energy toys food, high pitched exciting voice and the ability to run away from the dog to boost the recall.

If he is not reliable use a long lead - I totally disagree that flexi leads are ok if used correctly that is the whole problem with them, they break however you are using them. Do not use a flexi lead.

Long line should be on a harness

Build up your ability to play with your dog, tuggies, chase toys are all great and will help with your recall a lot.

It is best to have your pupy off lead from day one (if in a safe area) they get into the habit of following you and that helps with the foundations of recall.

We used one of those enclosed dog fields that you hire for a few pounds per half hour at first. When we felt he could be trusted we let him off on walks. He has good recall now but we keep treats on us just incase as he is 8 months now and showing interest in females and worry about him getting the scent of a bitch in season.

As soon as possible would be my advice. We took ours to a safe place as soon as we could, made sure she was peckish and had very high value treats, cocktail sausages.

They stick with you at that age, keep calling back for treats, if they run off run away from them and they’ll turn and follow. Never chase a puppy was our vets sage advice.

Keep treating. Like almost constantly. Hide behind a tree and call them. Stand apart from each other and call her to you...more treats lots of excitement. Make yourselves the most exciting thing about.

Apart from a bit of teenage naughtiness never had a recall problem.

“I totally disagree that flexi leads are ok if used correctly that is the whole problem with them, they break however you are using them.”

They don’t break any more often than anything else, if you buy a well made one, that is designed for the appropriate size of dog and look after them and check them properly.

But as I mentioned there’s no point in one for teaching recall - to a puppy especially.

If you know anyone else with dogs that don’t run off, I found it really good to walk my dog when she was younger with a group of other dogs. She was more than happy to trot around with them and learnt some good habits from the older and wiser dogs. Now she is 5 and we have been walking with a young Jack Russel who now has no problem with larger dogs or any desire to run off.

Depends on the dog. I've always had terriers, they've always had perfect recall until there's a small furry involved.

They always come back, just on their own terms.

With certain breeds, they will just saunter back when you recall, others are incredibly fast. Our puppy isn't quite ready for being off lead yet.

Watching thread with interest.

We let ours off from 10 weeks

@Lostinacloud I second this as it's what we did as well. She learned manners and doggy etiquette from the older dogs and we could practise recall while playing. She didn't run off because playtime was too exciting.