Many people try to off leash their dogs too soon before doing anything about it. Off leash dog is a dog that must be trained in order to be free.
A non-off leash trained dog can be a hazard to itself, other dogs and people and its surroundings. Also a dog that has not been off leash trained can form behavioural issues such as not listening to you, not coming when called and others.
So, what is off-leash training?
Off leash training is when you train your dog to basically listen and obey you on leash when called, when asked to sit, asked to stay and etc.
After you have accomplished control over your dog and have removed any negative and anti-social behaviour from your dog than you can be more confident and certain to allow your dog off leash among all others.
Off leashing a dog is like teaching our kids to ride a bike by themselves for the first time. We start with a tricycle, then we move to bicycles with training wheels, and then we get to a bicycle but we hold on to the bike until we are sure that our kid will be able to balance and ride by themselves.
Up until we let go off the bicycle we need to gain the trust from our kid and vise- versa. We need to make sure that our kid is going to balance him or herself and then we let go. Our kid is also letting us know that if he or she is ready or not. When they are ready and you let go is the when you and the kid feels that all that work, practice and patients paid off.
Off leashing a dog is similar to teaching a kid to ride a bike. I took my time with Harvey until I let him off leash. It took more than 5 months till off leashed him. I took him everywhere with him on leash, I walked him on leash even when I was off leashing Jonah (Jonah is off leash trained), I started training him to sit, stay, to come on leash and then I felt he was ready. If I felt he was not ready yet, I put him back on leash. After all it paid off.
Now he is having a good time, running and playing with other dogs off leash and follows me everywhere and comes when called. I am still training him to improve even what we have.
Training dogs is a lifetime task which should be considered fun and be positive.
