When to give your doodle the privilege of being off-leash?

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

As per Jane's suggestion, I wanted to start a discussion on instances when you might let your doodle off leash.   As many of you know, DH and I have been working with Peri at my parent's house. They live on 4 acres - big hill in back yard, big hill in front yard - about 15ish meters between houses, so it is not in the middle of nowhere by any means (it is 7 mi. from downtown Nashville!) and they have light street traffic (dead end street).

 

Each Sunday we have our family day, the dogs come and we practice the off-lease scenarios.  We go to the front yard, which is not fenced in.  We started a month or so ago by bringing just Peri and really high value treats and practicing recall.  A few weeks ago, we took a long hike and brought treats. She was being attentive so we let her off leash for part of it - she was great.

 

Last Sunday we played ball with her for about an hour. We brought Taquito and my parent's dog down with us, so more was going on and she could have been distracted. Lucky for us she is ball and treat driven!  She was great.

 

Our backup if she runs is running in the opposite direction and saying "touch it" and acting like we are having a pawty.

 

My questions for you:

1.  How do you know when to "take the plunge" and let your doodle off leash?

2.  What instances do you/would you consider trying this?

3.  What is your backup in case they run to chase something?

[Kami Allen]

Glad you started this discussion! We are next to a school and the field turns into a dog park in the evening by us neighbors with dogs. Meggie looks forward to going and playing with her friends and running around. However, she is not good at listening and coming to us when we call her. Last night we were the only ones in the field and a jogger came by and she took off barking at him and jumping at him - she is all bark and no bite - however, it was extremely embarssing and the jogger was so angry he wouldn't even talk to me!! I promptly put the leash on her (once I could chase her down) and didn't say a word to her and walked her home.
It warms my heart to see her running around and playing but her barking at people and not listening doesn't work for us!
Any tips or ideas I would love to hear!
* PS - The only way I do get her to come to me is if I act all excited and start running like and calling her name like she just won the lottery - which is another embarssing thing :P

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Oh Kami - recall is THE hardest thing to train in my humble opinion.

There are many different techniques, but the way our trainer taught us was to put her an a super long lead (say 15-20 feet long). You stand at one end, another human at the other. Make Meggie sit and give her a firm "come". As soon as she comes to you, give praise, hold her collar and give her a treat. Then throw the lead back to your partner and go the other way. The reason for the lead is so you can grab it if she runs another way. This is also setting her up for success not failure. My trainer said to use the word come sparingly. COME means business and I must say, Peri does respond about 99% of the time, in most situations. DH was using it too much, saying "come here Peri" while we were in the house. I never do that and encourage him not to. We say "Peri!" and she comes. Come is for outside instances in our case. You say a command too much, they don't do it in my opinion. Just my two cents!
And start this inside with 0 distractions, then work up to outside, etc....

[Adina P]

I have a hard time with this question because I think most of the time, with most dogs that have had SOME obedience practice, and aren't in the depths of distractions...they will be fine off leash in a more-or-less safe area. But that's MOST of the time. Unless a dog has gone through concerted training to make them off leash reliable...and have finished this training and demonstrated this reliability...it always has risks. I've had days when my dogs have been fine off leash (beach, empty parks) and other days, when temptation got the better of me and I should NOT have let them off leash, where we've had issues and they've scared me.

Rosco is a dog that would NOT respond to me running away from him. He'd say 'WHY are you running? You have fun!" Once after I took him out to play in an empty school playground, I had to actually, PHYSICALLY get in my car and start driving before he decided I was REALLY leaving him. It wasn't because he was running away or wanting to play chase. It was because he was happy as a clam, lying on the grass and chewing his ball and he didn't want to move and if I tried to get him he'd dodge me.

Right now Boca is ONLY allowed off leash in our yard. She'd risk her life for a squirrel chase. Rosco is pretty well behaved, and isn't likely to run away, but I am still VERY careful about where I let him off leash because his off leash obedience was never really 'finished' and he's far from 100% reliable off leash anywhere but at home or if we are actively putting him through his paces. He's chased a pair of whippets on the beach SO FAR up and down the sand that I could barely see them. He spotted them before I did and he and Thule had a blast scarying those poor owners half to death I'm sure!

It has to be in an area that has enough fencing to make me feel very safe and there can't be other unknown dogs off leash there (unless it's a dog park of course, but I don't go there any more).

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I couldn't have said it better.
I take Jack to a big soccer field on weekdays when it isn't in use, and let him play ball and run there with a 20 foot lead attached to his collar. The field is set back away from any streets or traffic and there is almost never anyone there at the times we go. Still, he has that lead attached. If someone suddenly came along with another dog, I could get ahold of him before he could get to them.
I only let him go completely off-leash in the forest preserves or in a fenced yard.

[Ron Carnes]

Zack walks off lead but only in light traffic residential areas. I drop the leash by my side when walking in heel position. If he starts to wander I step on the leash and that pulls him back into position. I do pick up the lead when there are numerous distractions. His biggest problem is sniffing but I can usually call him back to my side without stepping on the leash. We can usually go one fourth a mile without a correction. I have learned when he is going to make a move for an object (cat) and use the leave it command without correction.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

This is my ultimate goal. Again, I think all dogs are different. Guinness absolutely hates to have me out of his sight, so when he's off lead he constantly is looking back to make sure I'm still right there. When I call him, he comes running. I feel comfortable almost anywhere with him off lead (of course, I wouldn't do it in a high traffic area). Murphy is going to have to "earn" this right, and he's a long way away. In the past I would let him off lead at my daughter's house because they have ten acres of their own land surrounded by forest. Now that he's in training, I never let him off his leash. He needs to prove that he can be reliable first, and right now he isn't. He's at a very impulsive stage, and while he'd respond to a recall about 90% of the time....it's the other 10% that could end in disaster. He "sizes up" his distractions, and if he finds one that's "good enough", he'd run. There's not a doubt in my mind about that.
This Summer when we rented a beach house, and next door was a family with a Portuguese Water Dog. This dog was always off leash, and was the best trained dog I have ever met. He would come out on the beach with his owners and just lay on the blanket by their side. Other dogs were running past him, and he never even moved. He was amazing, and that's when I decided that's what I wanted for my guys. When I complimented the owner on having such a perfectly behaved dog, she told me she trained him "non-stop" for a year. So, right now I just need to train Murph to be consistently reliable on leash, but this type of off lead responsive behavior is clearly where I want to be. One step at a time.

[Pat and Traveler]

Traveler sounds like Guinness--he wants to know where I am, and so far stops to look for me or comes over to check in even when he's playing with other dogs. The Catch-22 is that "so far." I let him off leash to fetch a ball or play with other dogs in our local unfenced schoolyard, provided there's nobody there but the other dog owners, usually pretty early in the morning. Trav comes to his name, and that has just been heart-warming a couple of times. I've said his name just loudly enough for him to hear it and he's come a'running. The other dog parents who have been around at those times were really impressed. Actually, I was too. :) We all get our dogs leashed ASAP if anybody else comes along, particularly anybody with a leashed dog. I know how awful it can be to have a dog come running toward you when you're just walking along with your leashed dog. I also let him off leash at the beach or on trails if there's nobody around. So far, nothing bad has happened, other than his jumping up on a dog owner who was just taking his dog out for some exercise before going to work. This man wasn't happy with the muddy pawprints on his shirt, and my saying I was sorry didn't help. If Trav starts venturing too far away from me for comfort or doesn't respond quickly to my calling him, I'd have to keep him on leash everywhere except safely fenced locations. There's a fenced dog park not too far away, but I worry about all the dogs drinking the same water, giving each other diseases, the occasional aggressive dogs, etc.