Dog Training – Are you afraid to let your dog off-leash?
It’s the best time of the year. The weather is warming up, the leaves are back on the trees, and it’s a great time to be outside with your dog.
Where I live there are acres and acres of land that I can hike my dogs on. I love walking with them on paths and fields.
They spend all their time off leash and get lots of exercise.
This was not always the case.
Last year when my wife Rachel adopted a small poodle mix, she was terrified every time she was off leash.
She would run off in the other direction and it would take me 45 to 60 minutes to catch her.
I hate walking my dogs on a leash. So the first thing he had to learn was the “Come” command.
It took me about two weeks, but now she can go leash free every time I go hiking and I’ll share with you how I did it.
The first step was to teach her that she should come to me every time I say the come command. I did this by never giving her the option to ignore the command.
You see, when your dog is off leash and you call out the command come, your dog has options. They quickly learn that they don’t have to come to you.
In fact, many dogs learn that when they come to you, the fun is over. Your dog runs around having fun and then you say “Junior COME!”
Junior trots towards you and the first thing you do is put him back on the leash.
Your dog just learned a very valuable lesson. Coming to you is equal to the end of freedom.
So the first step is to keep a long leash (20 to 30) attached to your dog’s collar. Now when you say “Come” you can use the leash to guide your dog back to you.
The next step…
Is to reward your dog and let him go back to what he was doing. If your dog learns that coming to you does not mean the end of the fun, he will become much better and more reliable at coming back when you call him.
#Dog #Training #afraid #dog #offleash
