We have a beautiful soccer field at the top of our street. One side of the field has a path leading to the street, one side has wooded trails leading down into a larger park and the other two sides have wooded trails with houses bordering them.
A lot of people walk their dogs up in the woods an many of them walk their dogs off-leash. Many times I’ve walked Sampson and Delilah up there. Off-leash.
Sampson is usually pretty good off-leash, although since his surgery I haven’t let him walk the trail off-leash, call it over-protective, but I want to make sure any encounters with dogs will be safe.
Delilah on the other hand is a crap shoot. She will go for months and months sticking close beside me and then POOF! one day she will run off on me.
The worse part of her running off is she goes to people’s houses scrounging for food. One time she actually went into someone’s open garage.
The last time she did it, it was like she was in a zone. I could see her and I called and called, but she was munching on something in the yard and just could hear me.
It freaks me out because I worry that someone could hurt her, so since the last time (March 2013) she hasn’t been off-leash at the park.
I’ve been working with her on sticking close to me, and even though she’s on leash, I call her to me a couple of times during our walk and reward her for returning.
I’ve also let her off leash as we are returning from our walks and making our way into the yard, working hard at keeping her attention focused on me and rewarding her for doing a great job.
Saturday I decided to take a risk and see how she did in the field off-leash.
Look at that! She has to be at least 20 feet away from me. Good thing you can’t tell how badly I’m freaking out.
I didn’t let her get too far. I called her back to me three or four times and after a couple of successful minutes, I clipped her back up.
This photo, this makes my heart happy.
Will I ever let her run off-leash as we walk thru the woods? I doubt it. But there is hope that she can be trusted for short periods of time.
I would be hysterical, leaving Gus off of the leash for a minute on a walk. We have started to let him in the yard with us, for a short time. [after I have looked up and down the street to make sure no one is coming our way] Yesterday, he was out with us, when the yappy dog next door, came out with her owner. Gus takes it as a personal affront from another dog if they lunge or bark and feels he must do the same. However, this time, he just looked and minded his own business! I always tell him to take the high road, never thinking he would!
But, like Delilah, I will never trust him completely. And, like Delilah, he is so sweet and has that innocent face. Hard to get mad, but oh so easy to get frazzled!
We can also relate to the watermelon incident. Anything edible has to be put up when we leave the house or he will get it. I would love to see what he does, when we leave. I imagine he checks all possible avenues!
Gus’ Mom
We so can appreciate it is not a nice experience. D really is a foodie if ever there was. Have a terrific Tuesday.
Best wishes Molly
I sometimes let Sheba off leash, but do the same as you….only short spurts and keep calling her back to me. She does pretty well but I’ll never trust her completely. She has gotten out of the yard at home and taken off….even though she’s come back fairly quickly, it still makes me nervous.
BTW, I’m not getting my email notifications for your posts the last few days.
She is getting better though, that was great she returned. And BTW…I haven’t got my email on new posts from you for two days. Something is not right.
With all the scary experiences you have had with her who can blame you not to have total trust that she can remember what she is supposed to do when she hears you call her name.
What has helped us is just keeping our dogs attention while off leash, once the attention is gone its hard to get back (especially terrier breeds) they get so focused that they can’t even hear us! It can definitely be frustrating at times.
But you’re doing it right! Just keep calling her back and rewarding her each time. 🙂
It’s so good that you keep on practicing. I think some dogs will never be fully trustworthy off-leash, because they are too prey-driven or too spaced-out or too food motivated or for any number of reasons. But maybe there will be some special places where your pups can be trusted, and it’s great they’ll have some foundation skills for those times. Fozzie does great on our woods hikes, but I’d never trust him in a residential neighborhood where there are kitty cats!
I’m not a big fan of off leash dogs, but I understand wanting to let them have some freedom!
First I’ve got to tell you, I just love the names of your dogs! It is so cool.
Harley was never good off leash until Leo arrived. Leo was self taught, never required training and was born with excellent recall. I’m not kidding. It was as much a magical mystery to us as it was astonishing to others. As long as he had his soccer ball, he was the epitome of obedient. I really think Harley finally got jealous of Leo’s’ freedom because he slowly started to improve all on his own. We are very selective where we allow Harley off leash, and it’s not for very long and he finally understands if he stays close, he’ll get more freedom time. Might I add, this has taken over five years. BOL Good luck my friend, don’t give up!
Good girl Delilah. Hopefully one day she will get with the program. Look how long it took Storm to learn steady at tests….lol.