Off leash

Not often, unfortunately. I was a very bad puppy owner and didn't focus on a solid recall during the critical first year, and I'm suffering the consequences with a dog who is extremely difficult to train a recall to. I'm trying. I would love to have him offleash more often, there are a ton of offleash-friendly unfenced spots in my city.

He goes offleash where it's fenced for now, and the odd exception if the unfenced area is away from roads and there are other dogs with him. He generally won't stray. But even then I get very nervous.

My beagle was two years old when I started training her properly, before then she'd had very basic training and we sucked at it, and I would never have let her off leash anywhere! Don't give up, IMO any dog can be taught to recall

Docket, yes. I let him off at the farm, and would anywhere else that there was a fair distance from a road. He has a good recall and never gets more than about a 100 yards from me at most, ever and is always looking back at me.

Sarama, hell no. And that goes double now. She may have her CGC, but she will (quite consciously, you see her think about it) chose to ignore me if the wide world beckons. She's going to go through recall bootcamp as soon as she is healed and we are somewhat settled, but I would never trust her off leash, anywhere, even if we got her to a flawless recall. She thinks too much for herself to ever really be trusted off leash. She's smart and resourceful and I respect her independence, but she has no idea how dangerous the world is for a 40 lb dog (though she has an all new respect for cars).

Almost always. From car to front door, when they go on hikes with us, when I take them to the park, when they go to the river, etc.

I'm not too worried about them running off. They all have solid recalls (I know a rabbit or some small animal could change that in seconds) but they aren't just going to run after any one they see. They aren't let off leash when there is a lot of people or cars around either.

According to some people, no dog should ever be off leash. *shrug*

To me it comes down to knowing your dog, training your dog, and taking intelligent precautions.
Lunar doesn't have much of a recall, but he is a total velcro dog and if we are walking south with him a good ways ahead, and I turn and start walking north, he will 180 and run to catch up with me without me saying a word. Biko is much the same way.

Now, put Bates in the same situation and it would take him several miles before deciding to check and see where mom went - he'd come find me for sure, but AFTER he was done exploring. So I have put a lot more time in to Bates' training, and he has a turn on a dime recall - I can call him off a live chase.

Breez is the one with crazy prey drive, and I know I have about half a second to get her attention when she gets that "chase aura" about her before she goes deaf. She's velcro enough though that if I do miss my window, she won't chase forever, there's a limit to how far she will go away from me. I guess that doesn't make her the best hunter, but it serves our purposes

The dog park with the river is not fenced, it is something like 1000 acres, although there is a highway nearby. The dogs have been pretty good about listening, although Ruby is becoming well known for finding the river well before me. Leashes for now when she can smell the river.

It's interesting how having a reliable recall means different things to different people too!

To me reliable means my dog comes every time immediately when I first call her.

Some people in my obedience classes are happy if their dog comes most of the time.

IMO highly prey driven dogs can actually have the best most reliable recalls if they are trained in prey drive. The most impressive recalls I've seen have been on dogs with exceptionally high prey drive.

Well, there's prey driven and there's prey driven Bates is what I call drivey dog anyway and also prey driven. Breez is a prey driven dog, but doesn't have the same "drive" that Bates does. Uy... I am NOT doing a good job of articulating what I'm trying to say here!

But what it boils down to is that it has been easier for me to channel Bates' drive than it has for me to channel Breez's. But then again, I'm more motivated to train Bates' recall than Breez's, because he will chase in to the next county, Breez won't.

As for obedience recalls, I have to laugh. I don't know about anyone else, but I never find myself needing a recall when the dog is in a focused sit stay 10 feet directly in front of me with no other distractions. I need a recall when the dog is 50 feet ahead of me, nose to the ground, and catches a good whiff of close-by bunny.

LOL I just think of prey drive as prey drive but there are definitely dogs that are more naturally bidabble or handler focused than others.

Sorry for the confusion - I wasn't talking about formal obedience recalls, 90% of people in my class are pet owners and for that reason I like to teach "informal" every day life recalls when I talk about a reliable recall I am not talking about recall as a formal exercise.

So are my two At the training center we more often than not train off-leash, too

But if its a high traffic area, or an area I see as not safe -regardless of training- I just won't do it. So my front yard is a definite NO. The odds of a car hopping the curb and hitting us - WAY higher than my dogs taking off.
I've, also, called them off of deer, rabbits, squirrels, geese (more recently with Bailey ) and they've got a strong leave it.

I do it everyday in parks and school fields so she can play with other dogs off leash but most importantly to play fetch and work on commands like stay. She tends to be much happier happier when she really gets to run off leash and we've doing it since she was a baby, maybe 6 months old.

I know this isn't directed at me but I'm more concerned with the law and other people. My dogs all have fantastic (okay, Shamoo doesn't) recalls but legally I am screwed if some dingbat ruins our day and my dogs off leash.

Again.. I need to get out of this city and into the boonies.

Oh, totally get that. Mine will never set foot in a dog park for example, and in public I err on the side of caution.

We ARE in the boonies. If someone shows up and gets the snot scared out of them by my dogs barreling up to them, tough noogies, they're trespassing and the way laws are interpreted around here, we're fine as long as nobody gets mauled - which I know my dogs and they wouldn't do that.

Bailey is rarely on leash at the farm or the cabin. We don't walk on the roads near them unless we have to because of loose dogs.

Hiking trails, both are on leash due to deafness issues.

Lizzie is pretty much on leash all the time outside of walking to the car, in the garage, etc with me watching/beside her at all times. She has a recall when she wants to have a recall.

Blaze is offleash pretty much anywhere I deem fit. We don't do much/any offleash stuff near roads. We do offleash at farms, ponds, lakes, fields, woods, trials, etc. He's got a good recall.

Cameron and Duncan both go offleash. They both have their pros and cons though.

Cameron: goes offleash in woods, trails, etc (wonderful recall in these situations). She can't go offleash on our property because she will take it upon herself to visit the neighbors or their dogs.

Duncan: his recall isn't as great as Cameron's, but I still trust him. He's just not as fast to respond, and when given the choice between me or Cameron, he will picky Cameron. However, he's better at home because he has no desire to go greet the neighbors or their dogs.

I don't let either off leash at home, but if Duncan manages to get loose on our property I'm less likely to have a heart attack.

For me, recall means the dog looks at me within a second of completing the command, and starts to move toward me by 2 seconds. Using my definition, off leash in a trail setting, Cameron has a 95% recall, and Duncan has a 80% (Duncan still comes to me 95+% of the time, but he's a slow boy!).

But I agree, many people have different definitions. My fall back is to let out a blood curling scream and fall down to the ground. Gets them when nothing else works, but you have to protect yourself from dogs hurtling towards you.

uh--never. Baxter's nose would take him off in a flash, and Wilson is wary/can be unpredictable with other dogs and/or people he does not know--so I'd rather not risk any incidents. I could train recall till the cows come home--but would never really trust either of them--so leashed or fenced.

Steve is allowed off leash where it's safe. I take him to the park and throw his frisbee for him because I have a tiny yard. I down him if a car comes along the road and leash him if somebody shows up with a dog, but he'll completely ignore people/kids on bikes/etc if there's a frisbee involved. He also goes places to swim off leash, and our impromptu flyball friends "dog park" area is unfenced.

He hikes off leash some places, some places not. I can call him off wildlife, but I can't call him off water, and he is generally stupid (read: panic barky) if we see people, so I leash him if I can't see a way ahead of us.

Luce is allowed off leash while actively training and I am very very careful about where we do that and leash her at the first sign she's checking out. Otherwise, no way.

Mushroom is never off leash outside of a fenced area.

they are both offleash more then on leash.

they both go for daily hikes/bike rides out in the woods.

We go to the near by school field, or near by fields and they are offleash.

both have good recalls and dont go to far off from us and stop/wait on their own if they feel they are to far from us.