Having a well-behaved dog is a dream for many owners, and yet it’s one that is within your grasp if only you’d reach out and grab it.
The main benefit of obedience is that you can avoid the need to keep your pooch on a lead, safe in the knowledge that if you need to call them to heel, they’ll respond to your every command. This is better for you and better for the animal as well.
With that taken into account, let’s go over a few training tips that will start you down the road to a leash-free relationship with your dog.
Work out what rewards work best
No dog can be trained without an incentive, so make sure you know what treats are most coveted by your furry friend before you get started.
Food is most often a major motivator, but rewards can also come in the form of their favourite toy, or simply a bit of affection from you, the owner. A combination of these may be a suitable way of reinforcing whatever lessons you are trying to impart.
Pick a word, phrase, or sound to call them to you
Having a simple, easy-to-remember recall word is a must when training your dog off-leash. One-syllable words work best, although if you can whistle loudly then this might be an even more effective sound to use.
Practice at home
Rather than rushing out and trying to control your dog leash-free, get lots of practice at home. It’s also helpful to acclimate yourself to going leash-free, which is why the best dog leash products are those which offer hands-free capabilities so you can also learn to let go without getting anxious.
Keep distractions to a minimum
You’ll want the obedience lessons you are teaching your dog to stick in their minds, so you need to train in places where there aren’t other distractions to draw their attention away.
When you are building up their abilities at home, that means asking other members of the household not to get in the way for a while.
When you feel that the dog is ready to go off-leash in public, that means selecting a park that you know is both safe and relatively quiet, so that the sights, sounds and smells of the wide world don’t distract them.
Set a routine
Speaking of training in public spaces, you can begin this safely by using a longer lead rather than letting them off it entirely. Give them a few minutes of unrestricted wandering, then call them back, offer them a reward, rinse and repeat.
Your routine should also be distance-based; keep recalling your dog when it has ventured to a maximum perimeter of around six feet from you, and it will get a sense of the intangible boundaries that you would prefer.
Add additional commands
With time, you may feel the need to include other commands for when your dog is leash-free. Getting them to stay right next to you with a command like ‘hold’ or ‘wait’ is a good example of this, and you can apply the same training tactics covered above to achieve this.
Be patient
You can’t expect your dog to suddenly become obedient and well-trained overnight. It could take weeks or even months of repetition until they are ready to go leash-free at home, let alone in public.
As such you have to be patient and aim to persevere. This is something worth striving for to benefit both of you, and eventually, your hard work will pay off in a big way.
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