The Secret to Off-lead Obedience
Poll any group of dog owners for their priority obedience goals, and we're likely to find that the majority of them
dream of flawless off-lead obedience. That's an admirable goal, an achievement that will deliver unlimited benefits in
day-to-day living and in formal obedience or sport competition.
A puzzling aspect of the high numbers of dog owners wanting off-lead obedience as a training goal is the
consistently large proportion of those owners who expect that flawless off-lead obedience will happen
early in the training. While many owners will list as their
training goal "reliable off-lead obedience," many fail to include such fundamental basics as a reliable sit, heel, down, and
most surprising of all -- a reliable recall -- in their training wish list.
It is indeed wishful thinking to expect that a dog can be trained for reliable off-lead behaviors before on-lead
behaviors are taught, trained, and proofed under distance, duration, and distraction.
If you are one of the many who dream of a reliably obedient dog off-lead, then hats off to you for setting your team
training and behavioral goals to a higher level of proficiency and performance! I would like to share with you
some key steps that will help you to bring your team training dream to off-lead reality.
These fundamental obedience skills are critical to incrementally establishing the building blocks for successful
off-lead obedience:
- Learn how to establish and maintain consistent leadership in all of your interactions with your dog,
whether on or off lead.
- Learn how to teach your dog to learn.
- Teach, train, and proof the reliable sit on-lead.
- Teach, train, and proof the reliable heel on-lead.
- Teach, train, and proof the reliable down on-lead.
- Teach, train, and proof the reliable recall on-lead.
- Modify and proof any behavioral issues (reactiveness to other dogs/people, critter chasing, etc.) to
on-lead reliability.
- Maintain the dog on-lead at all times that you require obedience until and unless all of the above
have been achieved.
Off-lead training is initiated only after you and your dog have incrementally advanced your obedience basics
and achieved fundamental on-lead behavioral and training to consistent reliability. After you and your dog
are proficient in the basics, only then you can begin to modify your teaching and training strategy to
develop off-lead performance.
Your job is to teach your dog how to maintain known obedience behaviors when off-lead. This does not happen
instantaneously. Off-lead training is introduced in the same incremental manner as was on-lead training.
This is key to successful off-lead training and reliable performance. Don't assume that just because your
dog can now sit calmly and reliably at your side while on-lead that he or she can seamlessly maintain the
same level of obedience when unfettered by the leash. The same degree of patient and incremental teaching
and training that you applied when building your dog's fundamental on-lead behaviors is required as you
transition your dog to reliable obedience while off-lead.
When the owner prematurely "tests" the dog's off-lead obedience and reliability, the dog fails. Actually,
the "failure" is not the dog's. The dog doesn't comprehend that it has failed; it is far more likely that
the dog will greatly appreciate that it has SUCCEEDED. It has successfully bolted after the neighbor's
cat. It has successfully broken the sit and jumped up to greet the visitor. It has successfully charged
out the front door ahead of you. Oh and it feels sooooo good!
By allowing the untrained dog to freely challenge and blow off the owner's authority and misbehave off-lead, the owner
is explicitly inviting and
allowing unwanted behaviors. The owner is granting the dog the explicit permission to misbehave. As a
result of the owner's explicit permissiveness and lack of behavioral controls, the dog quickly learns that it can
do whatever it wants while off-lead. The owner is teaching the dog by omission to misbehave. Each time
the dog experiences successful off-lead disobedience, it is rewarded by the freedom of self-initiated
behaviors and potentially satisfying adventures. Equally damaging to the team training relationship is the erosion of respect for and
responsiveness to the owner's leadership.
As a consequence, the owner's burden of "undoing" the unwanted
behaviors and habits (which were created in the first place by the owner's explicit permission to
misbehave at will off-lead) is significantly compounded.
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While it should go without saying, I am compelled to add here that any owner who allows their untrained dog
to freely engage with the environment off-lead
outside of the safe confines of home and fenced yard is putting their dog and other people and animals
at tremendous risk of injury or worse. If your dog is not absolutely reliable off-lead, then don't
allow it to be off-lead. It's that simple.
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If your behavioral and training goals include reliable off-lead obedience and performance, then it
is critical that you begin today crafting the foundation building blocks with reliable on-lead
obedience and performance. Incrementally teach, train, and proof on-lead skills. Then you can begin to
incrementally teach, train, and proof off-lead skills.
If before you have built a rock solid behavioral foundation, and if before you have incrementally advanced your
dog through the sequential steps of advanced off-lead obedience, you instead elect to test your dog's ability to
behave appropriately while off-lead, then you mustn't be surprised when your experiment fails. You can't
proclaim frustration or disappointment with your dog when you have provided your dog the opportunities
to experience the profoundly memorable and impressionable rewards of enjoying the luxurious freedom while off-lead
to do whatever, whenever, wherever, and however he or she pleases.
You can choose to proactively train your dog to successfully perform the behaviors you want, or
you can choose to train your dog by omission to successfully perform the behaviors your dog wants. It
comes down to your choosing to be the consistently proactive leader of your team, or the
perpetually reactive follower.
If you'd like to learn how to build a strong obedience foundation now that will prepare you and your dog for advanced obedience skills and performance in the future, consider enrolling for Online Dog Training with a supplemental telephone consultation.
