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Do you always walk your dog(s) on a leash?

If you walk your dog(s) sometimes without a leash does he/she always obey your commands?

If your dog(s) don't obey your commands, how do you handle that situation?

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It depends on where we are walking them. If its near roads/town etc they stay on the lead. Every day though we walk them out in the paddocks across the road, they get to run and play, they love it! If I see other people I call Lily back, she nearly always comes but in the rare occasion that she doesn't I keep walking and she comes to me after she's finnished sniffing what ever was distracting her. She never just ignores me completely (the other dogs always come straight away).

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When I first got my puppy, I didn't use a leash 'in front of the apartment' BECAUSE she stayed really close to me, as soon as she heard something she ran back to the door.. always came when called.

NOW, 1 month later. She follows everyone, doesn't come when called and liked taking off for a run.
SOOO its leash all the time.

I've always had used a leash when away from home.

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Goo and Haley- ALWAYS on leash (though I occasionally let Haley drag the long lead behind her when we go to the field, after she's pretty wore out and not so interested in running around like a savage). Goo would probably be fine off-leash unless a strange dog ran up, but that's not a chance I'm about to take... Haley still thinks the "catch me" game is really fun :-?

Casey and Joey- On-leash anytime we're out in public, with the exception of runs at the field and late night walks at the local school. I also let them run loose in the backyard (only fenced on 1 side right now), but that's almost 1000 ft from the road, and has water on two sides, so there's not much chance for them to get in trouble. They both listen well off-leash, but get distracted occasionally, so they get some priveledges.

Annie- Off-leash more often than she's on, but never if we're walking on or close to roads, or in busy/crowded places. I don't take her to too many places where she needs to be leashed, so that's why she's off more often than not. Our "normal" walk consists of: on-leash for the walk around the block to the field, then off-leash in the field until we get back up to the road. I also let her run in the backyard like the others. She's good in almost any situation off-leash, and most of her training has been done off-leash, so she's actually better off-leash than on for most things. She's to the point now where she'll ignore people, cats, ducks, rabbits, squirrels, other dogs (unless they come right up on her), even people throwing tennis balls/other toys of hers when I call her or tell her to stop. That said, when I have her off-leash, she's immediately put back on anytime I see a person, dog, cat, etc, and never let off anyplace where she could run out in front of a car should she hesitate in listening when I call her back. I'm 99% sure she'd listen every time I called her, but not about to take the chance of finding out.

I'm assuming that by your question on dogs obeying commands, you meant when off-leash...
If I call one of them, I give the command once, and if they ignore me (there's a difference between ignoring (where they'll flick an ear at me or even look at me) and not hearing (where they'll give no sign whatsoever that they heard)), I "hunt them down", put them back on leash, then we work recalls until the dog is coming before I even get the word all the way out, and I'm so sick of saying the same thing over and over that I'm ready to puke. This is done without harsh corrections... I call, praise the whole time they come towards me, then reward; and if they don't at all, I reel them in gently, minus praise until they get to me. If I don't have a long lead, and it's just an in-attention thing, I'll usually just call once, then go get them and walk them over to where I was by their collar, have them sit, get their attention back on me, and do some easy recalls just to remind them of how things work. I only call once because I want them to come back when I call them the first time, not the 4th or 5th. This is also not something to do if you're mad, as the dog will pick up on it and will associate recalls with you being unpleasant. That's another reason I get them right away, when a person stands there and calls the dog over and over, they're only getting more and more frustrated, and mroe likely to take it out on the dog either when they finally come back, or when the owner catches them. The second way I mentioned (for without a long lead) is what I used for Annie for 99% of her work, so I'd say it works great for some dogs, though maybe not for others.

As a side note, I've found that it's important to also work on "stay" when you're doing recalls... I've been working with Annie for about 3 yrs now, and never really bothered with long stays or stays under distraction until last fall, then slacked off over the winter and picked up again late spring. She's SO used to always hanging right by me unless released that it really confused her when I was telling her NOT to follow me. It took a lot of work, and several months before she had a solid stay. She's still got a long way to go, but will hold a sit/stay while I walk 500 ft away, or disappear for a few minutes, and a down/stay for slightly longer (pretty good since she only learned "down" this spring also). We also do a LOT of work under heavy distraction... she loves tennis balls, tugs, etc, so I've found they work really well as distractions. I'll put her in a sit/stay, throw the ball, and then work recalls, heeling, stays, etc all around it... at various distances. If she goes for it, I correct (a sharp AHH!) and make her come back. We've done recalls where she had to run past it, over it, even stop beside it, then stay without bothering it while I walked away. At times, she gets so frustrated that she yips when I call her away from it, because she wants to get it so badly (and when I finally let her go, she's like a short, brown tornado :lol: ). I figure though that if she has that type of control over such a huge distraction, then teaching her control around other things we come across should a piece of cake.

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On lead when it is required (everywhere but the off lead parks, really), and off lead at the parks. If there is another (same size or bigger) dog on a lead around, I will keep BK on a lead or use recall and get him back on the lead, because he will try and play with them by trying to mount them which is not acceptable behaviour, only because mostly the other dog doesn't like it and the last thing I want to do is get into a fight with the owner and for my dog to get in a fight.

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For our walks in the neighbourhood - Both dogs leashed - always.

At the beach - Kavik offlead, Zaphod onlead unless the place is deserted (even when he swims - he has a 20ft boatline on a collar I can slip over his head if a have to) I have put Kavik on lead at the beach if its very busy - just too much chaos.

On our way to the park or school - Both dogs leashed - always.
At the park - Usually both dogs leashed, Kavik sometimes offlead - usually in winter when I have the park to myself or during offpeak hours.
At the dog spot in the park - Kavik offlead, Zaphod on his long lead.

WHY:
[b]Kavik[/b] is very reliable on recall (lately he has been stopping and giving me the "I'm thinking about it" look on recall, so we will have to work on this a bit more) and Zaphod will follow him. Zaphod is almost as good on recall and Kavik will follow him.
Kavik is a sweety and a fairly stable dog but will spook at loud noises and usually run to me. He is great with babies, quite gentle and loves to go nose to nose with them and is quite tolerant of the fur pulling. His fault lies in exhuberance and he may jump up on strangers or bark at other dogs. He can behave dominantly but when challenged he backs off (except for Wilson who he despises.)
[b]Zaphod[/b] is a skittish boy. He has never attacked or bitten any person or animal and in play with other dogs he is very good if properly introduced first but he is not confident in new situations. His hackles raise and new/distressing events. I keep him onlead because a frightened dog behaves unpredictable and because he may frighten people - a 60lb black dog with his hackles raised, possibly barking is scarey even if he is backing up.

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Duck is rarely let off leash...she doesn't run away or anything..loves people, and there are lots of ppl on bikes...she'd probably get hurt.once her collar came off her head cuz it was too loose...I ran all the way home, and Duck thought we were playing a game...she chased me back to our house.. :lol: she ran out the door once...i went looking for her, came back to my house, found her waiting for someone to open the front door...

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Duck's a Golden, isnt she?

They are known for that. They arent trying to run away, per say, but they follow their noses wherever they lead. I have a Lab and a Foxhound, they do the same thing.....

It's the hunting dog/bird dog in them I think. They catch an interesting scent, they're off....

:)

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[quote name='Your Special Guest']Do you always walk your dog(s) on a leash?

If you walk your dog(s) sometimes without a leash does he/she always obey your commands?

If your dog(s) don't obey your commands, how do you handle that situation?[/quote]


First question, no, I don't [u]always[/u] walk my dogs on a leash. There are some who will always need to be leashed and there are some I trust implicitly. Still, it also depends on the environment. If I'm in a public area with other people and dogs, mine, no matter which one it is or how much I trust them, will be leashed. I feel safer that way. While I trust the ones that go with me everywhere, I don't know that another dog wouldn't attack them and I have more control with them on a leash. Besides, we go lots of places (home improvement stores, bank, insurance company, any place that doesn't sell food and then even to some restaurants with outdoor tables) and it is better to have them leashed in these places. At work, I very rarely ever leash my dogs.

Second question, yes, the ones I don't leash WHEN they aren't leashed have always obeyed my commands. It's hard to explain. It's not even so much obeying commands as much as they seem to know what to do. Even still, I can tell these particular dogs (not ALL of them) to stop, stay, sit, down, or whatever and they will reliably do it every time, regardless of the situation at the time.

Third question, again, I do NOT take ANY of my dogs in public places unleashed, but at home, when someone starts what we like to call "having problems with memory skills", we go right back to square one basic training boot camp. I had to do this with several just this weekend as they seemed to lose their freaking minds. Must be the full moon. :-?

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[img]Do you always walk your dog(s) on a leash?[/img]
YES. Cracker will chase cats, is scared of other dogs and people. Abby is dog aggresive (I'm working with her on it) and will chase cats, squirrles, bunnies, ect....

[quote]If your dog(s) don't obey your commands, how do you handle that situation?[/quote]

If Abby doesn't obey my commands it's because of these reasons:
A) There's another dog, who although it might just be a puppy, some how it is still threatening and must be barked and growled at constantly. (Again, we're workin' on it)
B) There's a cat, squirrel, rabbit or something small and fast. Here Ab finds the need to pull and whine until she can no longer see the animal, then constantly look back in the direction it went to, to see if it might have come back.
C)There's a real interesting smell that has to be thouraly(sp?) investigated.

:roll: :lol: :roll:

If one of these things happens, then I always have cookies or cheese available, and I try to get Abs to focus on me again with the food. Usually works...... :D

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