Why Your Dog Needs to be Trained Off-leash

So many of the dogs I work with are wonderful, well-mannered dogs -- until you put a leash on them, which promptly turns them into monsters that want to destroy other dogs. This is something that trainers call "leash reactivity." It comes about because we put a leash on our dogs when they are puppies and it's primary function is to keep them from everything they want in the world - other dogs, fire hydrants, new people, new smells, etc. 

To these dogs, everything they love in the world just signals frustration which makes them go ballistic

This is one of the many reasons I want to get as many dogs as possible living off-leash. I want to honor a dog's free-roaming nature while still having him follow me when necessary. Being able to give a dog freedom makes the dog surrender to the experience of a leash much easier. It's part of the social contract we have to make as a true pack leader. 

The problem with this, is that frustrated dogs aren't typically reliable off-leash - meaning if we just take their leash off they're going to run away and get into trouble. But with the appropriate skill, off-leash reliability can come about much quicker than you think.

Watch Eva on just her second day of off-leash training. What I want to start building in a dog is a general awareness of where I am, a responsiveness to my voice and commands (i.e. leave it part way through the video), and of course a good recall:

In the later phases of off-leash training, we want to make sure we have a perfect 100% sit. That way, if your dog does get distracted, or there is some type of danger, you know that your dog will sit and wait for his next command. That looks like this:

Your dog can be off-leash quickly! Just shoot us an e-mail and we can make it happen together.