Off Leash
 

It might be hopeless for my sighthound mix because I have tried a lot of different options to make off leash hiking a possibility. But he wanders and runs off into the woods. Unlike my purebred border collie who never leaves my side - at only 4 months. He has been a wanderer since I got him at 10 weeks!

For those of you with dogs who are AWESOME with off leash walking and your dog was NOT BORN A NATURAL off leash (aka you had to put work into it), what kind of training did you do - not recommend - but actually did and it worked?

We started out in the biggest fenced area we could find--in our case it was a grade school baseball park that was almost totally fenced (just open at the gates). We used a 30-ft drag line in case the dog tried to make a break for it. And then we just walked across the field with the dog quartering in front of us.

We train with a whistle recall for field work. Again, the training is in a fenced area.

For out in the field, we attach cow bells to the collars so we can monitor progress through the woods or field. We used to [I]just[/I] use cow bells, but one of our dogs had a grand mal seizure in the woods one day and we realized you can't track them by the bell if they're down and the bell isn't ringing. So we now also add a beeper collar that is set to pointer mode--i.e., it only goes off when the dog is not moving. Before doing any field work, though, we make sure that whistle recall in a safe (fenced) area is as close to 100% as we can get it.

Not sure what kind of terrain or landscape you hope to run your lurcher in...but hope some of that might help :fingerscr

LOL.. I hid from her.. Seriously, If she ran off i hid in the woods.. Then she couldnt find me.. Then she learned to stick close (Kacee we are talking about now, Not keely).. I only recomend this if you trust your dog to come back eventualy)

Keely has always been good at sticking close by.. she is to much of a sook to run more then 20 feet ahead.

[QUOTE=hazelrunpack;868518]We started out in the biggest fenced area we could find--in our case it was a grade school baseball park that was almost totally fenced (just open at the gates). We used a 30-ft drag line in case the dog tried to make a break for it. And then we just walked across the field with the dog quartering in front of us.

We train with a whistle recall for field work. Again, the training is in a fenced area.

For out in the field, we attach cow bells to the collars so we can monitor progress through the woods or field. We used to [I]just[/I] use cow bells, but one of our dogs had a grand mal seizure in the woods one day and we realized you can't track them by the bell if they're down and the bell isn't ringing. So we now also add a beeper collar that is set to pointer mode--i.e., it only goes off when the dog is not moving. Before doing any field work, though, we make sure that whistle recall in a safe (fenced) area is as close to 100% as we can get it.

Not sure what kind of terrain or landscape you hope to run your lurcher in...but hope some of that might help :fingerscr[/QUOTE]

Thank you very much! This is super helpful info :thumbs up

My dog was not a natural, "off leash" walker when I first got her from a local shelter. She was an adult who was used to making her own decisions...:D This is part of her breed as well as lack of consistent training with positive reinforcement! I also used voice commands - to which she responded extremely well. Whenever she got too far away from me, I would say, "WAIT", in a very firm, crispy tone of voice. She did:thumbs up She would either stop entirely, or slow down until I caught up with her.

She became very good off leash after months and months, and months of walking her on an extend-a-leash (approx 6ft) in areas that were virtually traffic and people free - so she wouldn't be too distracted. However, I don't walk her off leash in urban areas.

Now, she never strays more than 4-6ft from me:thumbs up She will actually stop in her tracks when she reaches the 6ft mark, without me having to say anything.