Woody, come!

Well, we tried Woody off the lead this weekend and he was absolutely perfect!

Yesterday we filled our pockets with bits and cheese and his favourite toys and went across the road to a grass area that's fenced in.

The first two times, when I called him to me my husband ran with him on the lead to me. The third time we let him off the lead and he did it everytime! We took turns, tried it when one was distracting/playing etc and he came back on the first call, everytime!

So, today we took him to a woodland area near us that is completely fenced in, but lots of bushes and other dogs to distract him. Once my husband had limbered up (ready to run after him if necc' ;o) we let him off the lead and walked. We tried not to make a big deal of it and it was absolutely wonderful. He wondered off sniffing, but each time came back or looked back to us to check we were still there. He even made a friend, a 1 year old show cocker, who looked more like a worker to me, called Lilly. It's the first time Woody has met a bigger dog that wanted to play with him and that was actually more boisterous than he is. We all walked together and the two dogs had a great time. Woody played so well and even when he was having a wrestle with Lilly, came back to us straight away when we called him!

It's been the best weekend with him! He came back, had a bath, dried off and is now snoozing by my husband's side while he plays the guitar and I cook a roast, no doubt wrestling with his new best friend, Lilly!

Brilliant! This is the kind of thing I have been waiting for for a very long time (finally having my own dog and living life like this ;o)

See who says Dreams don't come true..............sounds like a perfect day.

That's fantastic, Pidge! Well done to you, your OH and wee Woody himself! Sounds great.

How old is the wee guy now then?

Thanks guys!

He was 13 weeks on Friday. He's just grown into this lovely, adorable pup who just wants to please and be loved. He's so amazing!

(Don't get me wrong though, still bites and goes crazy and eats stones, so not perfect, just very, very lovely!!)

Question - at what stage did you decide your dog was safe off the lead, everywhere? (obviously only in safer areas).

I have never decided this (if that makes sense). I tend to assess each situation on its own merits....

For instance, if I took the dogs on the beach this morning, I'm already 99% certain that I'd let them off the lead, however, there could be horseriders, kite-surfers, chavs on quads to contend with, so I'd leave them on lead...

Same with taking them to our usual walks, I'd have a look at who was around, dogs, people, kids etc; how my boys were generally behaving etc before I let them off.

I like my boys to have lots of good runs off lead, but if there is a chance that something will distract them enough to bog off and not come back I won't let them off.

That's probably not very helpful, is it!!

Sort of. Bascially take each day as it comes.

I think we ought to have at least a few more sessions off the lead in an enclosed field first though, at least!

Well done
I remember the first time we let Ella off the lead when she was a pup. My heart was in my mouth the whole time!

We let Roux off once we were sure he knew his name and his on-lead recall was very good. We found a very quiet and enclosed bit of beach and let Ella off for a run. She desperately wanted to play with him, but he kept getting them both tangled up in his lead so my OH said "Go on, Ella will look after him...."
And she did Every time she thought he was getting a bit too far from us (he wasn't allowed more than six feet away ) she would round him up and bring him back to me. His recall is very good but I do feel that he relies more on following Ella when she returns than he actually listens to me, so we're doing lots of recall training on his own.

Sounds like Woody is doing really well. Keep up the good work!

Well done - sounds like a great walk - this is a good age to start as they want you as security so won't 'bog off' (although some are just monkeys when comes to off lead).

Try and make each time they come back a game as well as treats - you are doing everything right by calling back and releasing and not just call back at the end of the walk!

Like I/chick said assess each walk on its own merit - practice the recall at home too - when I know that at home the recall is 100% then I feel fairly sure that we will be ok on a walk! But distractions are somethign that need to be worked on - its about not letting them fail at recall to IMO but easier said than done I know!

Well done and keep up the fab work.

I'm sure you know but remember not to overdo the walks - the general rule of thumb is 5 minutes per month of life as too much is thought can damage bone growth.

Sounds brilliant, keep up the good work with him, he sounds just perfect xx