Jackson has pulled this maneuver with me before.... we live on 3 acres and behind us is 90 acres of farmland. He's got the whole darn field to run in but he chooses to find the woods that are WAY back there and run through them... he was always pretty reliable off leash but ever since that day when he decided to just take off, I haven't trusted him enough//it's not worth the risk.
I don't disagree with off leash dogs at all but I think you must really know 100% that your dog will come back to you when called, and that they are supervised the entire time off leash of course. So, for the past year we've been working on recall a lot. I bought a long 50ft line ((I actually have 2 of these, so he can go out to 100ft))... and we practice, practice, practice. Atleast with the 50-100ft lines, he has freedom but I can pull him back if necessary. I always have a really yummy reward for recall practice. So far it's been working because the few times he's gotten out w/o a leash, he's come directly back! Yay! But I still am not voluntarily letting him off leashed in unfenced areas yet. Maybe when he's a bit older. |