A friend of mine has a 4 year old yorkie boy who is always off leash. We live in downtown Toronto and there are a lot of things to distract him (squirrels, pigeons, other dogs, people, cars and roads EVERYWHERE), but he's so well trained that he sticks by and only goes to check things out when he's told he can. You can actually see him looking up at his owner every few moments to see what he should be doing and where he should be going. It's remarkable, to say the least!
I'm currently training June the basics of off-leashing, though I don't really intend to ever let him off leash. He's a terribly reactive barker towards all other dogs so I wouldn't trust him off leash - I just want a good walker! My approach is to teach him that he's to be right beside my right foot at all times unless I tell him otherwise. I'm working on training June "Go see" to let him know he can go off and "back" to let him know I want him right back beside my right foot. We've been working on it for about three weeks. It's a slow process for us because I got June at 6 yrs and with no previous obedience training, but if you're consistent you should see progress.
To teach June I wanted him to always be by my right foot I would keep him on a short leash and stick my foot out to block his path every time he tried to walk ahead and give him a verbal command at the same time (so for me I would say back). If he managed to get ahead of me before I can block his path with my foot (as it does take some coordination while walking) then I would immediately stop walking and give him the 'back' command. If he's really not getting it you can lower the leash down to his eye level and tug it GENTLY while saying 'back'. You don't want to pull him, you want him to move himself to where he's supposed to be. I find that June naturally seems to understand that he should follow the line of the leash so that's how I got him to understand I wanted him to come back to my side. Teaching them they can go off is easier. Anytime June caught a scent and wanted to go sniffing I would tell him to stay back for a few moments and then say "Ok smell" or "Ok go see".
So if you can master having him right at your side and, as Britster said, if you can also master recall then you should have a yorkie that stays by your side, goes off when you let him/her, and comes back when recalled. I feel like I really didn't do a very good job of explaining all of this... but this is way too long already. |