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Originally Posted by kreuer  Great information. At what age did you start this off-leash training? |
I can't recall but what is important is I didn't start it until Tibbe was always coming, stopping and waiting on command inside, outside in the backyard off leash of course and then I felt I had to trust him for short periods in order to train him off leash in the front yard. I'd not want to try the training on a dog under one year of age as I'd want to be sure he was done growing and maturing neurologically and his brain fully developed, his impulse control better contained and some judgment attained by him and I'm not sure how old they have to be for all that to take place. Plus, it takes a few months of consistent command following and the dog showing a consistent pattern of good judgment before you can trust him for even a short period of time off leash or dropping the leash to start.
That's how I started as I recall, by putting him on a 25 foot long lead and dropping it and we started the training that way. Then we transitioned to a short, dropped lead training and finally, no lead on him but held in my hand so he got the message he could maybe get hooked up anytime. At last, no lead except on the porch or wrapped up in my pocket. Probably took a total of two years to get to that point of no lead at all.
We started very, very basic obedience training when he was about 10 1/2 or 11 months old after living the first 9 months of his life alone in a cage outside in a shed so he was kennel crazy and wild as a hare. He was a dedicated door-darter. His first obedience training commands were come, sit, stay/wait, stop, lie down, leave it/drop it(the drop-it is much harder to teach but vital) and then other basic tricks after that.