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Allowing Your Australian Shepherd Off Leash

I was wondering when you know that it is ok to let your Australian Shepherd off leash and that he won't run away. If you already taught him to come and stay and the basic commands and then you take him off leash, let's say in your front yard. I live in a subdivision, then will he start to run to different houses or will he stay by you because he wants to please you and he knows how to stay and come?

Comments for Allowing Your Australian Shepherd Off Leash

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Re: Off Leash
by: kym

You know your dog better than anyone when it comes to what it knows,doesn't know,how reliable,dependable,and behaved it is. Unless your dog is 100% reliable I personally would not take the chance. Unless your dog listens to you ALL the time,EVERY time, I would not take the risk. If your dog comes regardless of the distractions:dogs running,barking,chasing,kids,running,screaming,chasing,cars driving by without chasing, etc. THEN your dog is ready to go off leash. If you cant trust your dog with every ounce of your being DONT let your dog off leash! It would be devistating to see your family pet get hit by a car,or attacked by another dog before your very eyes. You can always practice your dogs 'recall' techniques in an enclosed area first. Use a dog park or baseball field to enforce your commands using a long rope(I like laundry cording).Call your dog,if he doesnt listen,pull him toward you,and reward.Do this OFTEN! Then, when you are confident he will listen to ALL your commands ALL the time he is ready but not until then.

off leash isnt a skill, its the effect of your dog trusting and respecting you
by: Ryan

All you need to do is bond with your aussie. He should respect you. If he knows you're the alpha, he will follow you. If he starts to stray away, give him a stern "hey" and he'll get back in line. My aussie has been going on walks with me all around the neighborhood since she was 4 months without a leash. Since she was a puppy we'd go get the mail together, take out the trash together, and do yard work in the front yard together. A dog walking off leash isn't a skill, its the effect of your dog trusting and respecting you.

Walk
by: Camila

Taking the pup off leash and teach him how to walk next to you is a great idea, but when you have an already grown up dog, it's better if you first teach the dog how to walk next to you with the leash on.

About the alpha stuff, that's not completely true. The dog may respect you and at the same time run away because he hasn't been taught about what to do or how to behave.

You can have a loyal dog, a disobedient dog or a submissive dog; all of them might run away even though they respect you, if you didn?t establish rules or you haven?t, the dog doesn?t know how to really behave but with instinct of following, running away or else.

I really dislike that ?alpha? thing; we need to be leaders, not ?alphas?. The dog respects you for what you give to them, not for what you are. It would be better to bond friendship relationships and not a hierarchy one; one that gives equality; that will bring respect and a more open human-dog relationship.

5 month old Aussie
by: Chloe

Hi all, I am new to this page and would love some advice!!

My 5 month old Aussie male pup is very good at all of his tricks and will come 90% of the time (even with certain distractions)! However I'm not confident enough to allow him off his long line just in case. I take him to two training classes every week and he doesn't seem to pay much attention to me just in the other puppies. Am I expecting a little bit too much from him at the moment? As I put in a lot of hard work and time to train him so that he is very obedient.
I would love to do agility in the further with him but worry his attention will not be with me?

Loyal Aussies
by: Dallin

We have a 8 month old Mini Aussie who we love! We just ordered (that should be here today) a 50 ft long leash so we can take her to the park and see how she does with staying near us. It will be nice to play fetch with her at an open park and not be worried!

Our pup LOVES people. She likes dogs too, but will lick every person to death she sees. She does great on walks and at home will always stay by our side. It's the best to have a dog so loyal, and we will see if we can eventually get her to go off-leash.

Cheers.

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