Moving To Off-leash

[Misteri]

Hi everyone,

My dog and I are preparing to trial at CCD level, and everything is coming along nicely except for anything that requires her to be off leash. For the off leash heeling lead out for the recall exercise, we get maybe one or two steps before she's off and away. I have tried luring her forward but she quickly loses interest and would rather smell the grass/fence or tease the other leashed dogs. Once I get her into the sit-stay she is very steady and comes perfectly when called. It's just getting her through that short bit of heeling at the beginning that's the hard part!

For the stay exercises, she is really steady with me about 5m away and the leash dropped to the ground beside her. We've only tried it once off leash - she got up and so I put her back on leash before she could distract the other dogs. At home I have been working on proofing the stay command with the leash coming on and off, and it's going well, so I will be trying this at school soon.

Other than the dog park and at our local oval when there's no one else around, she hasn't spent that much time off leash. So when she's off, it's this huge novelty and she just wants to zoom around and play. How can I teach her that it's still time to work even though the leash is off? Should I go back to teaching heel off leash like she's a beginner?

[Weasels]

Should I go back to teaching heel off leash like she's a beginner?

I would say yes :)

I am the opposite, leashes annoy me so I have invested a lot of my training into off-leash reliability. I reward passive attention, "checking-in" with me, uncued heeling, I randomly pull out toys if they are near to me, basically put in a lot of ground-work to make being near me super-rewarding for minimal effort of my dogs' part (As well as recall training etc.). And in as many different locations as it is safe and allowed to let them off. I've also built up a "go-sniff" cue so they get a chance to explore their environment but only as a reward for doing something else first :)

Just a few little things which might help, I sure others will have lots more suggestions

[wuffles]

Should I go back to teaching heel off leash like she's a beginner?

I would say yes :)

I am the opposite, leashes annoy me so I have invested a lot of my training into off-leash reliability. I reward passive attention, "checking-in" with me, uncued heeling, I randomly pull out toys if they are near to me, basically put in a lot of ground-work to make being near me super-rewarding for minimal effort of my dogs' part (As well as recall training etc.). And in as many different locations as it is safe and allowed to let them off. I've also built up a "go-sniff" cue so they get a chance to explore their environment but only as a reward for doing something else first :)

Just a few little things which might help, I sure others will have lots more suggestions

:thumbsup:

It sounds like she has learnt that the leash coming off is a "release" cue. My competition dog sees the leash coming off as a chance to do work and get rewards! I take the leash off and she bounces around me, offers heelwork and generally annoys me until I tell her "free" which is her cue to go explore/sniff. Like Weasels says I did (and still do) a lot of attention games, rewarding check-ins, lots of off leash play, etc. A long line can also be a good place to start :)

[Misteri]

Thanks guys, I will give those suggestions a go :)