At what stage can we start working with Darwin off-leash in our yard?

He's not yet reliable enough to be let off leash away from the house, but I'd like to start getting him to "come" from further distances than I can do in the house, or on a leash. I could get a longer line, but there are too many plants etc around that it could get snagged on.

The problem is that our garden isn't fenced and I'm worried that at the sight of another dog he could take off.

At the moment his obedience is just at the beginning: he'll come readily inside the house, and a bit less reliably when there are distractions outside. He's good at walks; he's learnt already to keep the leash loose, but we haven't started on "heel" yet. His pack behaviour is excellent, but he still gets disturbed when he sees other dogs. For those who don't know him, he's a year old Canaan who we've had from a rescue for two and a half weeks. I don't know his history; he was house trained but didn't seem to have had any obedience training.

What are the critera for starting off-leash work? 100% reliability at "come" with distractions?

Can you get a long line and take Darwin to a sports field like a football field to practice recall? I use baseball fields and tennis courts because they are fenced. It's great- there are no plants to get snagged on and it's a new place (therefore full of distractions). This excercise will let you know better how Darwin's recall is coming along. As for 100% reliability at "come" with distractions, I wonder if that even exists.

This is possible but you must use an ecollar! If you can use these where you are is a different question?

 Quote: andrew macleod

This is possible but you must use an ecollar! If you can use these where you are is a different question?

I am not sure that I understand this post.
Why "must" you use an e-collar? My Dutch comes when called, period. Never has had an e-collar on before as long as I have had him and to my knowledge he never wore one before that.

You might try using treats. The first time let him see you have a treat as you call him. After that reward him randomly and then less often.


oooo, I must have overlooked the part about only having him for two weeks. I would definitly not start offleash work yet, hes cant be totally settled in yet. I would try the treats in the yard or house, so that he gets in the habit of coming immediatly and starts to associate "come" from a ways off with good things...

I agree with Ingrid. Since you have only had him for a little over 2 weeks and he is still very young, I would not trust him in an unfenced yard for quite a long while, at least a couple more months.

The football baseball field idea is a great one. I took my pup to the local school at about 5 mos old and worked him on the track/football field. You will be surprised at how much really distracts a pup when you are trying to teach them new things. Good luck

I neglected to add to my post in this thread the reason why I prefer fenced sports fields like baseball fields and tennis courts and also focused on football (soccer to us people from the USA) fields because Arik lives in Israel and I believe that football fields are more numerous than baseball fields in Israel.

Now that I've read Arik's post on staring at other dogs, I've got an idea that a fenced area would be good for working on longline recalls. Apparently there are animals of many types roaming free around Arik's neighborhood. The fence is to protect Darwin from stray dogs, not to be a substitute for a longline. My dog is dog-aggressive, and without the fence at the baseball field, there would have been blood coming out of my dog and the stray dogs that charge the fence. I just can't control and protect my dog when she is at the end of a longline, so the fence helps me out.