Off leash dog training is– at it’s beginning stages– really a mind game that you play with your dog.
The first step is to let your dog drag a long line, anytime you’re outside or in a setting where you will want your dog to respond reliably, off leash. Your long line should be long enough that if your dog should decide to run off, you can easily step on the long line and teach him that he needs to come when you call him.
We do repetitions by making the dog come, with the long line. There are three phases to this training:
1. The teaching phase, when we teach your dog what ‘come’ means.
2. The reinforcement phase: When the exercise gets drummed into your dog’s brian through repetition. This ensures that your dog completely understands the command and begins the process of building a conditioned response.
3. The proofing phase: When we work the dog around a variety of different distractions and in several different types of environments.
The next phase is to transition to the tab (a one foot leash).
Once your dog has learned that he cannot run away from you, you’re ready to transition to the tab. This will allow you to walk to your dog and correct him. For example, if you tell him, “Down” at a distance, you will use the tab after you walk to your dog and correct him into the down position.