Will my Patterdale ever go off Lead?

Will my Patterdale ever go off Lead?

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Quite a few people have been asking questions about recall for their Patterdale terrier. How do I train him/her to come back when called? How do I know when I can let my dog off lead? Will my Patterdale terrier ever go off lead?

Introducing our Rescue Patterdale Terrier Blake

Let me be honest about our rescue Patterdale Blake. We never thought he would be able to go off lead at all when we first got him. He was aggressive towards men and maybe hadn’t been fully socialised with other dogs (read Help! My Patterdale terrier is aggressive!). But after 2 years of VERY hard work and a great deal of recall and socialisation training, we are finally able to let him off lead in SOME situations.

Puppies off Lead

If you have a puppy, you will find that it is much easy to start letting them off the lead because they will stay with you much better than an adopted adult dog. the instinct to stay with their owner is very strong in puppies. Start to let your pup off lead in a safe place as soon as possible.

If you have adopted an adult dog, off lead walks may still be possible although not always, and a lot of recall training will be required — training your dog to come back to you when called.

Early Stages of Recall Training

In the early stages, we recommend that you book an enclosed space such as ‘Mutts off the Lead‘ and try him out off lead in a controlled environment. There are lots of places like this where you can hire a field for half an hour or an hour to do off lead work with your dog. If you can, bring in a few dog trainers and well trained dogs to see how your pooch will be with them. Here’s Blake having an off lead training session with Sky and April from Pawsitively does it.

You can also start recall training on a long line. Get a 30ft or 50ft long line lead and when you call him reward every time he comes back to you and then let him carry on playing. Many dog owners repeat this with an even…