Is Off-Leash Walking a Bad Idea?

I set out to write a post about how I trained/am training Delia’s off-leash skills, but there was so much preamble that I felt was necessary before I could get into it that it finally became obvious this needed to be its very own post. So before I can share the methods I have found helpful in training off-leash reliability, I guess let’s first talk about whether it’s even a good idea to let your dog off-leash.

I feel the need to preface with all of this because the idea of dogs being off-leash is a little bit controversial. I want to be sensitive to the fact that some people have had bad experiences with off-leash dogs. Other people own a dog that is dog-reactive, and they just want to be able to enjoy their walk without having it ruined because they’re constantly accosted by other people’s dogs. These arguments are valid. But dogs being off-leash isn’t the problem here. The problem is lack of training and people being irresponsible, right?

It is your responsibility as a dog owner to be responsible. Responsibility includes ensuring that your dog does not infringe on the safety, comfort, and experience of other people and dogs. It also means that you must comply with applicable laws, ordinances, rules, and so forth. It is never the intention of this blog to encourage irresponsibility. But we don’t have throw out the many joys and benefits that off-leash exercise brings with the bathwater of letting one’s dog run wild and terrorise others, do we?

Dogs Off-Leash—A Wild Concept?

In our society currently, dogs are more contained than they have ever been before. Most family dogs in the States spend the majority of their day confined indoors, sometimes with free access to a small yard, but often not. For many dogs, when they leave the house, it’s on a 6ft leash or shorter, and they go the same, unvaried route around a suburban neighbourhood—the ritual of the daily walk. We are so used to this that we accept it as normal, but just a generation ago, things weren’t this way. Dogs spent the majority of their time outdoors, and they had autonomy to do what they pleased with that time. Often, they were allowed to freely roam their neighbourhood with the other neighbourhood dogs.

And that is how dogs still live in the majority of the world. Where I lived in Insein, a township that’s part of the city of Yangon in Myanmar, most of the street dogs in my neighbourhood did have families they belonged to. But during the day they roamed about, played, mated, scavenged, begged, found places to nap in the shade. They were extremely stable and well-adjusted dogs. They were friendly if you approached them, and ignored you if you ignored them. There was a family of dogs that lived on the corner of the lane that led to my apartment building. When I would run to the shop, especially in the evening, the male that seemed to be the father of the puppies would greet me when I emerged from the lane and escort me to the shop and back. One had the distinct impression that the block very much belonged to him, in the sense that he took responsibility for it. Nothing would happen on his watch. He was friendly but not effusive. The mother of the pups was one of those super sweet and submissive dogs who pretty much grovels at your feet if you offer attention to her. Man, I really loved those dogs!

Anyhow. I’m not suggesting that the idea of free-range pet dogs is without problems in the modern world. Pet dogs running free in American neighbourhoods meant a lot of them got hit by cars and resulted in a huge overpopulation issue. In recent years, professionals have noted an uptick in serious behaviour issues, including dog aggression and human aggression, and it would be horribly negligent to let such dogs loose. All I’m saying is, this paradigm of dogs needing to always be contained in some way is not a fundamental law of nature, if that makes sense.

While leashes are a terrific management tool, they are not without issues. It is very common for dogs that are not reactive off-leash to be reactive on-leash. A number of factors contribute to this, from unconscious signals that the human is giving to the inability to flee from stimuli that the dog sees as dangerous. Dog-to-dog interactions tend to go much better without leashes, and many if not most trainers will advise against letting your dog meet other dogs while on-leash. Again, that doesn’t mean we should all burn our leashes. They are an excellent and necessary tool. I’m just saying that they’re not without issues, and dogs can handle themselves quite well without them in a lot of situations.

Why Do This Thing?

Put very simply, it can make the walk enjoyable for everyone. I don’t have to stop walking and hover impatiently while my dog sniffs a spot on the ground, nor do I have to rush her. I can simply keep walking, and she can catch up to me when she’s ready. And my dog doesn’t have to wait on me while I stop and take a picture. In short, it removes the frustration that can develop for either end of the leash.

Freedom of movement allows the dog to exercise and explore. An off-leash walk lends itself much more readily to being effective as a decompression walk.

Anecdotally, I have found that it forms a stronger bond between me and my dogs, and results in their responding more quickly to my cues. I’m not the only person who has had this experience.

Now, that isn’t to say that you aren’t meeting your dog’s needs unless you walk him off-leash. You can achieve many of the same benefits with a non-restrictive harness and a long-line. And there’s no judgement if you feel better sticking with that option. In fact, there are some things that may make it a good idea.

Things to Consider

I don’t think you can necessarily make blanket statements that certain breeds can never be trained to be reliable off-leash. However, in many cases, I think it’s what I’d call functionally never. “Functionally never” is defined by me as: it could be done, but it would require the kind of skill, time, and dedication that would make many people question whether it’s actually worth it. And for your average dog owner who isn’t that into dog training, it probably just isn’t.

It’s much like what I talked about in my post regarding dog parks. You have to consider the dog and the human.

For the dog, think about what kind of dog you have. What kinds of things were in their historic job description? Do those things translate well to taking direction or at the very least staying near you off leash? Or will you have to attempt to override genetics with learning, and constantly work to keep that strong?

For example, gun dogs were bred to work in close cooperation with the hunter, whereas scent hounds were bred to follow a scent no matter what, to the exclusion of other stimuli (which includes you screaming your dog’s name), while the hunter followed them. One of these jobs is going to lend itself much more readily to being off leash in a modern context.

Again, learning is still a big piece of the puzzle. But in some cases, it is going to be an uphill battle, and it might be better to stick with a long-line unless you’re in a fenced area.

Next, consider yourself. How much training are you actually willing or able to put in? And, as with all training, this is something you need to continually reinforce. It’s not something you’re ever just finished with. And the more difficult it is for your dog to stay near you and come when you call, the harder you’re going to have to work to counteract that.

And your personal comfort matters too. The fact is that you can never guarantee your dog’s safety while they are off-leash. Now, of course, you can’t guarantee your dog’s safety at all times in the house, or in the yard. And dogs have been attacked by other dogs while they were on-leash. But it would be disingenuous to pretend that being off-leash does not present inherent dangers. And if you just aren’t comfortable with that, your feelings are valid, and there’s no reason you should have to put them aside. Your dog can still have an amazing life, and I can guarantee she loves you either way.

Lastly, consider the consequences of a mistake. Because no matter how rigorous the training, no matter how obedient the dog, it is inevitable that your dog will, at some point, make a mistake. That’s the nature of being a living being and not a programmable robot. So you need to think about your dog and her patterns of behaviour, and imagine what the outcome is likely to look like. If the cost of a mistake is you feeling foolish while your dog runs triumphant circles around you with a dead fish in its mouth, but then eventually comes back to you, that’s annoying, but not really harmful. (If this example sounds suspiciously specific, you’re right.) If the cost is your dog sprinting right into a road you didn’t know was that close to the trail, or getting into an altercation with someone else’s dog, or just taking off and never looking back like Red Dog in Funny Farm, that’s not a risk I would personally be willing to take.

TLDR; Consider whether your dog’s genetics will make it easier or harder for him to listen to you off leash, and consider how much time you’re realistically willing to spend training and continuing to train this behaviour. Finally, consider how bad the consequences of the inevitable mistake might be.

Okay, So What About Corgis?

Pembroke Welsh corgis are a herding breed, and, as herding dogs were bred to work in close cooperation with humans, herding breeds on the whole tend to do quite well off leash.

However.

In my post about searching for a breeder, I mentioned how one of the breeders I talked to told me flat out that if I unclipped the leash on one of her corgis, I would never see that dog again. She also told me that the herding instinct had been all but bred out of the lines that she used. I also had a conversation while waiting at the vet with a lady who said she judged AKC dog shows, and she told me quite confidently that, “Pembrokes are not really herding dogs. They’re in the herding group, but they behave more like Spitzes.” (We weren’t talking about off-leash walks, this was just a general statement.)

Is this true? Oh, I’m a terrible person to ask, as my experience with corgis is pretty limited; I’m on my very first one. As far as what the corgi breeder told me, it seems reasonable to me that breeding away from herding instinct is going to correlate with less reliability off leash, as that intense desire to work in cooperation with the human is part of the cluster of behaviours and tendencies that go with herding, right?

As far as what the lady at the vet told me…I’m going to say that maybe her statement was hyperbolic, for lack of a better term. Without question, the most common behavioural complaints people have against their Pembrokes (nipping at heels, barking at movement, “bossiness” and general controlling behaviour, etc. etc. etc.) are very much herding breed traits. On the other hand, I believe I understand what she’s saying. I think she’s referring to that hard-headedness and independent spirit, though I would tend to attribute this to the difference between cattle dogs vs. sheep dogs—still very much herding dogs, but with some stubbornness baked in, as sometimes disobedience to the handler’s command is actually in the best interests of all involved. Another thing to consider is that the pembs she tends to encounter judging AKC conformation events are probably from the same or similar lines as the aforementioned breeder uses, in which case, the herding instinct may not be very strong.

I must say that my own experience with Cordelia has been pretty comparable to the experience I had with Eleanor, the Australian shepherd I fostered. There are differences. For instance, Eleanor found following my direction to be rewarding on its own, whereas I generously pay Delia in food. I felt more comfortable letting Eleanor completely off-leash, whereas with Delia I find myself leaving a leash to drag behind her, just in case. And while Eleanor at times would insist on her own way, she conceded much more readily than Delia does at such times. With Eleanor, the “conversation” would go something like this:

Me: Let’s go this way.

Eleanor: But I want to go this way. See? I’m indicating to you that I want to go down this path.

Me: I see you, I acknowledge you…But we’re going this way.

Eleanor: Okay, that’s cool.

Whereas with Delia, there is a lot more back-and-forth before she finally agrees to go my way. You really have to dig your heels in if you’re going to out-stubborn a corgi.

Am I going to say that all corgis will readily take to off-leash training? Of course I’m not going to make a statement like that. But I would say that for many corgis, it’s probably not a wild idea. You know your own corgi and can make the determination for yourself.

Further Reading

As always, I’m not an expert, and this post was just my musings on the subject. The long and short of it is, you have to decide what’s going to be best for you and your dog. Just be open to the idea that letting dogs off-leash isn’t always a horrible, irresponsible thing to do. For a lot of people and dogs, it’s very beneficial.

I want to link to this very good article by Patricia McConnell on this subject. She actually is an expert and I always enjoy reading whatever she writes. And here’s another article I found. This one is from VCA Hospitals website. There’s tons more out there, lots of podcast episodes that address recall training, off-leash hikes, etc. These were just a couple of articles that I found which specifically addressed the safety concerns. But you can definitely dive much deeper into this topic if you’re interested.

So, with that, I’ll be able to return for my regularly scheduled Monday post and talk about what worked for me in terms of actually training this. If you don’t want to miss that post, please consider subscribing to this blog (bottom of the page.) And have a lovely day!