Can you let your husky off the leash

[Guest snowdog]

i would think about a 100 ft lead they are really good! x

[Bec]

as i say bec my opinion is that you can never guarantee, and this is something that you cannot say will never happen, but as i say its my opinion! and mick is entitled to hes wether it offends or not its good advice and not to be slated because of it, everyone differs in opinion this would be a hell of a boring site if all was roses , just puttin my opinion out there and letting you know i will not be slated for it! my advice was to the lady who asked the question . i am not asking or wanting you to prove how good you or your dogs are the advice was given to maggie, im not getting into a debate as its taking it away from all the good advice ppl have given .

I'm the one being "slated" for my opinion, Snowdog. I just wanted to respond to those who feel it's irresponsible to have your dogs off leash because 'you never know' or because 'trust is a deadly disease'

[Guest snowdog]

I'm the one being "slated" for my opinion, Snowdog. I just wanted to respond to those who feel it's irresponsible to have your dogs off leash because 'you never know' or because 'trust is a deadly disease'

no one slated you or commented on your advice bec you have slated me n mick , forget it now i have ! no one is saying its irresponsible we are saying be careful if you do , but we wouldnt do it, its our opinion can we drop it now we beg to differ ok.

[maggie84]

Thanks guys, this is really helpful and I get to tell my boyfriend 'I told you so'!. I'm happy not to let her off the leash, just need to find a closed in park nearby, where she can run around more freeful.

[Lyn]

We have 15 sibes: Oldest is 11, youngest is 10 months. All are taught recall as fortunate in having a suitably fenced paddock to practice in.

Would I let any of them off-lead in anything other than a well enclosed area?

NO!

Thats all I will say on the matter. It's been done to death and Iv'e argued myself blue in the face plenty of times, but thats my view,based on hard experience, end of!.Do what you want, but take full responsibility for what you do

[shellneil]

take him to a secure dog park..never le loose any other time, they are easily distracted and forget alll about you, DONT RISK IT

[Northenstar]

I always walk my dog on leash.She`s free to run only in secured parks,even if she`s very obedient and she comes back when called i don`t want to risk walking her without leash.

Last year I heard that a female husky ran off in the woods and the owner went after her and after a few days of missing, the owner was found shot.Neither the woods are safe for your dog to be free.

[lynnmw1208]

Even though Pongo has never showed signs of bolting because he barely leaves our patio, we still keep him on a staked lead. I just don't to take the chance. Another funny thing is, if I drop the leash, he thinks I still have it LOL Silly boy

[cyle]

NEVER!!!

[magical Merlin]

my girls go off lead every day because they respond to recall every time regardless of what is around us. They are not huskies but my feeling on recal is the same for all breeds. If you dont get it every time dont do it.

Merlin can be off lead and responds to recall every time. He is much better behaived off lead due to some of his "issues" so it works for me to be able to allow him off. Its something i worked on with him from the moment i got him home.

I do pick and choose what areas to let the dogs off in. I will never let them off it its near a road. while imo they all have perfect recall i couldnt risk them being spooked for some reason and running infront of a car.

All walks near roads are on lead to heel, then when we get to the fields they are allowed off lead.

My advise would be, if you cant guarentee recall dont let the dog off the lead regardless of the breed. While huskies have an imbuilt drive to run they can be taught to recall, however you have to start young and put in alot of work. Its not worth the risk of your dogs life if you cant get 100% recall

[davidjk]

micha and suki both just over a year old can be let off of the lead, and will return when called.

i do recall training with them virtually every day.

there are places i will not take micha because they have horses, and micha loves to anoy horses untill they chase her, but she is improving, locally there is a walk, and horse riders use the same area and they have bomb proof horses, micha doesnt bark at them at all, probably because she realises she wont get a rise out of them

[raindog]

My advise would be, if you cant guarentee recall dont let the dog off the lead regardless of the breed. While huskies have an imbuilt drive to run they can be taught to recall, however you have to start young and put in alot of work. Its not worth the risk of your dogs life if you cant get 100% recall

I'm not convinced any breed can have 100% recall (maybe a sheepdog trained border collie??), but the problem with huskies is that you can absolutely guarantee that they don't have it. What is worse, they can con you into thinking that they are 100% reliable. I seem to have said this a million times, but we have lost count of the number of distraught owners we have come across whose dogs have always had 100% recall right up until the one time when they ignored the recall command and got hit by a car. As I said above (I think) it's not just about prey drive, it is about the husky's independence. 99% of the time it may answer your commands because it has worked out that it is in his interests to do so. On that 1% occasion, he might just make the other decision.........

Mick

[Bec]

I believe there is such a thing as 100% reliable recall. I know of dogs who have been called of a bitch in heat, live prey etc. I don't think it's something your average owner can train, as you need to have a solid understanding of drive to be able to train your dog in a way that satisifes and works with his natural instincts.

A good recall is something that conditions the dog to respond without even thinking about it. They hear the recall word and respond automatically, without stopping to wonder if they should comply or not.

[magical Merlin]

i agree with bec.

[raindog]

A good recall is something that conditions the dog to respond without even thinking about it. They hear the recall word and respond automatically, without stopping to wonder if they should comply or not.

I agree that with most breeds that is a fair definition of a good recall!

But that is also why I don't believe huskies can ever have 100% recall because they are not as "suggestable" as other dogs and conditioning, whether classical Pavlovian or operant is not as effective with them. They are a "thinking" dog, not a "responding" one.

Mick

[magical Merlin]

Personnaly i think it depends on the dog you have. Merlin is *very* reliant on myself so responds every time. However he does think for himself as i believe all dogs do. I have seen several huskies off lead respond straight away. I also have lab that can not go off lead because she has no desire/need to respond to recall

[raindog]

Personnaly i think it depends on the dog you have. Merlin is *very* reliant on myself so responds every time. However he does think for himself as i believe all dogs do. I have seen several huskies off lead respond straight away. I also have lab that can not go off lead because she has no desire/need to respond to recall

Don't get me wrong. I believe strongly that all huskies should be trained to recall. Recall training has saved our dogs from several very risky situations when snap ties have broken on leads for example. Everyone who has ever met our dogs has commented on how well behaved, obedient and well trained they are. Ute and Chrystelle, in particular are excellent at obedience and will walk to heel (off lead) with no problem. BUT (and this is a huge BUT) we would still never ever put them into a situation where their safety was 100% reliant on their recall - they are too precious for that and we have seen too many similarly "obedient" sibes die unneccesarily because of misplaced trust.

Mick

[Bec]

I agree that with most breeds that is a fair definition of a good recall!

But that is also why I don't believe huskies can ever have 100% recall because they are not as "suggestable" as other dogs and conditioning, whether classical Pavlovian or operant is not as effective with them. They are a "thinking" dog, not a "responding" one.

Mick

I respectively disagree All dogs have natural instincts that dictate how their brain functions. A dog in peak prey drive - the moment they start the chase - is using the medulla, the lower cortex of their brain, the part used for primal instincts. If that's not responding to pure instinct I don't know what is! I guarantee you no Siberian working at this part of drive is thinking about his actions.

A dog trained to respond to commands IN drive allows us to have a dog with whom we can use this natural instinct and turn it into something workable. There are many reasons why this type of training helps you create a reliable dog, not just because you are utilising your dog's natural instincts but because a dog who works in drive gets a chemical reward as well - a release of endorphins, because drive is an adrenaline fuelled behaviour.

I am training my scent hound to work in drive and you can't mistake it - when she's switched on she has automatic 100% attention and focus on me, I can heel her past any distraction and she doesn't even notice it. Other dogs, scents on the ground, toys, even the food we use to train with - I can heel her up to the treat bag, filled with steak/sausage/roast chicken and she doesn't even realise it's there. It's not a conscious decision that she makes to ignore those things, she doesn't even think about them because when she's working in drive, she literally does not notice them. And that's not a breed thing (as you probably know, beagles are not known for being particularly biddable, or easy to train to a reliable point because of their incredibly strong instinct to scent) - if the dog has the drive there you can harness it and use it to your benefit.

[raindog]

if the dog has the drive there you can harness it and use it to your benefit.

If you are right on this (and I am far from convinced) then I am sure you will agree that the vast majority (probably in excess of 99.9% of Siberian owners) have neither the experience nor training to be able to achieve this level of obedience/recall with their dogs. Unfortunately however, because some people claim to have perfect recall with their sibes, others will naively assume that they too can achieve this (without the specialist training approach). This, for me, is where the danger lies and why I would rather encourage people not to let their dogs offlead in unenclosed areas, than to put their dogs at risk by doing so!

Mick

[Bec]

If you are right on this (and I am far from convinced) then I am sure you will agree that the vast majority (probably in excess of 99.9% of Siberian owners) have neither the experience nor training to be able to achieve this level of obedience/recall with their dogs. Unfortunately however, because some people claim to have perfect recall with their sibes, others will naively assume that they too can achieve this (without the specialist training approach). This, for me, is where the danger lies and why I would rather encourage people not to let their dogs offlead in unenclosed areas, than to put their dogs at risk by doing so!

Mick

I know I'm right

I agree it's not something the average owner can do without the right guidance (which is why I said so above) - which is why I also don't encourage people to let their dogs off leash unless in a secure area

Generally speaking, I won't let my Siberian off leash in an unsecure area even though he has a pretty decent recall, because I have not put him through the intensive drive program I am doing with my younger dog.

[karly_larkin]

We never let our husky or our 2 huskamutes off lead all have had recall training and they all come when called, but we would never take the risk of letting any of them off lead to be on the safe side.

It is a good idea to work on recall becasue if ever you drop the lead or they get out you know they will come back when called.

[Tootz]

From experience of owning other breeds, I do genuinly beleive that some dogs are just stubborn, but I think its a mixture of both owner and dog.

Our last dog was a retired racing greyhound, he was about 10 when we got him. He had never lived in a proper family home before, he didnt know how to sit on command and didnt know how to walk up stairs properly. We used to be able to let him off the lead and 90% of the time he was a good boy, but sometimes, for whatever reason, he just didnt want to listen - and I suppose this was our fault for trusting him too much. He would hear us calling, stop and look round at us and then just carry on trotting off. He once went through an 18 hole golf course and was bothering the golf players which was embarressing. And although he was a racing greyhound, if he saw a squirrel, it wouldnt bother him so we knew it wasnt his prey drive, we also had 4 cats and a rabbit at the time - he was just a stubborn old boy who occasionally didnt want to listen to anyone

BUT, having done our research on Sibes and after all the threads I have read on here, we won't be letting our husky boy off of the lead in an open area. We are getting him at 8 weeks old and we intend to train him on recall from day 1 but we still dont want to risk it. We had so many close calls with our greyhound, he also legged it from the front door after a walk, ran across the road and nearly got hit by a bus and returned to the fields that we had just come from!

So I think it both depends on the owner and the dog. Even if you are 100% sure that your dog won't run off, I still wouldnt like to risk it - and I think the same goes for any breed really. Dogs are hunters and you can't get rid of their natural instinct.

[Bec]

Dogs are hunters and you can't get rid of their natural instinct.

Which is why the only way to have a truly reliable dog is to direct that instinct into something you can use

[siberian_wolf]

Very interesting read everyone, loads of brilliant advise reps added

Out of all the different dogs I have owned I have never had one which I let off the lead unless in a secure enclosed area (apart from my rottie who was never off lead on his walks as people didnt like rotties where I was at the time). Jamie and his family have had dogs which they have had off the lead.

When we had Gizmo (and then Marley and Bandit later) I didnt want them off the lead but it was 4 against 1 and Jamies sister and her partner would always let them off when they took them out which I didnt like thinking about! One day I went out with them and Gizmo started to chase a horse (wild one at that) and was only inches away from getting kicked He didnt come back when we called him and when we did get him back that was it, leads on at all times ffrom then.

Ive learnt that as puppies before they start to mature into adults they can have an excellant recall and can easiliy lead their owner into a false sence of security I suppose you could put it and then all of a sudden one day they will decide to start pushing the boundries and finding something else far more intersting than the owner and then once that happens it could be too late for the lead.

[Arooroomom]

Only in the last 2 months have I been able to do this with Mickey, and Mickey only. He must be in a heel position while we walk. I don't ever just let him run free, because he would take off. While he's in heel position he's like in a "working mode" and will respond to anything i ask (even with squirrels and such running by) but taking him out of a heel... no way.

They all run free at the dog park and at the lake. I don't feel bad that they can't have the same freedoms as let's say a Lab does, i'd rather have my dog for it's entire lifespan.