How long was it before you let your dog off leash?

Unless it's an enclosed property where dogs are specifically allowed to be off-leash, they never should be.

It's illegal in many municipalities for good reasons.

Mine are never off leash. You just don't know what can happen in an environment they aren't expecting to encounter another dog. Granted it's a relatively low likelihood.

Never let you dog off leash in an uncontrolled environment. It's unfair to your dog and it's unfair to other people. Even if you believe that nobody else is around and you believe your dog has 100% recall, if you don't control the environment then you simply have no guarantee. For your dog's safety, keep it leashed.

My wife and I have both been attacked more than once by dogs off leash while their owners screamed at them and swore to us that "they never do this" blah blah blah. And they probably believed their dog was just fine off leash and maybe their dog really never had done that before. We're nervous as fuck now when we're out for a walk or in the park and we see a dog off leash. You don't know how many people like us are out there.

And I promise you, no matter how consistent your dog's recall is, when a dog is hyper-focused on something that isn't you, sometimes they hear or consider nothing else. When that happens, all your recall training will be for nothing. God forbid it chases a smell out into traffic and causes an accident or gets hit by a car, or wants to check out a parent whose kid was mauled and gets its skull caved in by the parent.

Take your dog to a designated dog park if you want them off leash.

Yeah, we've got leash laws here, not just for others' safety, but for the dog's as well. I've seen dogs get pepper sprayed for being off leash by someone who has previously been attacked.

Never. My dog is an animal and thus unpredictable, no matter how well trained it could be.

I always get annoyed when dogs that are off leash come to us during our walk. My dog is easily excitable, and pretty often the other dogs interpret it as aggressive behavior.

Edit: starting to realise this might be a very Europe-centric question, the laws for keeping dogs on a leash/ lead are very different in the UK

I visited Germany a few years ago (I am American) and I went on a walk with my German friend and her dog, leashed. We saw another dog owner down the trail with a leashed dog, and let me tell you, my jaw dropped when both owners unleashed their dogs and they greeted each other and played! This is completely unheard of where I live in America, and is only allowed in fenced dog parks that are specifically for that purpose. I'd imagine it has something to do with many dogs in the US being shelter dogs who came from traumatic situations and thus deal with ongoing behavioral issues. Dogs being off leash is dangerous here, and honestly I struggle to understand how it isn't dangerous in other settings - but I won't make judgements since I don't know enough about the situation. If you get any comments that come off as harsh, just keep in mind that it's probably coming from someone in the US who means well and just wants their dog to be safe from other dogs, and has probably been burned in the past.

I don't think either way of doing things is necessarily right or wrong, but certainly the agreed upon norms for dog ownership are very different in America vs. Europe. If I were you I might ask on a local subreddit instead (just because I'm not sure how much relevant advice you'll get when the majority of answers come from North America.)

With my first dog (now three years old), I used to let him go off-leash because we live on a big farm completely surrounded by other big farms (which is to say we have no nearby neighbors) and his recall was good. However, at some point around 12 months old or so, he got spooked by a double-trailer semi and went after it, completely ignoring my recall. I have never let him truly off-leash since, outside of contained spaces where he can't reach traffic (such as fenced parks), because his disposition is just a little too nervous for me to totally trust him. In the meantime, I have worked very hard on his recall in case there is an accident—but I will never willingly let him go off-leash again; it would take only one accident to lose him forever.

My second dog (12 months old) is scared of nothing, and also extremely owner-focused. When I take her to the park for some off-leash play, she is obsessively at my side the whole time. However, after what happened with my first dog, I intend to wait until she is at least two years old before I'll consider giving her more freedom. Her personality should be starting to settle around then. Since I have to keep my first dog leashed all the time anyway, I'm in no rush to get her off-leash, though.

Dogs around 6 months to 24 months old look like adults, but they are still maturing. They are easily distracted, they test boundaries a lot, they go through fear periods, their personalities are still changing, etc. I think this is a time to just focus on reinforcing your existing expectations, not changing your expectations. I would keep practicing recall, but don't totally trust your dog until he has finished growing up.

That being said, a fenced park is a good place to practice, so long as there are no lurking dangers (e.g., dogs who don't like your dog). As long as everything is safe, you don't necessarily need to have 100% perfect recall every single time; what you do need to do is be careful not to accidentally poison your recall cue by using in when you aren't certain your dog will obey.

Something that I have found helps is to schedule recall training and/or park visits for shortly before the dogs' evening meal so that they're good and hungry. In a distracting environment like a park, I only recall if my dog is already looking at me and has a hopeful I-want-treats expression, and this happens way more often when they're hungry!

I also find it helpful to recall frequently (basically every time my dog gives me that look), give them a quick collar grab and treat, then send them off to play again (I use the command "go play" for this). I also play games where I run away from them, and then give them really playful praise and treats when they catch me. This turns running away into a secondary recall cue which, in my experience, is more dependable and "natural" for dogs than a verbal cue because it mimics the way they play with each other.

Both of these methods are really great for teaching recall to dogs who are distracted when they have fun. Unfortunately, I don't think it works for dogs who are motivated by fear (like my older dog is around trucks) because the brain generates fear differently from other emotions, and it completely overrides them.

A lot of folks are saying never, but I want to point out that there are circumstances where it is appropriate, such as working dogs. I take mine mushroom hunting in dense forest, so it’s not feasible for me to have my dog on a leash at all times.

I don’t know what you plan on doing with your dog and I’m going to assume you will be responsible, so I’ll give my best answer. Just consider that my dog off leash in the forest has different risks than a dog off leash in an urban environment. We also don’t go off leash on public trails.

As for when to know when your dog is ready, I would base it more on where they are at training wise than age.

I start my dogs off by training them to have “auto eyes.” This is where I reward the dog just for looking at me spontaneously. Seems simple, but having a dog that checks to see what you are doing every couple minutes or so is the foundation for keeping them near you and on track. So even if my dog sees something exciting and distracting, he’ll flip his head around to peek at me and will decide to run back if he notices there’s too much distance between us.

I also have an emergency recall that is different than normal recall. This is very, very rarely used so when I do have to use it the dog responds immediately without thinking (compared with normal recall where the dog might be like “ok fine mom, but I’m going to finish sniffing this bush first”). You train them by giving it a distinct sound (people tend to default to using the dogs name in emergencies, don’t do this) and make the reward super high value every time. I see a lot of people try to achieve this “perfect recall” /every/ time they call out to their dog, but in my experience I rarely see it work out for those folks. Use it sparingly.

Once my dogs grasp both those aspects of training, I test it out at the dog park. If they do well then I let them off leash. I always re-leash when I get near a road, if I hear other people or another animal. Make it rewarding to get leashed up too, that way they don’t feel like the fun is over.

Coming at this from another perspective. I personally don't let my greyhound off leash unless he's in a fenced in yard. He has basically zero recall. However, my boyfriend's uncle had two dogs with amazing recall. They were both hit by a car in a parking lot after a nice hike. They both didn't make it. He wishes he had kept them leashed. Not trying to scare you, I had just never thought this would happen to someone I knew.

Seeing a lot of people get really upset about dogs off leash in these comments which is kind of annoying. This is honestly a really American thing to be scared of every single creature in your path. Live in the Netherlands or England or Germany and people are fine with dogs just hanging out. I've been to restaurants where the dogs just hanging out under the table.

There's some common sense that goes into it -- don't let your dog off near cars or streets. If you're in the woods and your recall is good, go for it. I go to a park/woods near my apartment where dogs are explicitly allowed to be off leash. The amount of times some idiot walking through there has gotten mad because dogs are off leash around them in a place where they're allowed and supposed to be off leash is absurd.

It took about 5 months for my dog to be fine off leash pretty much anywhere. He comes when I call, doesn't go up to others without permission, and is pretty happy overall.

Also a big thing I've noticed in the US is that most people who own dogs do not exercise them nearly enough, which also leads to issues. If you've got a high energy dog, you have to be walking it for a while. My dogs much older now and he still needs a minimum 5 miles a day.

He gets that and he's always super calm.

There is a definitely a bit of culture clash in this thread going on, but I suspect it's just because people are unfamiliar with the modus operandi of other countries when it comes to dog walking.

I am from the UK and my partner is from Italy. In both countries, there are different levels of dog off-leash acceptability and in Italy it actually seems to be more region specific (as does everything with Italy though). In both countries, off-lead walking is mostly accepted and common.

In the UK, it's totally okay to have well behaved dogs with good recall off lead during a walk through fields, woods or anywhere that isn't a residential neighbourhood or next to a busy road. However, in my experience, it is expected that the dog remain close to the owner and when another person or dog is spotted, they are recalled and potentially put back on lead until it's make clear by both parties that the dogs can interact (which would be typical).

I think it is really bad form when a dog is allowed to effectively free roam and approach people and dogs without permission. One recent situation that really annoyed me was when I was in a public park with my son (massive green space with trees, tennis courts, flowered areas, etc) and we were playing catch with a tennis ball. On a missed catch, my son went to collect the ball and was beaten to it by a springer spaniel with no apparent owner in sight. We both try to encourage the dog to drop the ball, but what it actually did was to keep dropping it until we approached and then picked it back up and ran away.

Eventually, a family nearby turned from their picnic to see what had happened and came to take the ball from their dog. They had to take it by force and by the time we got it back it was a dirty, soggy mess. They tried to laugh it off as "dogs huh, what can you do?". We didn't find it funny and I recall one of them saying to another that we needed to lighten up, not so discreetly.

Anyway, I think it's totally acceptable for a well trained dog to be kept off leash and close by, but the concept it ruined by irresponsible owners who don't seem to understand that not everyone is as keen to interact with their dog as they are.

I've got a dachshund, he's off the lead at the park and knows the regular dogs and steers clear of strangers because that's how we've trained him. He's extremely well trained and has been since we got him (trust me, Dachshunds are the sheer concept of stubborn!) We took him off the lead around 14 weeks and started small, worked heavily on his recall and 'come here' responses and they work really well 99.99% of the time. Other times, he's got his face in a hedge and can't hear you over the smell until you call his name a second time.

We just have to be wary of kids and adults who think Sausage Dog = ALWAYS FUN, and not 8 kilos of Grumpy Badgerhunter. So, Rather than judge our pup and deprive him of being able to run free for a bit, we (Wife and I) watch people coming up and near him. We get him to sit next to us if we're not comfortable with people approaching (kids, bicycles, scooters) or strange dogs. Dachshunds and dogs in general will let you know via body language that they've seen something they want to get stuck into / sniff / chase as long as you're really aware of it (Our boy freezes and lowers himself down slightly, a few quick name calls snap him out of it and we can control him.) Our biggest problem is people letting their dog try and walk all over him, again... not realising what he's actually bred to do and then wondering what's going on when he gets barky at their dog despite being informed multiple times to control their animal ("OH BUT AREN'T THEY CUTE!" No, they aren't.)

He's on the lead every time we're outside of the park. He's then carabiner clipped to myself or my wife around our belt, so even if we drop the lead... he's going no more than eight feet from us and we've got control really quickly.

Start small, train your pup well and keep it up and maintain it. Re-enforce good behaviour as much as you can, even at home! It makes everything so much easier when they're bigger.

UK here. I have a 4 year old chocolate nutjob Lab and a 5 year old springer/poodle cross. Both of them are dappy as can be and love meeting and greeting other dogs.

For both dogs, once they had established good recall at home and then long leash at the park, they were allowed off lead in area dog areas, beaches and nature reserves. That probably started at the 9 month mark. For street walking, built up areas, anywhere there is traffic, they are on lead at all times.

I had a St Bernard who had exactly the same upbringing and he was awesome until he was about 7, then he became stubborn, disobedient and grumpy. Basically, he became an old man. At that point, he was leashed at all times, just long at the park and rolling fields.

European here! I got my dog (small mutt, 12 kilos) from the shelter when she was 2.5 years old. It took me a while to let her off the leash, because I had no clue how she would react. She had opportunities in dog school to be unleashed in an enclosed space and reacted well, so I slowly (after 6 months or so) started letting her off her leash in relatively safe spaces - in the green areas behind my apartment building, in the park (learned that she would chase squirrels if she saw one so back on the leash she went), on short hikes in the woods etc. This helped me get more familiar with her behaviour and see how good her recall is.

I now unleash her in certain situations when I know there's close to no danger for her. My workspace is dog friendly and she's leashed on the bus but unleashed during the majority of the walk to the office building, because it's mostly among apartment buildings/green areas and she can sniff around at her own pace. I leash her when we get to the road. She's leashed anywhere where we might encounter mounted police because she loses her head completely when she sees horses, but she's unleashed on nature paths and in enclosed bar/pub gardens because she's a well behaved, friendly dog who will leave people alone unless they interact with her, and doesn't tend to chase after things (squirrels and horses being the exception, so she's leashed in places where she could see one).

I'm also always aware od where she is and what she's doing, and happy to leash her if someone asks (only happened once in the 6 years I've had her). I've definitely done the 'unclip the dog so she can play' thing someone else mentioned - I just make sure that it's safe for her to run around a bit!

Like many other commenters here, I never let my dog off leash.

The most we will do is put him on an extra long leash and let it drag behind him near us, but this is only in an area that's blocked off to traffic and not many people around.

I have an Australian Shepard and while they are very smart dogs and usually listen well, they are still animals with a mind of their own. If something gets my dogs attention I would much rather have control over him than just hope he listens to my commands.

Why would I do that? This is not about laws, there are no laws preventing me from doing so. But dogs are, you know..., stupid.