Is walking Stella on lead a sign of training failure? :-)

Hi,
I wanted to ask... I have always thought that walking a dog on lead is something like a failure to train the dog properly.
I am hoping that Stella enjoys her walks on lead enough because I can't let her off in busier parks too much because she is very exuberant and she wants to greet everybody.
She used to be off lead more when she was tiny and stayed with me but when she grew up she can run quite far away and it is just not possible.
I keep on the recall training with treats and stuff; now I started the "watch" command when she is on lead to teach her to say somehow "connected" because when I let her off she usually completely looses interest in me if she sees anything interesting
She is 14 months old so she is still very young....
Do you think she will get the message?
Do you think that lets say 1-2 runs off lead and rest of walks on lead are OK and would be OK for the future if I was not able to train her better? She gets enough exercise - 3-4 walks per day 30-60 minutes each on average so I guess it is fine?
I plan to attend some more classes and maybe speak to a trainer about how to reinforce the recall.

It's just that I think about it quite often.
She did seem to have calmed down couple of weeks ago but now when she recovered from the neutering on 19 July she is really so full of energy that it is incredible, bless her But god help me

Thanks for any thoughts x

It takes training to have a dog walk at heel on a relaxed lead. It is certainly not a training failure if your dog is only walked on lead. Most urban areas have by-laws which insist that dogs are on leash at all times in public areas. (At least this is the case in South Africa). Tyson does work totally off lead at training and when we practice however I do keep him on lead when walking in the suburbs for his safety.

Cheers:-)
Yes I think it is better for the dog's safety and for general courtesy as well.
I would love to be sure Stella is safe off lead but she is not. She can be bonkers sometimes

x

It only takes for a car to backfire or something and scare her , it's not worth thinking about the consequences, wherever possible both of mine are off lead as Tommy follows Tilly but as soon as we are withing 50 yards of the road its back on

I don't think it's a failure at all. In fact I think it's the responsible thing to do for the dogs safety, your peace of mind and a couretsy to everyone else. We only allow Suki off lead in a closed in area so she isn't at risk.

We do use a long lead very often to give her some freedom to roam while maintaining control.

jstaff wrote:I don't think it's a failure at all. In fact I think it's the responsible thing to do

Totally agree.

Moo is never onlead when we are in the park, she ignores ither dogs tbh and when in the woods I loose her, she loves a chase (prey drive) but again its so vast we barely meet people.

She is still young so keep up with the training, but there is nothing wrong with walking a dog onlead so don't worry there Xx

well if it is everyone is a failure. it is responsible to walk a dog on a lead, not a failure. some dogs recall, some dont. perosnally i get more annoyed at people who walk their dogs down the street off lead, allowing it to bump into anyone, run in and out of shops and walk across roads without a care in the world.

Before Mazda went deaf she was always off lead, she never left my side excellent recall etc, Now she has to be onlead unless in a place (beach etc) I can get her attention before she wanders near a road.
But big BUT Kodi is onlead permently as he has the attention span of a nat!! He's never run off but he'l wander far and once he decides somethings better than my treats he just wanders off and goes deaf

To be honest I think (expecially round my area) staffies are better onlead so they cant be blamed for attacks or starting fights, Here theres many loose dogs staffies included so if they approach me (I know which ones r DA) If mine are onlead I can get them off the floor/over a wall etc before they get hurt

Baileys on lead if we're near a busy road or if the park is overly busy! Otherwise he's off. My other dog is never on a lead, infact come to think of it she doesn't even have a lead! She never even had a collar up until recently, more fool us, when we got Bailey!

We rehomed a 2 year old who had not had any training or socialising at all when we got her. She is loads better off the lead with other dogs than on the lead. We are currently training to go of the lead in areas with more dogs. Maggie loves toys and now I have trained her to bring the toy back. I started letting off the lead with the toy away from all the dogs on the beach. Then just granually let her closer to the other dogs and people. Saturday she was really good there were quite a few dogs in a small area and all she wanted was her toy!!

Our next step will be to gradually reduce the number of times we throw the toy for so she is paying more attention to the dogs and people

I wouldn't see it as a training failure, far from it. You are being a responsible dog owner. Rocky is on his lead about 90% of the time when we are out with him. We only have one place where we can let him off and that is out of town with no other distractions.

Our local park is usually full of clique groups of dog walkers anyway and wouldn't get caught up with them.

I walk Troy everywhere on a lead except for on open fields and woodland etc where there are no people or dogs around.

If a cat ran in front of him there is no way he is not going to chase it. He just reacts and tries to chase when he is on the lead!

You know, I never thought about it. Callie is always on lead except in our yard, it's the law in our county.