Off lead, so underrated

After last week’s walk with friends and first time both of my girls are off lead, I’ve decided to continue trying to work off lead

Walking off lead is very complicated for me as I’m so scared of losing my girls, but I see a huge change in both of them by giving them my trust. They have the choice and responsibility to stay near me, I underestimated the power of walking off lead and staffy trust

I decided to take the girls on an walk this morning before Opium’s obedience lesson at the canine club.
I let the girls off the lead when the coast was clear on the bridlepaths.
Clearly the work I’ve been doing with Opium shows with her impeccable recall (which I doubted I had). Nifty however still has very selective terrier hearing and she’s in no hurry to come back to me when I call

The huge difference I see is in Opium’s behaviour during her lesson afterwards. It’s a heatwave here so the intention was to keep it short and sweet. Opium didn’t put a paw wrong so short was even shorter than anticipated !
Well done Opium, you made me so proud of you today  

Can I ask why you have waited so long to let them off lead? 1st walk up to the field at the top of our lane, Katy was off lead. She never strayed far from us & still doesn't, admittedly she does have selective hearing sometimes on recall but we are working on that

Didn’t trust me and being able to convince them to come back to me

For me they were off lead at home in the garden and on walks, they (I) would not be a liability with them on leads.
I know, odd reasoning but I’m working on it

In my defense, I also had a bad experience with baby Nifty whilst at puppy school. I let her off the lead and she proceeded to run off across the grounds in the opposite direction to me to jump up on the other owners who were just arriving. I was so scared and ashamed that it was any kind of lead thereafter.

Ahh yes I can understand that We are lucky where I live, my lane is a dead end leading into fenced fields so Katy can't get into too much mischief! As long as we keep an eye out for sheep & cows! She won't even look at the sheep but she's scared of the cows
Keep working on the recall & they will be fine
Have you started STAS?

Not yet
I have received everything, now just need to view and apply

Yeah to be honest I’m always afraid letting Luna off the lead but we have done it at least once a week since she was 4 months old. I only let her off when I’m walking with my boyfriend because when she doesn’t listen and he puts in an angry voice she comes running back straight away. She’s always been good tho in the way that she stays close to us, she zooms up a bit then zooms back past us and in circles around us

We’re lucky in the way that there’s a big field 3minute walk from our estate so we have always brought her there so she can burn off her energy.

You can actually see how thankful she is afterwards, she just slowly walks beside me no pulling or nothing on the way back just looking at me with a big happy smile she usually behaves better for the rest of the day, it’s like she wants to listen to me more because I listened to her

Went to walk by the lake again this morning. Deliberately went very early for morning freshness during our heatwave and to avoid having too many people around.
Both conditions fulfilled so I made the most of letting the girls off lead.

Opium really has great recall, even when she recognized the route to water front (for a quick dip !)
Nifty, however, has confirmed her very selective hearing so she was put back on the lead several times  It’s strange because most of the time, she’ll stay very close to me whilst Opium is up ahead but when she wanders, near impossible to get her back.

Definitely gotta work on the STAS

I'm only half way through STAS so only showing half results so far In this heat I'm only doing toilet breaks so I suppose it's the equivalent to ditching the walks