No, not really. There is enough separation from the streets, and he is reliable enough that I feel safe doing it. If I have cheese, and the e collar, his recall is 99%...

wpskier222 wrote:

No, not really. There is enough separation from the streets, and he is reliable enough that I feel safe doing it. If I have cheese, and the e collar, his recall is 99%...

Hehehe: If I have cheese I have....VELCRO DOG!!!

I'd love to have Layla off-leash in an unfenced area but her prey drive is just too high to risk it. She's very food-motivated but once she gets sight of a small animal (and we have many in our area!) her focus is totally gone and nothing will bring her back until the animal's out of sight. For us an e-collar isn't an option, either, so on the leash she will stay. Good for you, though, with Diz!

So, this is about halfway through our walk this morning. He was pretty tired because he had been chasing his boxer friend, Bella, around, but to see him approach two muppet dogs and not either stalk, pounce, or go bounding up to them was pretty great! He's definitely maturing. You can see him start to go into the stalking behavior at the beginning, his head goes down, and then he relaxes and approaches nicely. Yay!!! Yes, he is off-leash as well...

Also, I just want to make a little disclaimer here... Dizzy is awesome off-leash, and it's a combination of things, partly hard work and training, partly the training tools/methods I used, and a big part his temperament. Not every dog, especially huskies, can be trusted off-leash. Some never can be. My first husky, Tasha, would take off on an adventure when she got off-leash. No matter how much time and effort I put into her training, I never felt safe allowing her off-leash. Dizzy doesn't get the sled head like she did...

Awesome - I hope I can get Ami to that point (I've initiated the exchange for the SD collar - the mini educator arrives mid-week)

I love how the Diz master holds his tail!

Dizzy has a new buddy, Bella, who is a boxer. They get to play just about every morning and have a blast!

She plays rough just like Diz:



And they love to play chase:

I envy your off-leash and just how awesome Dizzy is with other dogs. Does he ever just run Bella clean over when they are playing chase though? Kenzi and Keno chase then Kenzi just slams him and sends him rolling. It's quite brutal.

Yeah, they do that to each other sometimes. Today she tried to body slam him and missed and slammed her side right into a tree, I mean you heard a thawack sound! He is getting better about rolling other dogs over, and usually only does it in the dog park oddly enough, I can usually call him off a chase if I need to when he's off leash just not in the dog park, but with Bella they are really rough with each other and play well together. They run each other down and then some how end up sending the other one rolling. She's one of the few that plays at his level of roughness... He has def met his match with her, I've never seen another dog keep up with him the way she does.

Looks like fun for everyone - that's how Ami and Archer play - they go rolling, skidding, hauling each other around by fur, limbs, tail - whatever is handy! Though Archer is a little wary of body-slamming since the time he came at Ami a zillion mph and went...to China via Mars  

The boxer my cousin has plays really rough too, so I can imagine that they would make great companion breeds. Keno is getting better at dodging her, which only adds fuel to her fire, but he hasn't managed to knock her down yet. She loses her footing in sharp turns and crashes a lot on her own though.

TwisterII wrote:

The boxer my cousin has plays really rough too, so I can imagine that they would make great companion breeds. Keno is getting better at dodging her, which only adds fuel to her fire, but he hasn't managed to knock her down yet. She loses her footing in sharp turns and crashes a lot on her own though.

  The losing the footing part cracks me up every time - we get a lot of dew here mornings and evenings and it's hysterical - Archer goes zooming around in very tight turns trying to catch Ami and he goes rolling ass over teakettle - back on his feet and off he goes again. Best anti-depressant on the market!

Ha ha, yeah, Diz does a faceplant/face skid thing that is pretty great. Bella is the only dog I've ever seen roll him since he's fully grown, even the other huskies get annoyed with Diz.

Nothing like a little rock climbing to start the day off right!

Dizzy is playing peek-a-boo with me at the office today. He's such a ham!

Aww that is too cute!!

That peek-a-boo shot is awesome.

Was that rock climbing video done in an enclosed area? Any off leash issues?

Dizzy is very good off-leash. I've done a ton of training with him, including using an e-collar. Trust and bonding are number 1, e-collar and really high value treats are number 2. Usually if I can give him a physical problem to solve, like the rock, it keeps him from fixating on something and taking off.

wpskier222 wrote:

Dizzy is very good off-leash. I've done a ton of training with him, including using an e-collar. Trust and bonding are number 1, e-collar and really high value treats are number 2. Usually if I can give him a physical problem to solve, like the rock, it keeps him from fixating on something and taking off.

That is great! I hope I can get that level one day with Riley.

I guess hard work pays off in the end.

Oh yes. The hard work will pay off, especially if you focus on confidence and trust building at this stage.

These are some videos I took yesterday morning on our walk. This is pretty typical for a weekend morning.

Wow, Jen - the off leash is really impressive! I assume he has his educator on? And what a lot of dogs for him to play with! When we go to the dog park, we are lucky if there is 1 other dog - let alone a flotilla!

Totally off subject - when will you be moving to the new apt?

Still not sure yet, but progress is arduously happening...

Yes, he's wearing the educator. The vibrate has morphed into a non-verbal recall command. I almost never use the shock, only if he starts to bully or chase a little dog and doesn't respond to a verbal recall, but he responds extremely well to his "off" command. It's nice to see him maturing and growing a brain finally.

His brain sounds like Ami - I seriously have no idea why the vibrat works so well. I've been using it to keep Archer off the pool cover and it works like magic!

Glad to hear you're making progress. Would be nice to be in the new digs by Christmas, no?

Ha ha. It would be nice, but we'll see what happens... We still need to redo the kitchen before we move in and lord knows how long that will take.