Teaching Your Puppy to Follow

Between 8-16 weeks is the perfect time to teach your puppy to walk with you off leash.  The puppy is very insecure at this stage and will naturally follow you like he would his mother.  So take advantage of teaching him that you are the leader. 

To do this, take your puppy to a safe place.  A place where he can walk off leash without any danger of cars.  Perhaps an enclosed park or wooded area is best.   Walk along and let him follow you.  If he wanders in another direction, resist the urge to go after him.  In fact...you should never chase your dog at any time.  That becomes a game of chase that will be a great reward for his running off.  Don't do it!  Instead walk more quickly away from him.  The younger he is, the closer he will stick with you.

As he grows older he will be more and more independent.  At some point he will just wander just out of sight.  At this point, (if you are in a totally safe place), hide from the puppy.  As soon as he notices you are not around, he will worry and try to find you.  As soon as he finds you, give him a treat from your pocket.  Praise him and make a big deal about his being lost and being so good to find you. 

For this to work, you have to be at the exercise consistently from the time they are young.  You don't want to take an older dog out and hide....without any preliminary practice...otherwise you just might not find him again!

If you make the effort to find a time and place for this exercise, from the beginning of 8 weeks and on...your puppy will be much safer in the long run.  If he should get out the door, or you should drop his leash, you won't need to worry that he will run away.  He will be convinced that his poor mom is very prone to getting lost and he had better keep his eye on you or he will lose you.