Before we brought Sweet Baby L home, we’d often walk through the park near our apartment during the unofficial off-leash hours, thinking about how fun it would be to bring our own dog there someday. 

I know there are plenty of people who would make the case that dog parks (or dog runs) aren’t great for dogs (and perhaps this should be an expert post for another time). There are a lot of unknowns. You have to have faith that the other owners are responsible and that their dogs are trained, or at the very least, not wildly aggressive. You have to be confident that your dog will play nicely, too. 

But Sweet Baby L loves playing with the dogs she meets in the neighborhood, so we wanted to eventually give her the chance to join in the off-leash hour fun.  This is when I shifted into what could best be described as overprotective mode. I wanted her to be able to get out there and run around, but didn’t want anything bad to happen to her while she was doing it. (ie. getting hurt or running off). 

I’m happy to report that she now spends nearly every morning running around off-leash, playing with lots of other pups. It’s become a highlight of her day and ours. So how did I put my initial fears behind me? 

Mastering the Recall

This was the most important step. I was very worried that Sweet Baby L might be so excited to finally be off-leash that she would bolt. Even though she would much prefer to run toward a person or another dog and not chase after birds or cars, recall is KEY. We practiced for months. First on the roof of our apartment building, then in the park using an extra long leash, then, in an abandoned tennis court without the leash. I wasn’t comfortable taking her anywhere near the off-leash park until I knew she had the command down.  

The recall helps in a lot of park situations: when it’s time to leave, when she’s running toward a giant puddle of mud (and it’s not bath day), when there’s a group of pups getting feisty and we don’t want her involved, when there are children or babies walking nearby, the list goes on and on. 

We make a lot of effort to practice it as often as possible so there’s no chance she will get rusty or forget what it means.  

The E Collar

As helpful as the recall is, our park is surrounded on all sides by streets with high-speed traffic. Enter, the e-collar or electric collar.  These are training collars designed to get a dog’s attention from a distance, via pulse or vibration. I  know some people find them controversial, and I know they are not for everyone. I was skeptical at first, too. Would it hurt her? (Not nearly as much as it would hurt to get hit by a car, I rationalized). Still, I tested the pulse setting on myself, and it felt like a tickle.  It’s not meant to hurt her, only to get her to stop and pay attention. 

We needed to be trained in how and when to deploy it. We worked with our trainer a lot on this.  We hardly ever need it, but if a situation were to arise where Sweet Baby L might start running full-speed into a dangerous situation and for whatever reason isn’t responding to her recall command, I’m more comfortable knowing it’s there just in case.