Are Bernedoodles good off leash?
Whether it’s the beach, the park or a hiking trail, you’ve probably seen someone walking with their dog off leash. The dog is hanging out walking by their owner’s side without any issue. But can you expect to get such good behavior with a Bernedoodle and are Bernedoodles good off leash? The answer is that it depends.
Background
Bernedoodles, because of their Poodle background, are very intelligent canines. As such, Bernedoodles are very trainable dogs, but they can be stubborn. If you want your Bernedoodle to be good off leash, it’s best to start when they’re young. While it’s not impossible to have a more mature Bernedoodle good off leash, it can definitely be more challenging. The reason it’s easier for puppies is because they just need to learn a behavior rather than break an existing habit and then learn a new behavior.
Whether your Bernedoodle is a puppy or more mature, The key is to allow them to be off leash often in a controlled environment. Training recall and listening/responding to commands will be the most important skills to teach your pup. This will especially be important when there are inevitable distractions such as another dog or small critters like bunnies and squirrels.
The Training
Make sure when you begin off leash training that you have plenty of treats. Let your Bernedoodle out in the yard to run around. Use your dog’s name followed by “come” to get them to stop doing whatever they’re doing and come to you. It will probably take a number of calls to have your pup come to you, but once they do make sure to give them a treat and lots of praise both verbally and with pets. Let your puppy back out into the yard and perform the call again (dog’s name followed by “come”). Do this 3 to 5 times or up to 20 minutes. They key is to be consistent and ensure there’s a reward waiting for your pup, i.e. a treat waiting for them.
After a week or so, the next command you’ll want to teach is “leave it”. This command is really for the previously mentioned small critters such as rabbits, birds and squirrels. But since you can’t control when these animals come around, you can practice with a new dog toy. This will be a special toy that’s similar to one of your dog’s favorite toys. The difference is that it will never actually be their toy. Let them out into the yard and throw the new toy. However, as soon as your dog makes a move for it, call your dog’s name followed by “leave it”.
Admittedly, this command is going to be even more challenging for your dog to master than “come”. But it’s also more important. You don’t want your pup darting off into the woods or across streets if they spot something they want to get at. When your dog correctly responds to the “leave it” command you’ll provide lots of treats, affection and praise. This will be another 15-20min per day exercise that should be done over the course of 2 to 3 weeks. Again, this is a super important part of training that’s needed to keep your dog safe.
Now that you’ve practiced in your yard, you can graduate to a dog park or some other controlled area. These areas will have more distractions, upping the difficulty for your pup. But practice your training (“come” and “leave it”) while offering lots of treats and praise. You’ll probably want to do this for 2 to 3 weeks or until you’re confident your puppy has mastered the “leave it” command.
The last step, then (assuming the first two went well) is to bring your Bernedoodle to a park or a beach and let them off leash. Repeat the training as described above. You’ll want to have treats on you for many weeks as you continue to reinforce this good off leash behavior.
Closing
With a solid foundation of training, your Bernedoodle will learn to be good off leash. Although we confess that every dog is different with their own personalities. Some will truly never be good off leash while others will be naturals. As a last resort, you could try professional training, but we would only recommend that if it’s really important for your Bernedoodle to be off leash. It’s better to have a safe, happy, healthy puppy than the alternative. And to that point, no matter how good your dog may be off leash, we recommend never letting them off leach on roads and sidewalks.
Happy training!
