My dog runs to the road off-leash. How can I stop her safely?

Some dogs cannot go off leash outside. I would keep her on a leash until you can have the fence installed in the summer. Once the fence is installed you can work with her a lot easier to try to get her to listen to come back to you when called. My concern would be that she would run and get hit by a car, attacked by another animal or run after someone (even if she would never hurt them it can still scare someone). I would try to get a trainer to work with you now since she is so young. If you have a trainer and are consistent you may be able to have her off the leash one day. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

You will need to do some training with her and teach her to come to you when called. In the meantime, you should just keep her on a leash or in an enclosed area so she doesn't run away. https://positively.com/dog-behavior/basic-cues/recall-come/

Hello and thank you for reaching out to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. It sounds like Toffee may not know his boundaries well, and assumes he can run everywhere once he's outside. I recommend training him on a leash to show him where his boundaries are. For example, walk him on a leash around the perimeter of your property, and never beyond. You can make him sit at the edge of your property, and give him a treat. Do this at multiple points around your property. Since he has run off before, he may not learn the true edge of his property. The safest thing to do is to take him out on a leash and not let him run freely. He is otherwise at risk of getting lost, or even hit by a vehicle. I hope this is helpful.

This is a training process that you need to do with her, you need to teach her to stay near you on command, this is usually done based on a reward system (treats) but it can take quite a long time to achieve this, when you are training her she should still be on the lead of course.

You will have to train her to stay with in certain limits. It is best to stay with her at all times while on a leash. The more comfortable she gets, the more she will want to explore. You can teach her to come when called. When you call her, tug on the leash a little to help her catch on then give her a reward or treat when she does. You can continue to enforce this behavior as she gets older. You can keep the leash on her but not hold it to increase the distance to get her to respond. There is never a guarantee she won't run off, but teaching her to come on command can help greatly. As long as the weather is not too cold then she can sleep out side with shelter but I would make sure she is trained and older before letter loose outside

I can understand that you want him to be under voice control and walk beside you without a leash but this is usually very difficult because dogs are such curious creatures. It is also unsafe. I always recommend having a dog on a leash when not in a fenced in area because of cars and other animals passing by could seriously injure your dog. All it takes is a small break in concentration (from a passerby, another pet, or a squirrel or bird) for your dog to not listen to your commands and run off. I’m sorry, I know this was probably not the response you hoping to hear but your pet’s safety is the primary concern. Best of luck. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

If your dogs are not off-leashed trained then I recommend not taking them off the leashes. You can hire a trainer to see if they can train your dogs to become off leash trained. They would be the best ones to help you. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.