Hi, I have a Border terrier puppy who is 12 weeks old and We are now able to take her out for walks as she has had her jabs. We were wondering if anybody could offer any advice on letting her off the lead when we get to a park or safe area.  I think its so nice for dogs to have a proper run around, but I am really worried about her not coming back, Thanks

She is more likely to come back when she is young and unsure of the big wide world, so let her off lead as soon as you can and train her to come back by being very exciting to be around using toys and treats etc. 

Never chase her but move backwards if she is moving away so that she follows you.

With independent breeds especialy it is a BIG mistake to wait until they are older more confident pups or weorse still tenagers, as that is when they will thumb their noses at you as everythign else will be of more interest to them.

I am assuming you are already calling ehr to you at thome and in the garnden, and never call her to scold?

Work on training a recall at home - calling her for a treat from around the house.  Make sure you can also call her away from a good game with somebody else as a pre cursor to calling her from playing with other dogs.  Then try in the garden.  Make sure when she comes you take hold of the collar BEFORE giving her a treat so she doesn't learn to snatch the treat and then run off, and try to make sure she is released to play again more often than being put back on the lead when you are out and about.  Then progress to the park when there aren't other dogs around.  If you are concerned about her not coming back (unlikely at this age) then just drop the lead so you can take hold of that rather than having to get close enough to catch hold of the collar, and again, make sure she gets a really valuable reward (to her) when she comes back.

It's helpful to get a good reliable recall at this age because you are still the most important thing in your puppies life - leave it too much longer and you'll be dealing with an adolescent

How long have you had her for?  I must admit I wouldn't let her off the lead straight away as we once sold a Rough Collie and they'd only had her 3 weeks, had the vaccinations took her out the first time, let her off the lead and she was never seen again.

Myself, I wouldn't risk it yet, but that's just my feeling.

As the others have said ensure that her recall is good at home first!

I certainly agree that she needs to be let off before teenage rebellion sets in! But be thoughtful about where you let her off because too many distractions may make it all the harder for her to be recalled. I started working on recall as soon as my pup came home at 8 weeks. I probably looked daft recalling him in the garden at first because he was being invited to return all of a couple of feet but he did get the gist of it.  When he'd finished his vaccinations I took him out on his lead for a couple of weeks (as well as continuing his garden training) to acclimatise him to where I planned to walk him offlead as which was on a field track with no other dogs or people around and well away from any traffic. Finally, I took the big step and took his lead off (he was certainly no younger than 14 weeks, incidentally) and he was as good as gold. It helped that he was much more interested in keeping an eye on me than disappearing but as his confidence grew and he went a little further I stopped and recalled him regularly. You will know your own dog best but certainly I wouldn't have risked any offlead time until plenty of recall training had been done at home.

If she's starting to bond around the house and garden (mine follow me EVERYWHERE!!!) and you have started to train the recall, I would let her off the earlier the better. If you're not confident, get an extending lead so you can control her if the recall isn't yet good enough with distractions. Obviously let her off somewhere she can't get into trouble, as she may well disappear occasionally. My Cavalier was awful as a youngster, he was nearly 2 before he had a reliable recall, but if I hadn't persevered he would now never be allowed to run free, whereas because I continued to try, we did finally succeed (most of the time )