Teaching leave it

Do you want your dog to leave treats and toys like a pro? Do you worry about accidentally dropping something that’s not good for them like medication or a piece of chocolate? Does your dog counter surf? Steal your food? Does your dog generally just not have any self control? If you answered yes to any of those questions, keep reading!

It’s easiest for this trick to start with something big enough for your dog to see easily and preferably something a bit boring to your dog; a crunchy dog biscuit usually works well.

Things needed:

  • A leashed dog
  • A large crunchy dog treat
  • A bunch of small treats

It’s important for this exercise that you act as if the large treat is not edible. Whatever you do, do NOT let your dog eat the large treat. Start by having your puppy in a sit or a down and place the large treat in front of them and say “leave it”. They will naturally go to reach for the treat and you’ll put your hand over top of it and say “no, leave it”. When they leave the treat even for a second you’ll take one of your small treats and reward them with that. Then continuously feed small treats as they continue to “leave it” with the large treat. When you’re done with the exercise pick up the large treat and release your dog. Practice this at least once a day in short sessions. At the beginning, you may need to cover the treat with your hand many times before they understand. If your dog is having a really hard time, try moving the treat slightly further away from the dog to help them succeed at this exercise.

As your dog progresses you can start dropping the cookie and saying leave it instead of placing it down. You can progress by placing it closer to your dog or you can make it even harder by using yummier treats that are irresistible to your pup.

Next Step

To make it harder, you can start getting them to “leave it” with balls and different toys. Start by just gently dropping the ball and saying “leave it”, have the dog on a leash so you can stop them if they go to grab it. When you can say leave it and drop the ball without any movement from your pup (other than them looking), you’re ready to make it a bit harder.

You can progress to tossing it a few feet a way, and eventually throwing it as far as you want. If you move through they steps slowly and make sure they fully understand before moving onto the next step this is a fairly easy and one of the most important things you will ever teach! This will help them to not chase birds, squirrels, cars and even other dogs!

We use this command every single day. Whether you drop something your dog shouldn’t eat (like a pill or a grape, etc), or you see something on the trail that they shouldn’t eat (garbage, road kill, etc) or your dog spots a bird or a rabbit that they really want to chase.

Our dogs will leave anything we tell them to including their favourite ball, their best friend, or a bird mid chase, and that is the goal!

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