Tips to teach Your dog “Leave It”—Training Refresher
It’s always a great concept to revitalize our dogs’ training as well as commands every so often.
With that in mind, I’m going back to an old publish of Lindsay’s as well as revisiting how to teach your dog leave it. In the comments, let us understand if there are any type of other commands you’d like us to re-visit in future posts.
Lindsay defined “leave it” as “do not touch that object.” As in don’t sniff, don’t eat, don’t touch that thing right in front of you. This is different than utilizing “leave it” to mean “leave that other dog alone,” as well as particularly different from “ignore that other dog on the other side of the street.”
In Lindsay’s original post, she went with the steps of mentor “leave it” utilizing high value as well as lower value treats. I’ve discussed before that our trainer does not utilize treats in her training, so our approach to mentor “leave it” was a bit different.
How to teach your dog leave it—what we did
We started with a low value item—a piece of bread—on the ground. We did not provide the “leave it” command up until our dog moved towards the bread. At the exact same time as we stated the command, we put our hand over the bread to block our dog.
We utilized a relatively assertive movement to get the dog’s interest as well as be remove about our expectations. successful “leave its” were rewarded with praise as well as petting.
Unfortunately for Baxter, I misinterpreted his action. He was just concerning state hi to me. He wasn’t thinking about the bread. In my attempt to effectively execute the “leave it,” I karate chopped him right on the nose. I apologized—and acknowledged his excellent “leave it”—with enthusiastic scratches as well as petting, however for the rest of the lesson, Baxter stayed as far away from the bread as possible.
Two notes about blocking your dog from the treat:
Be cautious about blocking if your dog isn’t really going for the treat. You don’t want to penalize your dog for great behaviour.
Be cautious about blocking if you have a extremely food motivated dog. You don’t want to be bit accidentally.
Lindsay’s publish details the steps of mentor “leave it” in great detail, so I’m not going to restate them here. However, I want to highlight one important consideration. When mentor “leave it” it’s usually finest to not reward your dog with the original item.
Think about it. You put a piece of super tasty cheese on the ground, tell your dog “leave it” as well as he executes it perfectly. then as a reward, you pick up the cheese as well as provide it to him.
Now equate that to the genuine world.
On your walk, your dog finds a tasty piece of cheese. You tell him leave it as well as begin to walk on. The dog understands that usually after leave it, he gets the product as a reward. He refuses to walk, waiting on his cheesy goodness. This mixed message can be extremely confusing for dogs.
The final consideration I want to discuss while we’re believing about “leave it” is going beyond this command to teach “take it.”
For one more trainer I comply with “leave it” is assumed for all situations. This means if a bottle of pills falls as well as spills all over the floor, her dogs understand without being told that the pills are forbidden. Likewise, a snack sitting on the coffee table, litter on the sidewalk, animal poop in the backyard or sloppy cutlery in the open dishwasher. They’re all out of bounds, unless the dog is told that he can “take it.”
Admittedly, “take it” may need more training as well as a extremely strong foundation of “leave it” is still beneficial.
Whether you teach “leave it” or “take it,” these are both important commands to protect your dog from dangerous hazards as well as make life together more pleasant.
What are your tips for mentor leave it? What’s your dog’s hardest item to leave?
Do you work on refreshing commands with your dog?
Are there any type of commands you’d like us to check out in future posts?
Julia Thomson is a blogger at Home on 129 Acres where she writes about her adventures of country living as well as diy renovating. She as well as her household online on a 129-acre farm in Ontario, Canada.