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  1. #1
    Senior Dog zd262's Avatar
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    Advice for teaching leave it/drop it

    I really need to start focusing my attention here. Any advice? I am out in the country for the summer, but normally live in the city in an area with parks heavily populated by homeless people and their dogs. I visited the city for a day this weekend with Bubba and quickly realized the urgency of having an incredibly strong "leave it" by the time we return to the city.

    We use the verbal marker "yes" for training, so I tried looking up some clicker training instructions around this, but I don't think that the training around "please don't take a treat from my hand" will translate for Bubba into "don't you dare pick up that nasty chicken bone!"

    For those who saw my other post today, he just ate a small piece of glass, so he is super mouthy and will eat anything. I'd also love for this to apply to household items like shoes, socks, and tv controllers (some of his favorites).

    Also, I'd love to hear how people use the different cues here in terms of "yuck", "leave it", "drop it", etc. I want to be consistent and train appropriately for the behavior.
    Thank you so much!

  2. #2
    Senior Dog Labradorks's Avatar
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    It's completely normal for a puppy, especially a mouthy breed like a Lab, to pick up everything and even eat it.

    When I get my dogs as pups, I never play keep-away with them (when they are the ones that have the thing). They can play that with their dog friends, that's fine, but we don't play it. I teach them to bring me stuff and we trade. I always keep treats on me for this reason.

    You can start at home with toys, high value stuff, etc. You can give him something good, trade for something great, then give him the good thing back. For example, if he has a bully stick you might trade for a piece of cheese if he likes that better, let him eat it then give him the bully stick back. It becomes a game.

    Same goes for drop it or leave it. You trade for a treat, but start with items where it's not an emergency, unlike glass or a bone. If he has a toy, you can ask for a drop it, then treat and praise. You can hold a toy and when he goes for it, ask him to leave it, while putting the treat under his nose (making it really obvious) and give him the treat and praise him for leaving it.

    In public, you should watch him closely and tell him to leave it before he gets the thing he wants and then give him a treat. You need to try to stay ahead of the game, but be prepared in the event the pup stumbles across something tasty that you didn't notice. Keeping him in a heel position that is not too far away is also helpful.

    I've found that keeping it fun and a game is key. Otherwise, dogs tend to play keep away, hide and gobble, run and gobble or even get defensive and run under a bed or table and growl, even bite. When people don't train their dogs and instead are angrily running at them and pulling things from their mouths or have them on the floor prying their mouths open and freaking the dog out, you typically run into trouble. You want to avoid that.

    Linus learned leave it and drop it very quickly when he was three months old. We went through probably three lbs of Charlie Bears at a beach trip. Every five seconds I was asking him to leave or drop the shell, crab, dead seagull, seaweed, rotting fish and the list goes on. By the end of the trip he was picking stuff up, running to me, then dropping it for a treat. It's a phase that puppies will go through while learning, so I let it play its course, and now they are solid, even off leash and at a distance.

    This is pretty common and I'm sure it is covered in a book with better instructions or in your obedience class. Ian Dunbar has some good pet training books.

  3. #3
    Senior Dog Maxx&Emma's Avatar
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    Great instructions above! Basically the way I taught it and Maxx also learned it very quickly. He is very food motivated, I am convinced he would learn to turn himself inside out for a piece of string cheese, lol!
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  4. #4
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    I’ve never taught “drop it” as I don’t want the in the habit of dropping things they’ve retrieved, so I taught “give” instead, which means I might have to handle something yucky as give means release it into my hand. Taught that with a combination of praise/reward and correction (prying the mouth open) when whatever they have is more appealing to them than any reward I can give. They soon learn that it is not optional, but that if they do it the “easy” way, it will pay off more than the “hard” way. This is one of those situations for me, where it could be a life/death issue so I will not fool around with non-compliance.

    What I rely most on though in those situations is a strong “leave it”, which we teach as “leave it, come HERE” meaning they need to physically turn away from whatever it is that has caught their interest and return both their attention and their physical self to me. Again, this was taught with luring and rewards but enforced with a collar pop once they knew the command and decided that the dead fish (or what have you) was more appealing than any reward I could give. The key to success is paying attention to your surroundings and being aware of what in the environment might be tempting to them before they notice it. If you wait to give the command until after they are already enthralled, it’s much harder to get them to comply than if you can time it so at the same time it catches their eye but before they’ve decided it’s interesting you give an immediate “leave it”.
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  6. #5
    Senior Dog zd262's Avatar
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    Thank you for all of the advice! I started his "leave it" training on Monday. I gathered a group of his favorite things (stuffed animals, bones, paper towels, and socks) and started by placing one on the ground saying leave it while shoving a kibble in his face (cheese if it's something he really loves - socks and paper towels), and saying "yes" when he took the treat instead of the item.

    Now we are up to having multiple items on the ground and being able to say "leave it" while standing upright and having him re-direct to me where I say "yes" and he gets the treat.

    I'm excited by his progress so far! He's even obeyed in a few real life scenarios around the house with socks and clothing. He really really loves socks haha

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  8. #6
    Senior Dog zd262's Avatar
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    Annette47 - my trainer believes in teaching "leave it" with a combination of reward and correct also due to the life and death situation. Once I go through a week of training with the praise portion of "leave it", I'm going to work with my trainer on a particularly tempting scenario where we use a correction because this is something I am extremely concerned about and want 100% compliance all of the time.

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  10. #7
    Senior Dog Maxx&Emma's Avatar
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    I am so glad you are seeing progress already, that is awesome! When it comes to behavior that can be a matter of life you do what ever you have to do to make sure there is no option but compliance. The more you challenge him the better you will proof this behavior, just like any training opportunity.
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  11. #8
    Senior Dog Labradorks's Avatar
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    That's great news! I feel like one week in before testing might be too soon though?

    I have been successful with 100% compliance without touching the dog but I started mine on day one (at 8 weeks) and was extremely consistent as I feel it to be very important. It may be a different story with older pups and dogs though.

    I use drop it for a "put that down right now" command but give if I want it in my hand. I rarely use drop it since they both have a solid leave it. but there are times when I can't be right there, like off leash hiking or the river. However, they typically bring me whatever it is they found, for better and for worse. :-)

  12. #9
    Senior Dog zd262's Avatar
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    Labradorks - that's a great point, I think I'll assess where we are at the end of the week and will probably wait longer. Right now I'm sort of using leave it to encompass both leave that thing alone that you're thinking about investigating, and also put down the thing you just picked up. I thought it would be easier to train for one command but that might have been the wrong decision!

    Tammy - definitely have a lot of proofing to do! Right now in our house with safe items is challenging enough. I know it would fail if tried outdoors with sticks, etc and definitely discarded food items. I've got a lot of work to do!

  13. #10
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    I'll tell you how Jet learned LEAVE IT. Actually, her word was HOT. Learned very thoroughly when she took a lick of the outside of my mug of tea which I'd made the lazy way by pouring boiling water into a mug with a teabag inside it. So that mug was darn hot. I don't suggest you set this up but making use of such situations that happen can help.

    One way we learned to reinforce a LEAVE IT also worked on DOWN and STAY at the same time. Dog in DOWN STAY, treats on floor six feet ahead. Foot ready to cover treats if dog breaks. Short stays at first, release dog. At this point we were told we could either let the dog go get the treats or give a different treat. I prefer a different, better treat, so I scoop up the ones on the floor. I put cheerios on the floor, real meat for the ones I let the dog have, that I give to his mouth. Move the treats up to three feet, then between his paws. This can also work on teaching focus, WATCH ME. I love this exercise, it can work so many things at the same time. For leave it the lesson is whatever is on the floor is not as good as what I have in my hand.

 



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