How were you told to teach "leave it"

[Sadie GSD]

For those of you that have gone to obedience school, how did the trainer teach you to train your dog to "leave it"? Sadie already knew this command. But were in training now and we just started learning leave it. I'm not too sure about the way our trainer was showing us how to teach them this, so I was wondering how you were told to teach your dogs "leave it"

[Emoore]

Present the dog with a toy that's moderate-value. Interesting, but not the greatest thing in the world.

Once he's showing some interest in the toy, hold a smelly tasty treat in front of his nose and say "leave it." Obviously he'll leave the toy alone to get the treat. Gradually phase out holding the treat in front of his nose, until you're able to tell him "leave it" and he drops the mildly interesting item and looks for the very tasty treat. Rotate out toys as necessary.

[heatherr]

We would start by letting the dog see us put a piece of kibble or lower value cookie in our hands and make a fist, or put it on the ground and step on it. Then we'd let the dog sniff and sniff and when he stopped trying to get the kibble under our foot or in our closed fist we would click and treat with a higher value food.

Then we would build, adding the verbal cue "leave it" and then slowly opening our hands/leaving the kibble out on the floor. And then we would line up a bunch of treats around and weave through telling them to "leave it" for some of the treats, and "take it" for others.

Now I can line cookies up and down my dog's paws and he will just sigh and put his head on the ground, and a "leave it" works for all the delicious trash he wants to eat during our walks...

[Sadie GSD]

Originally Posted by heatherr

We would start by letting the dog see us put a piece of kibble or lower value cookie in our hands and make a fist, or put it on the ground and step on it. Then we'd let the dog sniff and sniff and when he stopped trying to get the kibble under our foot or in our closed fist we would click and treat with a higher value food.

Then we would build, adding the verbal cue "leave it" and then slowly opening our hands/leaving the kibble out on the floor. And then we would line up a bunch of treats around and weave through telling them to "leave it" for some of the treats, and "take it" for others.

Now I can line cookies up and down my dog's paws and he will just sigh and put his head on the ground, and a "leave it" works for all the delicious trash he wants to eat during our walks...

That is how I taught Sadie to "leave it" myself, and it worked great and so fast!

[Syaoransbear]

In petsmart puppy classes, they had the worst way of teaching 'leave it'.

What the teacher did was put a whole bunch of treats on the floor. You were supposed to walk your dog up to the treats and say 'leave it'. If the dog didn't leave it, then you just had to stand there and let it eat the treats. If it did leave it, then you gave it a treat. So the dog was being rewarded either way. It made NO sense.

After that class was over, I taught it the way heatherr explained, except not with a clicker.

[sagelfn]

Originally Posted by Syaoransbear

In petsmart puppy classes, they had the worst way of teaching 'leave it'.

What the teacher did was put a whole bunch of treats on the floor. You were supposed to walk your dog up to the treats and say 'leave it'. If the dog didn't leave it, then you just had to stand there and let it eat the treats. If it did leave it, then you gave it a treat. So the dog was being rewarded either way. It made NO sense.

After that class was over, I taught it the way heatherr explained, except not with a clicker.

I learned it Heather's way in Petsmart puppy class. Guess they did 1 thing right LOL

[CarrieJ]

I was shown with one hand holding the treat behind the back. In which Alice promptly leaned around the trainers back to watch the original treat.
Couldn't care less about the bait...she knew there was something behind she wanted.

Now, I just use the ugly mean Michael Vick cat. That's always going on.
The cat makes a strange weird noise and runs. I tell Alice Leave it, and she does.

[TriadGSD]

the class i am taking now they told us to hold on to the leash put the treat on the floor and tell them to "leave it" when the puppy stops pulling you pick up the treat and give it to them she told us not to let the puppy reward it self. seems to work Triad has learned it already with out the leash all i have to to his hold his collar and say "leave it " and he does.

[jasonGSD01]

I was taught that when your playing with your pup take the toy and place it on the floor. Telling the dog to leave it, then after a few sec's then telling him OK. Took about 2-4 tries but worked for me.

[Cassidy's Mom]

Originally Posted by Syaoransbear

In petsmart puppy classes, they had the worst way of teaching 'leave it'.

What the teacher did was put a whole bunch of treats on the floor. You were supposed to walk your dog up to the treats and say 'leave it'.

That way is fine IF you stop far enough away that the dog can't actually GET the treats, and then mark and reward when they turn away and reorient to you. How can you teach a dog what "leave it" means when you allow them to eat the food they're supposed to be leaving alone?!?!? All they're learning is that "leave it" means go look for the yummy food on the floor. I have a different cue for that: "find it".