Useful behaviors to train: Leave-it

Leave-it: 

This one is critical.  Knowing “leave-it” can spare your dog a trip to the hospital, a nasty fight with another dog, even loss of life!  Even if my dog has solid recalls, I will not trust him off-leash in the woods or at the beach unless his “leave-it” is equally solid!  If he finds a porcupine in the woods or a baited fish-hook lying on the beach, I want to make sure he does what I tell him.  It is easiest to start by training the dog to leave food, and then progress to more distracting items like toys, dogs or other animals.  Ironically, the more food-oriented the dog is, the easier it is to get him to leave it alone!

How to begin depends on the size of the dog.  Work when the dog is a little hungry.  Use good treats for the dog to leave alone, but have even better ones for the reward.  Know your dog well enough, or experiment to know what he prefers.  For example, if you leave home-made peanut butter (PB) cookies or string cheese on the ground, you should have bits of steak in your pocket!  Make it worth the dog’s while to listen.  Most dogs should be on a leash and buckle collar. Put the PB cookies on a paper plate.  Let Fido have a good whiff of them.  Place the pate on the ground just out of Fido’s reach.  This is important!  Some dogs are pretty clever at grabbing that plate with their front paws!  Like in the exercise described in “down,” above, Fido will ideally never get the food on the plate.

Fido will predictably strain at the leash to get at the food.  Hold steady, and watch for any signs that he is giving up.  At the first sign of his nose turning even slightly away from the food, click and reward Fido with the piece of steak.  Repeat.  As the dog is turning away, say, “leave it!”  You needn’t yell or growl; you can say it in a pleasant voice.  Click and treat.  The first time, you may only want to do this three or four times, and jackpot and quit after a good response.

For small dogs, you might be able to skip the leash.  Put your hand over the food on the plate to prevent Fifi from getting at it.  Click and reward with the other hand for leaving the food alone.  Work with Fifi until she will leave the food alone even when it is plan sight, and then continue as follows.

When Fido willingly leaves the food alone, practice walking with him past the plate.  Say “leave it” as you start to move.  The ideal is for Fido to walk past the plate and choose to leave the food alone.  If he walks of his own volition a wide turn around the plate, this is acceptable.  This is his way of telling you that he chooses to leave the food alone.  Work with him so that even if he is he is close to the plate you needn’t jerk or pull on his collar to keep him from the food; you shouldn’t need to.  How else will you ever eventually get him to obey you off-leash?  This is a hard activity for most dogs, so remember to jackpot Fido’s better responses and quit early!  If the dog accidentally grabs the food off the plate, it’s not the end of the world.  Pull him off, and try again.  You may need to go back to the stationery work if you have moved him along too fast.

Once Fido will move past the plate without showing any interest in grabbing the food, remove the plate, and start over.  Once he knows leave it well, start finding other occasions to practice.  Start with low-interest items and work your way up.  Remember to keep your rewards top-notch!  Also remember Fido is not allowed to have something once you’ve said “leave-it.”  If you told him to leave a toy on the floor, pick it up before he has a chance to forget and go back to it.  Set him up for success.

Once Fido really has the hang of leave it, you might want to try leaving some cookies on a low table in another room and to tell him to leave it.  Spy on him a little.  If Fido leaves it, even for a brief time, click and reward!  Try to catch him doing something right.  Always try to reinforce that the way to get the food is to leave the food alone!

In an ideal world, you could tell Fido to leave the garbage and that would be that.  Telling Fido to leave the (rather ripe) garbage before going to work is a recipe for disaster.  Some dogs will do it, but it’s an awful lot to expect.  Remember, dogs are not only hunters but scavengers!  It is in their genetic make-up to raid the trash.  Consider storing the garbage in a sturdy container out of Fido’s reach, instead.  Remember, we are supposed to be the more intelligent species, so let’s use our superior brains to prevent trash-tipping.