Help with the 'leave' command

Hi all

Can anyone help with how to teach the 'leave' command?

(Chiquito has managed to eat a frog, cat poop, dog poop and a lego block this week ... all came out again thank goodness - though we had to wait a while for the lego )

I'm still teaching darcy the leave it command, with lots of praise & patience but I'm sure someone will be along shortly with some advice.

What have you been doing to teach him? I would use treats or maybe a favourite toy.

I put Loki on his lead and put a dry food piece on the floor and have the lead short so he pulls towards it but can't reach it (he's on his harness, so no strain on his neck). Then the moment he looks away from the food, I praise him and give him a nice treat. I continued it until I could introduce the command 'leave it' and then slowly increase the value of the food he leaves.

Sazzle wrote:What have you been doing to teach him? I would use treats or maybe a favourite toy.

Thanks for your reply.

When he grabs something I give a drop command which makes him sit as well (we learnt drop through play and he must sit to get his toy back/have it thrown again) .. I am unsure how to teach the leave as a don't pick it up in the first place command though

Tara wrote:I put Loki on his lead and put a dry food piece on the floor and have the lead short so he pulls towards it but can't reach it (he's on his harness, so no strain on his neck). Then the moment he looks away from the food, I praise him and give him a nice treat. I continued it until I could introduce the command 'leave it' and then slowly increase the value of the food he leaves.

Thanks for your reply.

Chiquito is able to wait on command ... he sits/lays and is told to wait and I can put food/treats out and he will wait until he gets a pat on the head and told to eat, or when I am at a distance (which we are currently learning), until I tell him to 'come get it'. In both he can make about 10 seconds without reminders to wait and longer with reminders. Do you think I could do as you are with Loki in this training by replacing the come get with a treat for not taking the food, or would that confuse things too much?

This is how I taught Daisy and it has worked for me!

Get some treats and sit on the floor with him, start by holding out the treat towards him on your flat palm and if he moves toward it close your hand and move it straight away. Keep doing this until he doesn't move towards it when you hold it out, then say yes and give him the treat.
Keep practicing this and progress to putting the treat on the floor, same prinicple if he moves towards it move it away, when he waits and doesnt move towards it say yes and give him the treat.
Again keep practicing, then you can progress to standing up, then moving away from him, eventually he should not take the treat until you say yes and allow him to have it even if you walked out of the room.
By then he should know the leave command means he can't have something until you say so, when out and about if you say leave he won't touch whatever it is he wants or if he has picked something up he should drop it.
Start practicing for a few minites a few times a day and he'll soon pick it up....hopefully
Like I say Daisy is almost 100% with this now
Hope this helps you, good luck!

Thanks Sazzle

I would do it Sazzles way, we taught Pixee by leaving treats on the floor, and putting one hand on her chest saying 'leave', taking our hand off but if she went forward, the hand pressure went back saying 'leave' then taking our hand off and 'go get it' ,till we could do it with no hand on her chest and walking backwards still watching her, putting the treat ever further away. Now she understands it.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-train-your-dog-to-leave-it.html

This is how we did it with Blue

Staffy lover wrote:I would do it Sazzles way, we taught Pixee by leaving treats on the floor, and putting one hand on her chest saying 'leave', taking our hand off but if she went forward, the hand pressure went back saying 'leave' then taking our hand off and 'go get it' ,till we could do it with no hand on her chest and walking backwards still watching her, putting the treat ever further away. Now she understands it.

Thank you

thefyst wrote:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-train-your-dog-to-leave-it.html

This is how we did it with Blue

Thank you Have printed for a little light bed time reading .. so determined to work out a way to do this

Sazzle wrote:This is how I taught Daisy and it has worked for me!

Get some treats and sit on the floor with him, start by holding out the treat towards him on your flat palm and if he moves toward it close your hand and move it straight away. Keep doing this until he doesn't move towards it when you hold it out, then say yes and give him the treat.
Keep practicing this and progress to putting the treat on the floor, same prinicple if he moves towards it move it away, when he waits and doesnt move towards it say yes and give him the treat.
Again keep practicing, then you can progress to standing up, then moving away from him, eventually he should not take the treat until you say yes and allow him to have it even if you walked out of the room.
By then he should know the leave command means he can't have something until you say so, when out and about if you say leave he won't touch whatever it is he wants or if he has picked something up he should drop it.
Start practicing for a few minites a few times a day and he'll soon pick it up....hopefully
Like I say Daisy is almost 100% with this now
Hope this helps you, good luck!

This is pretty much exactly what I do.
To begin with, don't use the command, just concentrate on getting the first step of holding the treat out, closing your hand when the dog moves towards it, opening your hand again when the dog moves back, and only letting him/her have it (I use 'Take it' as a release) when they look at you or look away. This should only take a few repetitions before the desired reaction happens a lot quicker, then you can start to add the command as you close your hand. Once you've got this step down to a tee, you can move on to putting the treat on the floor or somewhere else so that they can see it, and only cover it when they move towards it, using the 'Leave it' command as you cover it. This is me teaching one of the rescue dogs:



I'll try to get a video of the basics with Milton later if that'd help?

Chris SW wrote:

Sazzle wrote:This is how I taught Daisy and it has worked for me!

Get some treats and sit on the floor with him, start by holding out the treat towards him on your flat palm and if he moves toward it close your hand and move it straight away. Keep doing this until he doesn't move towards it when you hold it out, then say yes and give him the treat.
Keep practicing this and progress to putting the treat on the floor, same prinicple if he moves towards it move it away, when he waits and doesnt move towards it say yes and give him the treat.
Again keep practicing, then you can progress to standing up, then moving away from him, eventually he should not take the treat until you say yes and allow him to have it even if you walked out of the room.
By then he should know the leave command means he can't have something until you say so, when out and about if you say leave he won't touch whatever it is he wants or if he has picked something up he should drop it.
Start practicing for a few minites a few times a day and he'll soon pick it up....hopefully
Like I say Daisy is almost 100% with this now
Hope this helps you, good luck!

This is pretty much exactly what I do.
To begin with, don't use the command, just concentrate on getting the first step of holding the treat out, closing your hand when the dog moves towards it, opening your hand again when the dog moves back, and only letting him/her have it (I use 'Take it' as a release) when they look at you or look away. This should only take a few repetitions before the desired reaction happens a lot quicker, then you can start to add the command as you close your hand. Once you've got this step down to a tee, you can move on to putting the treat on the floor or somewhere else so that they can see it, and only cover it when they move towards it, using the 'Leave it' command as you cover it. This is me teaching one of the rescue dogs:



I'll try to get a video of the basics with Milton later if that'd help?

Thanks Chris SW. The video is great! I hate to sound like a dill but I have never taught this command before and I think I am struggling with it more than Chiquito is

If you can find the basics one that would be fantastic

Yeah, no problem, I'll see if he's up for a bit of training after I've had dinner

I have successfully taught this to all my Staffords and they obey without question. I have always said 'leave it' with a firm voice and offer something far more interesting than what the dog is interested in. The minute the dog looks away from the object I want to leave I mark the behaviour with a click or yes and then give the really fabulous reward, this can be anything from a yummy treat or a extra special toy. It is then repetition until you have the behaviour reliable with little distraction. Then take it on the road and repeat the training process and before you know it you will have a reliable 'leave it' command. It is also a good idea to put eat on command in place or get it command as well so when you do want your dog to pick something up you have the training in place to control it as well.

Kell - I've not forgotten about you, I'll try to record a video for you a bit later, sorry for the delay!

Here you go, sorry it's taken me a while! I've written a description under the video on YouTube, so please feel free to watch it on there and read my ramblings

Thanks Chris and Milton .. much appreciated

Mitnpowa wrote:I have successfully taught this to all my Staffords and they obey without question. I have always said 'leave it' with a firm voice and offer something far more interesting than what the dog is interested in. The minute the dog looks away from the object I want to leave I mark the behaviour with a click or yes and then give the really fabulous reward, this can be anything from a yummy treat or a extra special toy. It is then repetition until you have the behaviour reliable with little distraction. Then take it on the road and repeat the training process and before you know it you will have a reliable 'leave it' command. It is also a good idea to put eat on command in place or get it command as well so when you do want your dog to pick something up you have the training in place to control it as well.

Thanks

Kell wrote:Thanks Chris and Milton .. much appreciated

No problem, good luck with it