Leave command

We are struggling with this one a bit. Suki just seems to latch onto objects and not want to let go. In the morning I know she is wanting attention or exercise but we would still like her to leave on command. How has everyone else trained their dogs to do this?

Unsure if it's the right way, but it's worked for me so far! Have two treats, one in each hand and show the dog the treat in one hand and when she goes for it close your hand and say whatever command, I used 'Off' and when the dog looks at you/somewhere else/stops trying to get the treat, give the treat from the other hand! Learned that from the puppy class and it is pretty effective!

I put something of high value in front of Tyson, gave the 'leave' command and then rewarded with a treat when he actually did. It was hit and miss in the begining but eventually the penny dropped. I then moved on to giving him the object of his desire, letting him play with it then giving the leave command and rewarding if he did so.

Still working on this but have had some good responses especially when he has something he is not supposed to.

I like to do a lot of training on this, though I haven't done so in a while. Perhaps time to do so.

I've generally done trades (give me my slipper and I give you a toy), given the item right back (giving it to Mom doesn't equal loosing it) and dropping a tug toy and then we resume play (dropping = more play, not dropping = play ends). I can also BOTH give a treat for dropping a toy AND continue the game.

I also like Susan Garretts way of doing it - she always rewards with something BETTER, rather than something of equal value. Makes lots of sense to me, but haven't really done this as Gummi already knew two kinds of drop commands by the time I learned this idea. Things like make him give up his chew - smear some PB on it and give it back.

Gummi drops items if I say "Thank you" or "drop" and if we're playing tug he will drop an item if I stop playing and go completely passive. I trained that last one by just standing still holding the toy until he let go - praised and resumed the play. He soon realized that if you dropped when Mom's passive things get FUN again. Took a while in the beginning, though!

Patience is the key. I usually wait for the dog to drop something & then say "leave" and reward. But that's with very young pups. By the time my dogs get to about 4 or 5 months old I generally have a good leave command.

I think replacing with something else can work for some, but not others.

Thanks guys that what we are doing but it's still hit and miss. I guess we will just have to stay the course and be patient.

We taught this to Tinkerbell when she first came to us. I enticed her into a game of tug then every so often would ask her to leave. I'd still hold onto the toy but would stop playing with it and wait for her to leave then reward her. She soon got the idea of it and the time between asking her to leave and her actually leaving it got shorter until she leaves on command every time now. Not sure if that is the right way but it worked for her, and now the kids can ask her to leave something and she will!

This one was strange for me because Charlie never really had to 'learn it' the first time I said leave it when he was a pup, he did leave it and I praised him and I'm not kidding, he's had a perfect leave it ever since. It was the same with drop it. And it took him a minimal amount of time to learn commands like sit, stay, down etc. I'm just lucky I guess. The hardest one for us was recall, that's only been 100% reliable in the last few months. Good luck, I'm sure Suki will grasp it soon enough.

This is one we have problems with too. Rocky will sometimes leave things on command and sometimes not. He will usually get hold of hubbys socks in the morning if he doesn't get them on soon enough

When we are at the park playing with a toy, we give him the leave command and cover his eyes. This will work. Of course this is not always practical. A firm NO also works wonders followed with a Thankyou and some fuss.

kathytake2 wrote:This is one we have problems with too. Rocky will sometimes leave things on command and sometimes not. He will usually get hold of hubbys socks in the morning if he doesn't get them on soon enough

Ditto with the socks She is geeting better but sometimes she just really doesn't want to let go of a toy no matter what we try. She is at about a 75-80% success rate which isn't too bad and will improve over time. It just seems to be taking her alot of time to catch on