“Leave it” is an essential safety behavior that all dogs should know. Plenty of things in our day to day lives are dangerous for our dogs to ingest – from antifreeze to cooked chicken bones to dark chocolate. The “Leave It” skill can help keep your dog safe from ingesting dangerous things.
When your dog knows “Leave It” they are able to stop investigating any item, and turn to look at you for direction instead.
Important Note: Leave It is a cue we use for forbidden objects and should not be confused with “Wait” – a cue we use when we want our dogs to be patient before we give them access to something! Thus, we will never use “Leave It” at dinner time when we want our dogs to sit before eating, or when we want them to wait before having a bully stick. “Leave It” is a cue that means “give up on that thing, you will never have access, instead engage with me for a reward even better than what you found”.
If our Leave It cue fails, our dog could be harmed. If our Wait cue fails, our dog will get a snack quicker than we wanted.
Method 1: It’s Your Choice!
The “It’s Your Choice!” method uses free shaping to teach a dog to avoid engaging with a known reward in order to earn an unknown reward. We are teaching them to ignore the forbidden cookie so they can earn other cookies.
What you’ll need: your dog, treats, a quiet environment, and a small mildly interesting item that fits under your shoe (I like to use a dog biscuit, jerky treat, or dental chew!)
For this stage, a successful rep is one where your dog willingly engages with you after disengaging from the object.
- Stand with your dog in front of you. Place your Leave It item on the floor, covering it with your shoe.
- Let them investigate the treat for up to 5 seconds: if they give up say “Yes!” and feed them. If they don’t, drop a treat on the floor for free next to them. If they ignore the treat, switch your Leave It item for something less interesting or your treats for something higher value.
- When they give up, mark and reward. Repeat until they reliably stop investigating within a few seconds.
- The next time they look at the item or investigate, say “Leave it!” and reward eye contact when they look at you.
Method 2: Do This Instead!
The “Do This Instead!” method tells your dog exactly what to do instead of eating random things. We are teaching your dog to look at you instead of the prize they found. You can also ask for a sit, down, recall – whatever! The key here is to be specific and be consistent. We are naming whatever combination of behaviors you want as “Leave it!” – and we will add the distraction target next.
What you’ll need: your dog, treats, a quiet environment.
For this stage, a successful rep is one where your dog quickly engages with you on cue.
- Give your dog some free treats.
- Wait for your dog to look at you. When they do, mark and reward.
- Toss a reset treat so they look away from you. Mark and reward when they look back to you for another treat. (Hint: This is Up-Down!)
- After a few rounds of this, add your cue. After your dog eats their reset treat but before they look at you, say “Leave it!”
- Mark and reward for eye contact.
Intermediate: Play On Leash
Once your dog is at least a “B” student with the basics, you can start practicing scenarios that look more like real life! For this stage, our goal is for your dog to willingly disengage from the object to return to you after one cue.
- Put your dog on a leash! Place a low value Leave It item on the ground in your training area before entering the space with your dog. Use the leash to ensure they don’t access the Leave It item.
- Approach the item. When your dog notices the item, say “Leave it!” and prevent their access with the leash. If they look away from the object, mark and reward with something high value!
- If they need help here, you can call them, make kissy noises, or use the leash to reel them away to a distance where they will take a reward. (If this is the case, try to swap your item for something lower value!)
Advanced: Fade The Leash
Once your dog is at least a “B” student on-leash, we can start to fade the leash! For this stage, a successful repetition is one where your dog successfully responds to your “Leave it!” cue the first time, without needing the leash to prevent them from getting the object.
- Using the same on-leash setup as before, cue “Leave it!” when your dog first notices the object but before you need to use the leash to stop their forward progress. Use the leash only if you need to, but otherwise let it drag behind them.
- Mark and reward heavily for success here!
- As your dog becomes an “A” student with this, unclip the leash!
Notes to Remember
- Leave-It is a safety behavior which means we want it to be as strong as possible.
- Each time your dog listens successfully and is rewarded, this behavior gets a little stronger.
- Each time your dog doesn’t listen and successfully eats or goes after the object, this behavior gets a lot weaker.
- Don’t cue “Leave it!” if you know your dog isn’t going to listen to you anyway. If you wouldn’t bet $20 on it, don’t risk your training on it.
- Start with low value objects to ignore, and high value treats as rewards. As your dog gets good at this skill, increase the value of the objects you’re asking them to leave alone!
