Leave It

If you haven't already, teach your dog Doggy Zen before proceeding with Leave It.   You may want to wait until you have taught the other self-control exercises listed in Teaching Self-Control and especially the Mine vs. Yours game.  If you are ready to proceed with Leave It...

• Just as you did in Doggy Zen, present your hand to the dog with a treat in it.  Lower your hand toward the floor, and in several different directions. Repeat the sequence you used in Doggy Zen (closed fist, open palm, increasing time and waiting for a release), and then move to another room, outside--wherever you can.
• Dogs must learn to "generalize" the behavior. Just because he knows how to "leave it" in the kitchen facing north does not mean he will understand to do it in the bedroom facing east. So you back up a few steps, re-teach the behavior in each new environment, setting up for success. This usually only takes a couple of clicks to get the brain in gear in a new environment.
• You will be adding the cue "leave it", said in a neutral voice.  Don't yell the cue, just say it calmly as if you expect your dog to do it.  Say it nicely, just as you might say, "Thank you". If you yell the cue, you are adding an additional stress factor and actually making it harder for your dog to do as you've cued.  Say it in a neutral tone, only giving him information so that he can make a choice.
• After you have worked through all the positions and locations, you are ready to take it to another level.  Sitting right in front of your dog, put a treat on the floor, but leave your hand near the treat.  You must be ready to put your palm over the treat. Most chow hounds think "free meal" and dive in, but you don't want your dog to get the treat because it becomes a very strong "variable" reinforcement.
• Make sure that you have a better treat to give your dog - something incredible like bits of steak or something equally tantalizing, and one pile of so-so treats, like kibl. We are teaching that turning down food, dead animals, or whatever, will cause you to give something GREAT!
• When your dog is effectively ignoring treats on the floor, you start saying the cue words "leave it" and give treats from your great stash.
• You will want to up the ante and walk your dog by the treats (first on leash, later off leash), and say "leave it" before you get to the treats on the floor. Be careful: do not tighten up on the leash involuntarily and make 'leave it' a punisher. The dog needs to make a choice, and make the choice you want him to make. He will, if the reinforcement is strong enough.
• Practice this in all kinds of settings and with all kinds of distractions, making sure your dog always succeeds (i.e. no variable reinforcements for diving on food or distractions) and that your reinforcement is always better.

Gimme here: When we are training, my person leaves a bowl of scrumptious treats on a chair or the end table and sometimes on the floor.  I could get to them before she could stop me, but I know I'm not supposed to help myself.  I get lots of treats for playing training games with my person and I like doing that.  She's very generous when I do well.  Sometimes I even get treats just because I'm so cute.  Which you can clearly see is very cute indeed. 

• Practice doing this with food on the floor while you are training and teach your dog to ignore the food while you heel by or give various cues, such as sit. If you have no formal competition desires, you can then release your dog to clean up the food or the floor with "yours", otherwise you should clean it up yourself.  Cleaning up makes a great "job" for an older, retired dog.
• Remember the reinforcement you use could be a rousing game of fetch or tug as a reward, or any other things your dog really loves, once the concept is learned. Therefore, it doesn't always have to be just food. We use food in the initial training because it is convenient -- it's not the only reinforcer available to you.