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.

Doggy Zen

The first part of this exercise is named "Doggie-Zen" because in order to get the treat, your dog must give up the treat. Remember "You have to give it up to get it, Grasshopper". This will eventually turn into a reliable "Leave It" for those times that your dog finds something less than desirable that you want him/her to drop and leave behind, such as questionable food, dead animals, etc.

• Present a smelly treat to your dog in your CLOSED fist. Be prepared to WAIT, and let your dog figure this out. Your dog will sniff, lick, and maybe even paw at or nibble on your hand – from your dog's point of view, you obviously need to open that hand! What’s wrong with you?
• If your dog is very persistent, you may need to take your hand away.  So, if your hand is "mugged" or your dog is lunging/leaping toward your hand (or otherwise hurting you), calmly pull your hand up well out of reach, and wait.  Don't jerk your hand away, that only encourages your dog to leap for it.  Make no eye contact, don't say anything -- no scolding, no nothing. Just ignore your dog until the unwanted behavior stops. Then bring the hand back in front of your dog.
• Watch closely, because you want to click the instant your dog backs off or looks away from the treats. At that moment, click and give your dog the treat. At first, the slightest glance away should earn a click and a treat. Gradually raise the criteria and wait for longer and more obvious glances away.
• As your dog gets better at resisting his impulses, you make the game harder and then teach your dog to give up a treat in your open palm. The idea is that your dog learns to wait for a cue that they can have the treat before taking it. Gradually increase the difficulty by opening your hand and increasing the time your dog must wait before taking the treat. If he dives for it, simply close your fist around the treat again.
• Once your dog is reliably waiting for the release cue, move on to "leave it" training.

Teaching Self-control

Teaching our dogs self-control in the face of distractions and food is important. It makes living with dogs easier, teaches them to resist their impulses and is an important part of the growing up process. It also teaches them to be gentle in the way they take treats and can keep the dog from being accused of biting someone, when they are really just trying to steal a sandwich. Self-control around food can even protect your dog from accidental or intentional poisoning.

We also want to teach our dogs a specific "leave it" exercise to really cement the idea that not all food is theirs for the grabbing. This exercise flies in the face of your dog's natural heritage as the consummate scavenger.

Gimme here:  When we were walking in the woods, I found a dead bird and ate it.  That worried my person because the bird could have been poisoned and I might have gotten sick.  So to keep me safe, my person taught me "leave it".  

Months later we had a chance to see just how well I had learned the lesson.  We were walking in the woods and I found a really cool dead animal and I wanted to eat it too, but my person said, "Gimme, leave it" and kept on walking.  So I dropped it and ran after her.  She gave me a LOT of good treats, almost all the treats she had with her I think.  They were really yummy.  When we came back by the dead thing, I only glanced at it and then pranced along with my person and got even more treats.  Being smart is a good thing.  I'm just saying.

Dogs teach self-control between each other very quickly. You'll start teaching self-control during the proofing part of the eye contact game. Make sure you use food in proofing so your dog learns to maintain or re-commit to eye contact in the face of food distraction. This same process of proofing is added to recall, sits, downs and loose leash walking.

There are many exercises that you can teach your dog to help them learn self control and many of them will also make your dog safer. Some ideas include:

• waiting for a release to eat meals after you set the dish down (starting by the dog showing calm self-control as you put food in the dish while its on the counter… and gradually requiring the same calm self-control as you set the dish down on the floor)

• waiting for release to go through any door (house door, crate door or car door) whether coming or going

• "mine" vs. "yours" game