# Teaching a reliable "leave it" command



## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

My quick response - in the context of anything obedience related -- would be to work on some sort of attention heeling. Teach him what you want him TO do -- i.e., pay attention to you ask you maneuver around the signs, etc., rather than relying on a command that essentially tells him NOT to do something.

I would personally consider this more of a heeling problem than a leave it problem. If he's interested in the posts, etc. he's not (IMO) performing a proper heel.

Does that help at all?


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## Jige (Mar 17, 2011)

I teach my girl to focus on me. I start out with a treat that I hold close to my chest up high so she is looking up at me and I tell her to focus yes that is the word I use. I praise her up really good after a a few minutes of her keeping this focus I treat her and start all over with a new treat. I keep expanding the time between treats and I add more praise. I dont like to treat my dogs I like to just praise them. Once we have focus down then I moved on to "Leave It" I would tell her " Leave It" and thn immediately say "Focus" as we walked past somethign she wanted to look at. If we were successful I gave her a treat. If not I would keep on walking saying Leave It and Focus. It didnt take too long.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Set your dog up...

If your dog gets distracted by pylons, signs, treats, toys, tape, fluff, crud on the floor - you know what to put on the floor/ground where you guys practice. 

At class every week our instructor is putting things out on the floor or outside the ring to distract the dogs with (the little robot quacking stuffy toys are the worst). People have to heel past and maintain their dog's attention. 

The rest of this is not going to be helpful, because I think you don't use "adversive" training...

Step 1 is tying the "leave it" verbal correction with a pop correction. And praising/rewarding when the dog immediately returns to heel and complete focus. 

Step 2 is just using the "leave it" verbal correction and praising/rewarding when the dog adjusts.

Step 3 is setting the dog up and praising and rewarding when he gets past the distraction point without breaking focus. And this is repeated often so the dog gets the idea of being successful all of the time.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

I work on "leave it" with the dogs by setting them up with treats and preventing them from getting them if they lunge for them. Only by giving up the treat do they get praise and a treat from a different place. For example, I put a treat in front of the dog in my open palm. If he goes for it, I close my fist around it. He backs up, I open my hand. He lunges, I close my hand. Eventually, he'll give up on this pattern and just sit and stare at the treat. Then I say "leave it!" "good boy!" and give him a treat from my other hand.

A few dozen rewarded repetitions and you can move on to toys, pylons, whatever.

As a practical issue, the other advice you got on heeling is probably more useful for the situation, but I thought it would be helpful to have a positive (or, more accurately a negative punishment/positive reinforcement) approach to training "leave it."


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## The_Artful_Dodger (Mar 26, 2009)

Thanks everyone!! I think you are right that it's more of an attention issue in this scenerio. Dodger definitely does not have good focus while running agility courses (we aren't competing in agility). Fortunately he has much better focus while heeling and doing rally stuff. Unfortunately his focus fell apart in the ring last year. Fortunately the place we are going to apparently has the ring set up so people and dogs cant be standing in close proximity so his only distractions should be scents, pylons, signs, and the judge (plus I can treat between exercises this time which is a bonus). And hopefully our work since last year has improved his ability to focus with distractions anyways. 

So I guess my plan is to buy some more pylons and practice working on rally with pylons/signs around. 

I tested the dogs (can't leave Annie out) on the "leave it" command a few minutes ago. They both laid down and didn't eat the cookies, so I guess he still knows what the command means...but just doesn't listen when he goes into silly puppy mode. 

I think I'm just panicking now that I've actually signed us up!


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

The other thing I've found helpful to get "leave it" to transfer over to real world situations, is to, when training, raise your criteria to include you dropping the treat rather than placing it. When we initially teach leave it, most people generally *place* the treat on the ground. I start with that, but once that's solid, I move to letting it fall - first from like 6" and eventually working my way up to being able to stand up straight, drop the treat and see the same relaxed body posture on the dogs as I saw when I placed it. If you haven't tried working through that, it might help.



The_Artful_Dodger said:


> Thanks everyone!! I think you are right that it's more of an attention issue in this scenerio. Dodger definitely does not have good focus while running agility courses (we aren't competing in agility). Fortunately he has much better focus while heeling and doing rally stuff. Unfortunately his focus fell apart in the ring last year. Fortunately the place we are going to apparently has the ring set up so people and dogs cant be standing in close proximity so his only distractions should be scents, pylons, signs, and the judge (plus I can treat between exercises this time which is a bonus). And hopefully our work since last year has improved his ability to focus with distractions anyways.
> 
> So I guess my plan is to buy some more pylons and practice working on rally with pylons/signs around.
> 
> ...


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

If you use treats to train leave it, your dog may not realize that Leave It can be applied to other things... Go through ALL the steps you used to teach leave it....with various other things. It doesn't have to be something your dog is interested in.

While heeling.... it's nice to have a leave it if you really need it, but your dog should understand the concept of ignoring things in his environment...the distraction should be the cue to be attentive.

Set up two markers... about 20' apart in your yard. Go back and forth
after 3-4 passes of perfect heeling, have someone set an item about 15' away from your path. Keep heeling back and forth , using a high rate of reinforcement, 3-5 treats per pass. The food should NOT be used to make your dog walk, but should ONLY come out of your pocket WHILE your dog is heeling. If your dog pulls towards the item, hold your ground, and sya nothing. As soon as he makes the choice to turn back, reinforce!!!
keep going back and forth, after 5-6 paseses, move a tiny bit closer to the item. Repeat a lot. And eventually you'll be going right over it. Then start all over with another item.


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## Summer's Mom (Oct 20, 2010)

RedDogs said:


> If you use treats to train leave it, your dog may not realize that Leave It can be applied to other things... Go through ALL the steps you used to teach leave it....with various other things. It doesn't have to be something your dog is interested in.
> 
> While heeling.... it's nice to have a leave it if you really need it, but your dog should understand the concept of ignoring things in his environment...the distraction should be the cue to be attentive.
> 
> ...


Can this game be used for loose leash walking too? Meaning.. I want Summer to ignore environmental things on walks.. Would it work? Just without the close position as a requirement..


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

Summer's Mom said:


> Can this game be used for loose leash walking too? Meaning.. I want Summer to ignore environmental things on walks.. Would it work? Just without the close position as a requirement..


Great question, yes! We use this in basic training class with polite walking and with dogs learning competition heeling.


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