# Off vs Leave It



## Mavrk (Mar 11, 2011)

I hear some people teaching "Off" and others teaching "Leave It". Would it be wise to stick with just one of these, or would it be better to use "Off" for something she might get later and "Leave It" for something to be completely left alone? With our older dog we taught Leave It for items he should not have and Off for things like jumping on people or getting off the furniture so there is room for guests. Now we have a new puppy and was curious about the above.

Wow, that was kind of a run on sentence, let me know if you need clarity


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## Solas Goldens (Nov 10, 2007)

Hi.. I use off for the furniture and jumping on me,and leave it for something I want them to leave alone.. Like another dog, or animal, or a nose up on the counter.


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## Oaklys Dad (Dec 28, 2005)

I use OFF to discourage jumping on people and LEAVE IT for items I don't want them to taste. They both have better LEAVE IT'S than OFFs.


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

I use "Off" to mean get down-off me, off the couch, off whatever  "Back off" means to back off and give me room. If I say it when I am letting them out of a kennel run, they back up and wait for me to open the door. If I say it in the middle of the kitchen, they all move back about 2 or 3 feet-comes in handy when I have a load of laundry in my arms!

I don't use "leave it" but I do use a forceful "at at" and they immediately stop whatever they were doing .

As an old obedience person, I save "down" to mean lie down.

Holding my right index finger up means "don't jump on me!" I usually use that in the morning after I am dressed for work.

Hmm, for someone who doesn't train her dogs anymore, they know more than I thought!


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## caligal (Jul 28, 2010)

I use, "leave it" for items I don't want my dog to pick up or things I don't want him to get stuck on sniffing while on walks. I use, "off" for jumping on me or people and for getting off furniture. I use, "down" to tell him to lie down.

I think it would be strange to use off instead of leave it. I also use drop it, when he already has something in his mouth he shouldn't or when playing fetch and I want him to drop the ball.


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## gold4me (Mar 12, 2006)

I use off for getting off of things including jumping up on people. I am working on leave it to mean stay away from something and drop it if they have something in their mouth already.


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

Oh, and "give" to give me whatever is in their mouth, usually followed by a cookie


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## Oaklys Dad (Dec 28, 2005)

This is an important one. Especially with puppies.



Tahnee GR said:


> Oh, and "give" to give me whatever is in their mouth, usually followed by a cookie


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## Bogey's Mom (Dec 23, 2008)

Oaklys Dad said:


> I use OFF to discourage jumping on people and LEAVE IT for items I don't want them to taste. They both have better LEAVE IT'S than OFFs.


Ditto on both accounts


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## Mavrk (Mar 11, 2011)

Thanks for the replies. I forgot about Drop It. We use that for fetch too. That would make sense to use for items that they get back. I think the people I have seen/read about using "off" like we use the separate commands of "leave it", "drop it", and "off (the couch, etc)" have been from Great Britain, so that might be why. I thought maybe there was something I was missing and there was a reason to use a single command for all of them.

Now I just have to get my puppy to learn Leave It when it comes to biting my children's clothes (with them in it)


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

I teach both, plus a "give" as follows:

Off = keep your front feet on the ground/remove thyself from what you're presently on.

Leave it = That (whatever they're looking at/about to pick up, etc.) is not available to you at this moment in time. Direct your attention elsewhere.

Give = That which is presently in your mouth, kindly relinquish it to me.


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## Mavrk (Mar 11, 2011)

I know people that use "thank you" for what you call "give". I am considering using "thank you" instead of "drop it" or "give". It has been a while since we did training, so all these commands are comming back to me now. Wait is another good one for keeping the dog from grabbing. Wow, I forgot how many commands our dog knows. I guess this puppy will help reinforce the earlier training that we haven't practiced.

Now I need to teach the older one not to playfully growl while playing. But that is another topic all together.

Edit: Hmm, right after I wrote that last sentence, the older one was playing keep away with the puppy while holding a tennis ball. The entire interaction was growl free. I wonder how I can use that.


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## magiclover (Apr 22, 2008)

Oaklys Dad said:


> I use OFF to discourage jumping on people and LEAVE IT for items I don't want them to taste. They both have better LEAVE IT'S than OFFs.



Same here. Jazz is a stinker about jumping on people when they come to the house. We keep trying though.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Mavrk said:


> I hear some people teaching "Off" and others teaching "Leave It". Would it be wise to stick with just one of these, or would it be better to use "Off" for something she might get later and "Leave It" for something to be completely left alone? With our older dog we taught Leave It for items he should not have and Off for things like jumping on people or getting off the furniture so there is room for guests. Now we have a new puppy and was curious about the above.
> 
> Wow, that was kind of a run on sentence, let me know if you need clarity


You've heard this already, but those are two seperate things to me... 

Off - literally means "paws on the floor". 
Leave it - literally means "leave it alone, don't touch, don't even look at it"

We also teach two seperate things -

Give - Give to hand
Drop it/Spit - Drop it on the floor


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## tobysmommy (Jan 9, 2011)

Solas Goldens said:


> Hi.. I use off for the furniture and jumping on me,and leave it for something I want them to leave alone.. Like another dog, or animal, or a nose up on the counter.


Ditto. If it's something he'll get later (like a treat or his food), I use the "wait" command.


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

Just to add some confusion. LOL

I use Leave It when I want them to leave whatever they are looking at or sniffing at alone. I also use it when they have a toy in their mouth and are trying to take it outside with them, or when they have a stick or ball outside that they are trying to bring in. 

Off means 4 on the floor.

Let Me See is when they have something in their mouth that I want to see. If I want them to give me what's in their mouth, I say Give. If I really don't want to touch whatever it is, I use Leave It. 

It's a good thing my dogs understand lots of words! Ha ha.


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## Jige (Mar 17, 2011)

Vendetta knows lots of words too. I use "leave it" when I want her to not touch something or case something. I have lots of rabbits and squirrels in my yard so i say " leave it" when ever we go out the door she knows she can nt chase whatever is out there. 
"Off" means to get down.
" behave" means to quit acting so wiggly
" Give" she must give me whatever she has. Thsi was a bad one to teach as I can not play tug-o-war with her because if I say "give it to me" she drops it and walk away. lol


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## Mavrk (Mar 11, 2011)

General V said:


> Vendetta knows lots of words too. I use "leave it" when I want her to not touch something or case something. I have lots of rabbits and squirrels in my yard so i say " leave it" when ever we go out the door she knows she can nt chase whatever is out there.
> "Off" means to get down.
> " behave" means to quit acting so wiggly
> " Give" she must give me whatever she has. Thsi was a bad one to teach as I can not play tug-o-war with her because if I say "give it to me" she drops it and walk away. lol


Wow, so many responses. You have to love this forum. I laughed at the tug-o-war thing General V. Maybe you need to add "take it" to the list of commands :bowl: It is good to know that you can be specific with the commands.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

Tahnee GR said:


> As an old obedience person, I save "down" to mean lie down.


I think this is an important distinction for anybody. When "down" means "get off of that person" and also "assume a horizontal position," that's SUPER confusing for a dog.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

I agree with lots of what people have been saying.

"Give" means retrieve to hand.
"Leave it" means not to pick something up.
"Drop it" means to let go of whatever's in the mouth (which sometimes leads to a "drop it, leave it" situation.
"Off" means all four paws on the floor, whether that means getting off of a couch, not coming any further onto a couch, or taking the front feet off a person.


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## Mavrk (Mar 11, 2011)

Yeah, the "down" confusion thing I have mentioned to many people with new dogs over the years.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Mavrk said:


> Yeah, the "down" confusion thing I have mentioned to many people with new dogs over the years.


In addition to telling dogs to "sit down" ? 

^ That's one I had to stop myself from saying + begging family members to stop saying it instead of the preferred "go settle" or simply "sit".


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## ActionJackson (Oct 25, 2010)

Tahnee GR said:


> I use "Off" to mean get down-off me, off the couch, off whatever  "Back off" means to back off and give me room. If I say it when I am letting them out of a kennel run, they back up and wait for me to open the door. If I say it in the middle of the kitchen, they all move back about 2 or 3 feet-comes in handy when I have a load of laundry in my arms!
> 
> I don't use "leave it" but I do use a forceful "at at" and they immediately stop whatever they were doing .
> 
> ...


It's like riding a bike 

I agree with using "down" ONLY to mean lie down. My brother has a bad habit of telling Jackson "Sit Down"....and he looks at my brother like, _"well, which one is it?"
_
He also has a bad habit of saying "down" when he means "off" but that's getting better.


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## Jige (Mar 17, 2011)

I forgot to mention "Focus". I use this when I need her to pay attention to me and not what is going on around her.


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## Mavrk (Mar 11, 2011)

LMAO at the "sit down" dilemma. Rocket would probably sit then down then rollover. We did not mix up the order of things enough when he was little so we are working on him not just going into a routine. Luckily we learned from our mistake and we are doing it right with our new puppy, Sunshine. She never knows what is next even though we are only working on 3 commands: sit, down, and stand. Sometimes we still fall into a pattern of sit down sit, stand down stand, sit stand sit, etc. But we try to mix it up more when we realize it.


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## Mavrk (Mar 11, 2011)

General V said:


> I forgot to mention "Focus". I use this when I need her to pay attention to me and not what is going on around her.


We have used "look at me" or "pay attention", but "Focus" seems a lot faster to say. Maybe we will use that for Sunshine.


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## tanianault (Dec 11, 2010)

I use four different commands for letting Grover know when he's not allowed to interact with things, people, or other animals:

"Off" means get off of whatever you've put your feet on (person, couch, etc.)
"Leave it" means ignore that thing (garbage, rock, food on the ground)
"Never mind" means ignore that person or other animal (I started this with my previous Golden, Mack, when someone at a nursing home objected to me referring to someone passing by in a wheelchair as "it")
"On by" means continue walking past that person or other animal, frequently paired with "Never mind, on by"

- Tania


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## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

Two different commands. "Off" means just that - get off. Get off me, the couch, the counter, whatever the dog is ON and should not be.*And this is used instead of "down" which for us means "lay down" - some people say down to mean "get down" as I use "off". 
"Leave it" means don't touch it.


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## Sally's Mom (Sep 20, 2010)

I use off to tell my dogs to stop jumping up on people or to get off the furniture. Never use leave it as I get so sick of hearing people yell it at their dogs who are not engaged in/with their owners in the first place... I tell my guys, "Let's go." It is much more engaging and tells them to move on with me. My trained dogs also knew 3 different words for "come."
Front is obviously the obedience front, come and sit in front of me. Come, means come to me. And "here" means stay in my vicinity.


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