# Help teach me how to train drop it..please! :)



## baumgartml16 (Jun 19, 2011)

Okay, I know I come to you guys a lot but you have always been so helpful so here it goes...

Koda refuses to learn "drop it"...well she knows it (kind of) but refuses to do it. I try to carry treats around and when she brings a toy or something over i say "drop it" and she gets a treat. When that is the case she knows it and will do it most times. 

It is when she has something she shouldn't..like a tshirt or sock or something. nothing can get her to drop that except us catching her. 

what do i need to do? she also is one that loves to be chased when she has toys or things in her mouth. we have stopped doing that to try to prevent this but it isn't helping...

Anything..? How did you guys teach them drop it?


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

My word is "spit". And the trick is you have something VERY GOOD (hotdogs or bread) and the dog does not get the treat until he voluntarily gaaks whatever onto the floor. 

And think two piece. One piece to reward the gaak and the other piece to toss to send the dog away so you can safely pick up whatever they had. 

We learned this trick years ago because our first two goldens learned to clamp down. 

Never chase your dog. It's better to teach her that if she has something SPECIAL, she needs to bring it to you for you to see and hopefully trade with her. 

Teach the "let's go trade", because I'm sure you are like me and not wanting to be carrying hotdogs and bread round the clock. It's "let's go trade" and lead the way to the kitchen. 

I'm not into alpha dog training or stuff like that, but one of the various things I believe in is that if you want your dog to respect you, part of that is teaching her that she comes to you and she follows you instead of the other way around.


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## baumgartml16 (Jun 19, 2011)

Yes, that was our biggest mistake was starting the chase game. I will use this though for sure. Will start tonight. When she has toys she always brings them to us obviously lol..but its the things she finds outside or on the ground, or the clothes/shoes..that's where the problem lies. I will start by carrying that around with me and once she gets what treat she gets i will start the let's go trade.

Thanks so much!


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## Muddypaws (Apr 20, 2009)

You have to stop chasing her, it ceates a whole range of trouble. I know I learned tehhard way with Darby.:doh:

Clicker training is great, you don't need to always have treats in your pocket, just available. The idea is to click the moment you get teh behavior you want and the "click" sounds means a treat "is coming". They learn very fast the click means a treat and to get a click you have to do something to earn it. Believe me they learn fast. I have treats (charlie bears) in bowls around the house so I can either click or use a reward marker word (yes). There websites, books and videos on YouTube to teach clicker training. Good luck


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## inge (Sep 20, 2009)

I get really enthousiastic, like: "oh great, Tess, good girl! Let's go and trade!" The moment the word "trade" gets out of my mouth and I move towards the kitchen, she usually spits out whatever she has and races to the kitchen to get her 'trade'. I never tell her off for taking something she shouldn't, just praise her and tell her to trade.


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## mayapaya (Sep 28, 2011)

I've been working on the trade thing with Maya as well, but sometimes when I approach her with a treat to trade, she takes off running, undesirable item still in her mouth. I am going to try the advise of using some high value treats, and see if this works better. Sounds like Koda is back to her old self after her spay surgery!!!!


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## Jige (Mar 17, 2011)

With Vendetta I carried around a small toy she loves the little tiny pup toys and when she had soemthing I didnt want her to have or I wanted her to give to me I would " Let me have it" and toss the small toy for her. She dropped what she had and went for the new toy and I would keep doing that with her. She learned it so well that we cant play tug-o-war. I tug on the toy and say " give me" and she drops its and walks away


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

Work on trading all kinds of things...focus on the the items that you can turn right around and give back to her....
You are aiming to have her strongly associate trade with food AND getting items back...if youve done 98 trades and she has gotten the item back...the 2 times when you didn't will be virtually unnoticed...


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## BriGuy (Aug 31, 2010)

In addition to the other great advice, I wanted to point you to a video that Kwit posted in another thread that demonstrated a different method to train Drop It. I thought it was very interesting:


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

My emergency method of teaching "drop it" involved a dead seagull, a big piece of wood, and a dog who only knew "give"; which meant my hand had to touch the object before he could release it. 

I highly recommend training drop it before you run into that same scenario where the dog has something gross that you want out of his mouth but he thinks he can only give it up if your hand is touching it.


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## Coopers Daddy (Sep 29, 2009)

Muddypaws said:


> You have to stop chasing her, it ceates a whole range of trouble. I know I learned tehhard way with Darby.:doh:
> 
> Clicker training is great, you don't need to always have treats in your pocket, just available. The idea is to click the moment you get teh behavior you want and the "click" sounds means a treat "is coming". They learn very fast the click means a treat and to get a click you have to do something to earn it. Believe me they learn fast. I have treats (charlie bears) in bowls around the house so I can either click or use a reward marker word (yes). There websites, books and videos on YouTube to teach clicker training. Good luck



Clicker training works wonders. The way i trained "drop" was give him his favorite thing in the world (his tennis balls). When i wanted him to drop something i would pretty much put a training treat infront of his nose. The instant he let go of the ball I would click and reward. And sometimes break into a game of fetch. Its a process, made harder when your dog really values what they have already.


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## jackbower6864 (Jul 5, 2014)

*Get you dog to "drop it"*

This is a quick simple exercise to teach you dog to "drop it" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y4VBTm4v3U


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## Kristen&Gunner (Dec 27, 2014)

I've been teaching take-it and drop-it using this game I found on Youtube with my 9 week old pup. It is working pretty well so far. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO2cxHgIzX0


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