# "Leave It" - How To Train?



## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

As you have found he responds to clicker training, why not try that? Set up something not too exciting to leave, click and treat if he responds within a given time - say one second. If he gets 5 in a row, decrease the time. Then gradually add in the other Ds - distance and distraction.


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## Dioritt (Aug 3, 2011)

I tried this but it seemed to just make him touch things he shouldn't and knows he shouldn't even more, I assumed so that he'd get a click and treat when he leaves it. Maybe I should have just carried on with that, and not worried about him learning to chew or pick up things he shouldn't?


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## MomsCorner (Jun 21, 2011)

*Leave it*

I used treats in the hand to teach this for all my dogs. I have a Basset Hound and they tend to be the hardest to teach this.

Sit position, small treat in hand. Hold open hand, say leave it. If they go for the treat, close hand. Back to sit position. Repeat. Once they stay sitting and do not go for the treat, give them the treat with praise.

Once they get good at the treat in hand, I progress to their food dish at dinner time, toys... the fun stuff. 

Hope this helps. ~Kelly


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## Dioritt (Aug 3, 2011)

Thanks, Kelly. We've already worked on leaving treats and he's good at that, both in the hand and on the floor or the edge of the table. It's things that are further away and that I can't easily stop him from touching that's the problem. I'm thinking maybe put him on a long leash, leave something that I know he'll want to "steal" and then if he doesn't leave it when I tell him to, reel him in?


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## EmilyK (Mar 26, 2011)

Have you tried a startle can for those times when he doesn't respond? This is what we have to do when the dog is shopping the edge of the kitchen table. It's too tempting for him to leave so he gets the command and if he doesn't leave it, he gets the startle can. It works pretty well and we rarely have to use it any more.


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## AgilityIG (Feb 8, 2009)

It's yer choice (similar to what Kelly explained): "It's Yer Choice" - YouTube is a good way to teach "leave it". This video shows treats, but it can be expanded to other things. Use your imagination. The treats/toys/forbidden objects don't have to be in your hand. They can be on the floor or on the counter. Think outside the box and have fun with this!!


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## Dioritt (Aug 3, 2011)

Thanks for the link to the video. I'd already used pretty much the same technique with treats, and he's good with that (as long as they aren't left where nobody can see him cos then he'll jump in and help himself). We've now moved on to items that he tends to 'steal' but he definitely seems to be deliberately taking those things now just so that he'll be told to leave them and get a treat. He even actually looks at me when he does it, waiting to be told to leave it. Obviously, he's understanding perfectly well that he shouldn't be touching these things, but will he eventually stop going to them just for the treat?


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## JE-UK (Mar 10, 2010)

Ah, smart poodle!

You don't want to reinforce the sequence "get something I shouldn't, THEN leave it and get a treat" in his mind.

If he's heading for something he shouldn't, teach an incompatible behaviour and reward that. Mine loves to pull the mat out of his soft crate and pull the stuffing out, so when he heads for it, I recall him and we do 90 seconds of something I can reward him for, usually practicing a trick he already knows. If he's focused on me and earning a bit of bacon, he's not ripping the stuffing out of the mat. Then, we we are done, I give him something that IS acceptable, like one of his toys.


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## Dioritt (Aug 3, 2011)

He is smart, yes. And I love him for his smartness (and many other of his wonderful traits) but as you say, I don't really want to be reinforcing that it's ok to take stuff just to be told to leave it. I do call him away when I see him going for something and redirect his attention to something else, but I don't always see that he's going for something until he actually has it in his mouth and is looking at me, ready to be told to leave it. Cheeky little monkey, he is 

Wouldn't doing something else he enjoys also reinforce going for something he shouldn't, though? He gets excited when we're going to train the tricks and obedience commands so that's a reward too, isn't it? 

I tried just telling him to 'leave it' a few times this morning without a click and treat and one of the things that he's been going for a lot (my knitting) hasn't been touched at all for the past hour (even though it's still in the same place) so maybe the message is starting to get through?


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## JE-UK (Mar 10, 2010)

Dioritt said:


> Wouldn't doing something else he enjoys also reinforce going for something he shouldn't, though? He gets excited when we're going to train the tricks and obedience commands so that's a reward too, isn't it?


That is indeed a danger. One I don't have a solution to! 

I think mine sometimes drags out his crate mat not because he really wants it, but because it pretty reliably predicts I will get my lazy butt off the sofa and train a bit :smile:.


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## Dioritt (Aug 3, 2011)

I suppose this is just something we have to accept when we choose to have such smart dogs. My old dog (a JR/Lakeland cross) would never have worked out this kind of thing. 

Alfie's doing ok now, though. I've stopped treating him every time he's told to leave something, and he does. Now he realises that a treat isn't always forthcoming, he doesn't bother mithering me for it either. He just goes off and finds something else to do. Sometimes that's touching something else that's out of bounds, but mostly he plays with his toys or goes into the garden.


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