Do You Teach "Leave It"?

ooooh yeah, leave it was one of the first things we taugh our guy. We just don't use "leave it" as a cue, we use "lejos"; spanish for away. It's fairly reliable actually. My wife and I joke that our dog may be starting to think that his name is Paulo-Lejos. The hilarious part, is that once we give him the command he does leave ______, but sometimes he does it "under protest", he makes some sort of noise to show that eventhough he is doing it he'd rather not.

My Bronx does both, but he can be a bit stubbern if it is another dog that he sees and wants to go play with. i just give a slight pop to remind him of his manners and give him a comand voice to "leave it" and he is good with that.
I will be putting that into my classes too since not many dog trainers in my area put it into there classes and i find it helps quite a bit when you are training.

Dakota knows both the commands quite well, and they've both really come in handy.  In fact, come to think of it, I use the commands more often then I thought I would.  The latest was the day before yesterday.  I opened the door to call Dakota in, and I noticed he was sniffing at something.  Whatever it was, he picked it up and jumped up onto the porch with it.  I could barely make out a tail, so I yelled "drop it."  He did.  Then I told him to "leave it" and "come."  Luckily we did.  We have had such a problem with mice around here (lots of new construction going on around us) that the pest control guy had to put out poisoned bait (which is housed in small traps that only mice can enter).  
 
For entertainment purposes, I ut treats all around Dakota when he's in a down-stay and give the command "leave it."  I even put treats on his front legs (and I'm still trying for the nose).  The seniors at the nursing homes love it!!!  Dakota does too since he gets to eat all the treats when he's done!   

That is funny, I will use leave it for lots of things.  To shift from one set of sheep to another,  to move away from another dog, to leave the window when barking madly at squirrels or some other dog thrill.    I find it a very useful command that can be implemented any number of ways. Which is totally different from "out"  release what is in your mouth.

I've been working with Bear to "leave it" since day one.  If he already has it, we're working on "drop it".  If he has a sock, it's tough to drop it, but will trade for a treat.
 
I have a silly floppy stuffed frog that's on my bed which he loves (the frog).  After he got the idea of "trade", I caught him running through the house with my frog and after I retrieved the frog from him with a traded treat, I went into my room to put my frog back only to find his beloved fuzzy, squeaky ball sitting on the bed, as if he'd already traded his ball for my frog.  He's a smarty-pants, for sure!

Bevo has a 100% “leave it” as I have trained for that since day one. I have had plans for him as a therapy dog since the beginning & I knew that this could be a life or death command for him. With that being said, it wasn#%92t up until about a month ago that I decided that the other dogs need to know “leave it” as well. Shortly after my leg surgery (3 days) I dropped a Vicodin on the floor and one of the other dogs scarfed it up before I could get it. After inducing vomiting & starting I.V. Fluids as a precaution, I decided that everyone needed solid leave its.
 
All of my dogs know “drop” it is just a normal word that they here during play daily. I taught “drop” mainly so that my young nieces could play fetch with the dogs without fear of a accidental bite or a child being knocked down. Now when the dogs bring their toy of choice back, they automatically drop it at your feet.

Yes, Roxie knows "leave it."  That was our foundation command when obedience class began.  As I and the others in the class were taught, having a solid "leave it" allows the dog to focus on us when further commands are issued.  Midway through the class, all but two dogs didn't understand "leave it."  Roxie did, and having it as our foundation command really set her on the right track.  She "graduated" with the second-highest score in the class of about 20 dogs.  The only other dog to surpass her -- by three points (Roxie goofed up on heeling during the final exam [&:]) -- belonged to an assisant of the class.  So, repeating what I said, "leave it" is very important, IMO.  It was great for the class and has come in handy while on walks (when she wants to inspect something gross) and here at home. 

We're working on "drop it."  With "leave it," I stop her before she does something wrong.  "Drop it" requires catching her with something.  I've been using "trade" lately, when she has a shoe or something, and I give her a squeaky toy in exchange.  She has caught on fast, which doesn't surprise me.  I know "drop it" is important, as she may get into something dangerous and a 100% "drop it" could save her life.

Actually, my cat just randomly barfed on the floor for no apparent reason a few minutes ago, Shippo looked at it like "Yum!!" but I told him to "leave it" and he didn't go anywhere near it, even when I walked to the bathroom to grab some toilet paper to clean it up lmao.... GOOD puppy!! >^^;<

That's a good boy that can resist tasty kitty barf and hairball.

We are admittedly not huge on training around here but mine have a few commands that they know very well. Leave it is one of them. I've found that it works in all sorts of situations not just food, just when you catch them eyeballing something and need them to re-direct away from it. Floyd's leave it is so strong that when I first got him we were staying in a different home than DH, Tasha & Wolfgang. (One of those temporary seperation things).  I used to leave a bowl full of food on the deck for feral kitties which Floyd had access to when I was gone. One leave it and he never touched the food. (I put flour on the deck to check). Since he loves food, I was impressed.
 
Drop It, is something we've had to change to "Spit". DH would see the dog with a sock or something and say "Drop It" when he really meant that he was willing to chase them and have a play session first. Not acceptable when Wolfgang has a habit of picking up rocks. I sort of consider "Spit"  for when we haven't been attentive enough to use "Leave It". And yes, we used the trade method.