Do You Teach "Leave It"?

I use "leave it" when Dulce attempts to flirt with the cat. She upsets him.

I use leave it with certain toys, food, treats at pet stores. It's pretty successful.
I usually use it at the pet store the most, and she has her prong on then, so I use the prong and use "leave it" and she's great about it.

I do use "drop it" when we're playing with a toy, and I want to throw it for her.
That has been successful also.

I teach both (to my own dogs and in my classes).  I set up leave it so that a high powered treat (Liver I provide) is used for teaching that behavior in class.   I now teach leave it as a positive behavior (you get better stuff (liver) than the cookie on the floor) rather than restricting movement with the leash.  I get much better results. 
 
Once I observe that folks are getting it (and the dogs show the behavior long before the people to in most cases) then I start classes with stuff all over the ring.  I have had dogs who will leave anything (Dess) and dogs that would hoover if I was more than a foot away (Reggie).  Most of the folks in my classes have a loose lead leave it by the end of 8 weeks.

I trade Joy an extra special treat only used for trading for the forbidden object. Along with recall and walk away (leave it) it is probably one of the most valuable things I've taught her yet. I tell her trade ya, and she drops it and follows me for a treat. My cat (along with Joy) are on exclusive raw diets. We have a large mat in the kitchen that the cat eats on, and Joy is known to freak out my friends by grabbing a piece of beef tongue and chasing them around the house begging for them to trade her for treats. This is when walk away comes in hand for me. It's like she's pouting.She'll glance at me, my friend, and then sulk away to her cozy spot in my room.

We are working on leave it, started day 1, Kord is doing very well but the lessons go on. Yesterday I told him to leave my shoes alone, but I failed in his eyes to specify both shoes, when I said leave it I was handling the left, a few min later he promptly brought me the right shoe,[8|] the left was where I had placed it.
 
Since he is food motivated, dropped food is a challenge and I am getting very quick at sticking my big feet over an item that falls so that he cannot reach it, but we work on the lesson at the same time.
 
Me being a meanie. I love how intense he is waiting for me to pick it up and give it to him.

Dawn

ORIGINAL: mrv

I teach both (to my own dogs and in my classes).  I set up leave it so that a high powered treat (Liver I provide) is used for teaching that behavior in class.   I now teach leave it as a positive behavior (you get better stuff (liver) than the cookie on the floor) rather than restricting movement with the leash.  I get much better results. 

Once I observe that folks are getting it (and the dogs show the behavior long before the people to in most cases) then I start classes with stuff all over the ring.  I have had dogs who will leave anything (Dess) and dogs that would hoover if I was more than a foot away (Reggie).  Most of the folks in my classes have a loose lead leave it by the end of 8 weeks.

Our classes are only six weeks, but I find that most students are able to do the same within that time frame.  You're right about the dogs being the first to get it - Sioux has always been great at this, but Sequoyah picked it up so quickly that even if I forget to say "drop it" and say "leave it" instead, she will puke her frisbee right out of her mouth - she knows that phrase means the item is forbidden.  And, if you knew how much that dog loves her frisbee.....she's obsessed, to put it mildly. 
We also hold an "out and about" class, where the students go to the state park, the beach, etc. and the dogs get surprised on the trail by things like food, rabbit pelts, etc. and must "leave it".  The owners get such a big bang out of being able to do that, and, of course, their dogs are safer.
I went to a Kathy Sdao clinic a while back, and she thinks it isn't necessary to teach "leave it", I guess because instead you could tell the dog what to do, instead of what not to do, but that's one matter about which we disagree.  I think in the realm of pet ownership, it's a useful skill. Humans so lean toward the "not" that it's instinctual, so if I can teach them a way to do it that isn't harmful to the dog, I'm for it. []

Russell's "drop it" is stronger than his "leave it" for sure. He's a young dog who is generally obedient and eager to please, but without a whole lot of self-control or impulse control.
 
Case in point, I took him to play frisbee golf one day last month... and discovered he likes to retrieve frisbees. [8|] He absolutely would not obey "leave it" as he was racing to the frisbee, it was just way too exciting to abandon the chase, but immediately upon picking it up he would "drop it" and walk away.
 
We're still working on it, but I guess I'm a pretty forgiving dog owner, or maybe I can relate all too well to having poor self-control in the face of strong temptations []. I don't get frustrated with him for that very often.

I've only been working on drop it recently so my results are premature. For a treat, I don't have to wait. He drops before I can say it to get the treat. I've had a few decent and one good drop it without a treat.

I have not taught "leave it". By the time I notice there is something out there that they should not have in their mouth, it is usually already in .[8|]
 
On the other hand, "drop it" or "give me" works well without trade with my golden if I am close to her when I give the command. She stills tries to engage in "come and catch me" games occasionally but will come and spit out whatever she has for an ice cube (speak of a treat !). The lab will not spit out but lets me reach anywhere in her mouth to get what she got. The challenge there is just to inspect all the nooks and cranies and not to cringe at some of the stuff you can end up with in your hand.
 
 
 
 

"leave it" is one of Kobi's strongest commands. I not only use it for forbidden objects, but also if he starts to get snarley with approching dogs. Kobi does not like puppies at all. I can now, about 80%, get him to pass a pup without growling or lunging by telling him to 'leave it'.

"drop it" is not as strong. He is particularily fond carrying things around in his mouth and delights in having someone or somedog chase him for it. It is not a speed chase but rather a weave and bob game, keeping the object just out of your reach. When I can get my hand on the object, he will drop it on command. If not I am usually forced to trade him for a treat!

My girls are very good at both.  Maska is good at "trade", and I don't mind a bit that he searches the house daily for trade items. []  I never lose socks or dishcloths any more.

I always thought  "leave it" was a rather useless command and don't bother with it. If the dog picks up something he shouldn't have he gets asked to drop it; if he approaches something he shouldn't have he may be asked to come or sit or heel.  In the house the dogs know they aren't allowed to touch "human stuff" like shoes and socks or food that wasn't specifically offered to them, no need to tell them over and over again to "leave it".

We use "leave it" and it's 95% reliable the first time I say it. The other 5% is my fault really because she alreay has somehting in her mouth and it take's me saying it a few times before she drops it. For Presely it's essential though - otherwise she would be snacking poo and good knows what else...

Leave it is something I have never taught Max to do very well. We struggled with it in class. He'd dig and dig and chew at my foot to get the treat that was under it to the point that my foot couldn't take it anymore (warning, do not wear sandals when trying to teach the dog leave it). The  hiding treats under foot method and giving him something more valuable when he gave up trying to get them never really worked at all for us, because he would never give up trying to get them leave it item. If he ever did give up on mauling my foot, he'd just lay down and stare at it, so that the leave it item couldn't go anywhere. More recently I worked on it again by tying him to a door and throwing low value non food and food items out of his reach as the leave it items. That was more sucessful, and we did get somewhere, but not far. So, he might leave something very low value, but not much else.
Drop it is much better for him, but still not really as good as it should be, and I tend to let him take more things that I think most people would. Although, I trust that he would drop it if it was really necessary, because he did listen and drop the dead bird he picked up once. Although, in order to keep him from not picking things right back up, either he has to be moved, or the thing has to be moved or taken from him,

My "Out" command means the same thing - both leave whatever you're considering, and drop whatever is in your mouth.  It also works for keeping her from poking the cat, even though he's never "in" her mouth.
G is very reliable for me.  But my landlord reports it takes two tries when she says "Out".  She doesn't accept that it's all about the intonation as well as the relationship... Plus I think my landlord is jealous that her dogs aren't as well trained, so she tries to look for kinks in the armor. []