Whether it’s getting your dog to understand that you want him not to bother your cat or letting your pup know not to eat the food on the floor learning how to train your dog to leave it is a great way to teach your dog to leave something he is interested in alone!
Here we will cover how to effectively train your pup to leave something he is interested in alone!
Why Teach Your Pup To Leave It?
Wondering why you may want to teach your dog the “leave it” command? The simple answer is that learning how to train your dog to leave it will begin teaching your pup to control his urges by learning to leave something he may be interested in alone!
What you’ll need:
- Your Dogs food
- Your dog
- You!
How to train your dog to leave it made easy:
Learning how to train your dog to leave it isn’t a difficult task here’s how to train your dog to leave it made easy!
First
To begin teaching your dog to leave it you want to use something that your dog is going to be interested in and that you have control over like your dog’s food!
Once you’ve got your dog’s food, show your dog that you have his food and place it on your hand.
Second
Once you’ve placed your dog’s food on your hands and your pup knows you have food, you want to close your hands the moment your dog attempts to get the food.
You want to remain to keep your hands closed until your dog stops attempting to get the food in your hand.
Third
The very moment that your dog stops trying to get the food in your hand you want to reward your dog by giving him access to the food in your hand!
Fourth
Repeat these steps a couple of times so that your pup begins to get the hang of it.
Once you’ve done this a couple of times you want to begin adding a word to the behavior, the easiest way to do this is by simply saying “leave it” before closing your hands.
Over time your pup will come to understand the word leave it with leaving the food in your hands alone.
What To Avoid
Somethings you may want to avoid when learning how to train your dog to leave it is not allowing your dog to get access to the food in your hands after you said the leave it command.
Doing this will teach your dog to ignore the command because your dog will learn that if he tries hard enough he can get access to something he wants.
Instead don’t allow your dog access to the reward in your hand after you said leave it.
Doing this will teach your dog that the way to get something he may want is to listen to you and leave it.
Increasing Difficulty
Now that you’ve successfully taught your dog to leave the food in your hands alone when you say “leave it” its time to increase the difficulty!
The next level of difficulty is now placing the dog food that’s in your hands on the ground and essentially telling your dog to “leave it” if your pup attempts to get the food you placed on the ground be sure to cover it with your hand so that your pup doesn’t get access to the food.
Just like we did earlier whenever your dog stops attempting to get the food on the ground you than want to reward your pup by giving access to the food.
Once you’re confident that your dog can leave the food on the ground when you tell your pup to leave it you can begin adding distance and increasing difficulty that way.
Remember whenever your increasing the difficulty of anything for your dog you want to go at the pace your dog is at bot at the pace you envision them, slow and steady wins the race especially when ensuring your dog fully understands a concept.
Teaching your pup to generalize the leave it command
Dogs are poor generalizers there “situational learners” meaning that just because you taught your dog to “leave it” in one context like the living room doesn’t mean that your dog will fully understand that “leave it” in another context like outside.
You have to be prepared to help your pup understand that Leave it is the same whether outside in your living room or at your local pet store.
Conclusion
Learning how to train your dog to leave it is a great way to teach your dog to leave something he may be interested in alone in a positive and rewarding way for both you and your pup!
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