Teaching the Leave It Command

LEAVE IT is also referred to as YUK or FOOEY, just depends who you ask. However, in simple terms, we want a dog to understand when I say LEAVE IT, you are NOT allowed to touch it… whatever that IT is!

Pet dog trainers often make a huge mistake in teaching the LEAVE IT. They teach the dog to leave it properly, but then they reward the dog with the exact thing they asked them to LEAVE! This never made sense to me and I can’t imagine it making sense to a dog.

So when I say LEAVE IT, the dog NEVER gets that object. This makes it abundantly clear to the dog and THAT makes it abundantly fair. And fair is the most important thing in dog training.

In the beginning it is very helpful to have someone helping you with the LEAVE IT command, because as you will see, the dog will try very hard to get the objects especially when the exercise is over.

This is a great lesson and a huge experience to teach every dog!