The "leave it" cue will trigger your dog to look and/or turn away from stimuli… before they get something in their mouth that they shouldn’t have, and before they become overstimulated by distractions in their environment. Use this skill when you need your dog to ignore something or to otherwise disengage. This could be for safety reasons, gross-out reasons, money-saving-reasons, or stress regulation reasons. 

Tools Needed

• small, high-value training treats
• containment method (tether point, crate, exercise pen)
• leash and harness (if tethered)

Focus

Before we get to the specifics, here are four basic principles to apply to any skill you’d like to teach your puppy:

Set your puppy up for success.
Meet your basic needs and your puppy’s basic needs before you begin training. Make sure both you and your puppy are feeling safe, comfortable, and secure in your surroundings. Work in a place where both of you can focus and at a time of day that works for the two of you. Make sure you have all of the tools you need.

Remember that your dog is a very good dog.
Dogs are an entirely different species from humans, with a different set of social rules, environmental affordances, developmental milestones, and genetic mandates. It is imperative to remember that most human rules are not inherently reinforcing for our canine companions.

Teach your puppy to love the behavior you want to see.
The fastest way to teach a puppy what is acceptable in our human world is to teach them to genuinely love our rules. Help your puppy love goal behaviors by rewarding those behaviors with things your puppy already loves.

Start at the beginning.
Start easy, and gradually work through challenging but achievable goals. When training is easy and fun, your puppy will love to learn and to build on their skills.

When to Train

Work on this behavior when your dog has had all of their basic needs met, when they are ready to learn, and when they are most likely to offer the behavior you want to see. Skills must be learned before they can be used.

Where to Train

Start in an environment that is already very familiar and comfortable for your dog , with few/no distractions. You will only change location as a part of "proofing" the cue.

Before You Get Started

If you are working with a physical stimulus, like a sock or a crumpled up piece of paper, set up the environment so that there is no way for your dog to actually get the object. This will mean they will need to be securely tethered or contained. Brainstorm items or visual stimuli that will make the experience easy for your dog at the beginning of the exercise. So, if a sock would just be Too Much for your dog to look away from, maybe you start with another illegal-but-less-exciting household item. (Note, don’t use dog toys as physical stimuli for this exercise! The items you use should be things your dog should not have access to at other times.)

Capture the Behavior, Option 1: Items

• Put a boring thing down on the ground in front of your dog (but not accessible to him).
• Wait. When your dog makes eye contact with you, click and treat (C/T). 
• Pick up the item and put it down again, in a slightly different location.
• Wait. C/T when your dog looks at you.
• Repeat, experimenting with the location of the item, the proximity to your dog , and the item itself. Do several short training sessions of approximately 5-10 minutes per day. Remember, at this point, you are only capturing the behavior by catching your dog in the act when they disengage. You are not yet soliciting the behavior.

✔️ Keep in Mind
A clicker is great for this exercise because eye contact is so fleeting, but you can also use a marker word like “YES!” if you prefer. For the purpose of this tutorial, click/marker and treat is shortened to C/T.

Consider super-charging the reward by adding a fun and exciting dash away from the item, followed by several treats tossed on the ground. This will help reinforce how much fun it is to leave things alone.

For the exercise above, the “clicker picture”—or the exact moment to reinforce with a C/T—is eye contact. You may decide, however, that you are open to any behavior your dog offers that has them disengaging from stimuli. If you would prefer to solely reinforce your dog looking away from the stimulus (as opposed to looking away AND making eye contact with you), that’s all good. Or maybe you’d prefer to reinforce active head or body turns, and not include eye contact. That’s OK, too. Experiment to see what works best for you and your dog . There is no “one right way” to train a dog. 

If your dog is unsuccessful more than a couple of times in a row, take a step back in training by making the exercise easier. Change the location of the item, the proximity, or the item itself to something that your dog can handle. Set your dog up for success, reward those successes, and then slowly increase the difficulty.

Capture the Behavior, Option 2: Visual/Aural Distractions

Important note! If your dog has emotional feelings about visual or aural distractions, please start with the Dog Adventures Northwest “Reactivity” write-up and the “Barking” write-up. The following exercise is only for dogs that are not fearful, alarmed, or stressed.  

You can get creative with how to capture the moment your dog disengages from various visual and aural stimuli. As long as your set-up allows your dog to be successful (and for you to reward those successes!), you can’t go wrong. 

Remember that for any of the following scenarios, your dog should be tethered or contained in a way that limits their movement.

• Work with a partner. Your partner does something slightly visually or aurally distracting, either for a moment or continuously. Wait. C/T when your dog disengages with the stimuli and gives you eye contact. Increase the intensity of the distraction over time, but only as your dog is successful. 
• If you do not have a partner for this exercise, consider something that you can control using a physical remote (or the remote feature on your phone!). You can experiment with any of the following:
• YouTube
• Spotify
• TV
• Air Conditioner
• Fan
• Garage Door
• Key Fob
• Video Game
• RC Car
• Robot Toy

C/T when your dog disengages with the stimuli and gives you eye contact. Increase the intensity of the distraction over time, but only as your dog is successful. 

It is vital that your dog never gets access to the forbidden item when practicing this skill. Set up the environment to ensure your dog ’s movements are limited.

• If your dog is unsuccessful more than a couple of times in a row, take a step back in training by making the exercise easier. Change the location of the item, the proximity, or the item itself. Set your dog up for success, reward those successes, and then slowly increase the difficulty.
• Experiment with the types of aural or visual distractions, as well as the proximity to your dog , the location, etc. Try to do several short training sessions of approximately 5-10 minutes per day. Remember, at this point, you are only capturing the behavior by catching your dog in the act when they disengage. You are not yet soliciting the behavior.

✔️ Keep in Mind
A clicker is great for this exercise because eye contact is so fleeting, but you can also use a marker word like “YES!” if you prefer. For the purpose of this tutorial, click/marker and treat is shortened to C/T.

Consider super-charging the reward by adding a fun run away from the distraction, followed by several treats tossed on the ground. This will help reinforce how much fun it is to actively leave things alone.

Gradually push the difficulty of the exercise. If your dog is unsuccessful more than a couple of times in a row, take a step back in training by making the exercise easier. Change the location, type, volume, or proximity of the distraction to something that your dog can handle.

It is vital that your dog never gets access to the forbidden item when practicing this skill. Set up the environment to ensure your dog ’s movements are limited.

Name the Behavior

When you capture a specific behavior that your dog has offered with a click/treat or a "yes!"/treat, you increase the chance of your dog offering that behavior again. Why? Because it is advantageous for your dog to repeat behaviors that are paired with rewards. All animals' brains are wired this way. After all, if an individual is neurologically motivated to repeat rewarding behaviors, that individual will be more likely to age to sexual maturity, breed, and continue their genetic line. Animals want to do things that work.

So, if the moment your dog disengages from a stimulus is paired with a delicious treat, your dog 's brain will subconsciously encourage your dog to do that behavior again.

At first, your dog won't even be aware that they are subconsciously motivated to repeat a specific behavior. they will instead just... start doing it more. Eventually, though, your dog will consciously figure out that intentionally offering a specific behavior earnshera reward.

This "lightbulb" moment is really fun to watch. It's amazing when it dawns on an animal that they have control over their environment. "Look away from that thing and get a piece of chicken liver?! Well hot damn, that's awesome, I am going to look away from distractions again and again and again and again."

At this point (and only at this point!), you can start pairing the words "leave it" with the action you want to reinforce (eye contact, looking away, head turns, and/or body turns). If you do this successfully between 30 to 50 times over the course of a day or two, your dog will understand that the words you keep saying before they does a specific behavior is the cue for that behavior.

✔️ Keep in Mind
The most common mistake people make is trying to add the cue too early. It's important to remember that dogs do not naturally know what the sound "leave it" means when it comes out of a human's mouth. Saying "leave it" to a dog who won't disengage will only pair the words "leave it" with the behavior of... whatever the dog happens to be doing at the time (i.e. not disengaging). Instead, say "leave it" when you are willing to bet $50 that your dog is going to immediately give you eye contact regardless of anything you say or do. Be sure to wait until your dog is enthusiastically offering the behavior over and over again before thinking about adding in a cue word or hand signal.

Another common mistake is for a human to repeat the cue multiple times before their dog offers the desired behavior. The goal, though, is to teach your dog that the words "leave it'' mean dropping the item in their mouth... and not the words "leave it leave it leave it leeeeeeeave itttttt.” Say the cue once, wait for the behavior, and click/treat. If your dog doesn't offer the behavior, darn it, you just lost $50. Take a step back in training by getting the behavior to reliably repeat before trying to pair the cue again.

The words “leave it” should never be delivered in an aversive way. The “leave it” cue must always be delivered as the conditioned reinforcer that it is. “Leave it” is a FUN activity for your pup, and not an intimidating warning.

Proof the Behavior

To "proof" a behavior is to help a dog generalize and group variables. your dog needs to learn that leave-it means leave-it, in all different locations, with all different items/distractions, and under all different circumstances. Even though it may seem obvious to our human brain, a dog who can disengage from something in their house may not inherently understand that the words "leave it" have the same meaning whensheis in the front yard. Just with a simple change, the antecedent has drastically changed for the dog and the dog no longer understands the cue.

Added to the mix with the "leave-it" cue is the necessity of a very strong reinforcement history of the behavior. Without a strong association between a successful "leave it" cue and Good Things for your dog, they will likely say "nah" when you ask them to disengage from an interesting item/distraction. In this way, this cue is similar to recall: you've got to pay your training dues. The more often you train this skill with rewards, the more cache you will have in your "leave-it bank account" when you really, really, really need your dog to leave something alone.

When you proof a behavior, you must constantly ask: how can I set my dog up for success? How can I manipulate the environment in a way that allows my dog to know or to learn what I am asking of him? What elements of the antecedent can I gradually change to help my dog generalize a behavior? What elements of the antecedent are unchangeable and should prompt me to shift my training goals or expectations?

Lesson Activity

Recommended Media for Leave-It

Some trainers prefer to not put “Leave It” on a cue, and instead make it an automatic behavior. (By your dog actively disengaging from a reinforcer of their own volition,she can learn that the fastest way to a reward is through impulse control.) This is explored more in a couple of the links below. Remember, there is no “one right way” to train a dog. Experiment with the method that works best for your brain, and for your dog ’s brain.

• Read: Teach Your Dog to Leave It Without Using a Cue, Jennifer Burns, Whole Dog Journal (This is a great article to read, as it covers how to incorporate The Engage-Disengage Game into training “Leave It.”)
• Read: Teach Your Dog to Leave It, Cathy Madson, The Preventive Vet
• Read: ItsYerChoice, the Game of Self-Control, Susan Garret, Dogsthat.com
  
  
• Watch: Leave It *New version by Kikopup*, Emily Larlham, Kikopup
• Watch: Train Your Dog Leave It from Trash and Food on Walks, Emily Larlham, Kikopup
• Watch: Teach Your Dog an Auto Leave It, Sarah Walsh
  
  
• Watch/Listen: Help! Why won’t my dog pay attention? (Secrets of Focus), Susan Garrett, Shaped by Dog (Skip to 2:15 for content.)
• Nerd Out by Listening: Dealing with Problem Behaviors - Using Alternate Behaviors, Hannah Brannigan, Drinking from the Toilet (This podcast episode isn't necessarily about "leave it," but it does illustrate the importance of identifying a function of an offered behavior. This is a real deep nerd-dive, so give a listen if you get very excited about behavior modification.)