April 12, 2021

I have 2 questions. Is there a difference between the “leave it” command and the “yuck” command? Also, I was watching your video of teaching Meru to swim and I noticed you offered a reward to have him release his ball instead of giving him a command. Was this because of his age?

Full Question:
Hi Cindy.
Thanks for your videos. Exceptional! I have two questions:
I'm trying to determine if there is any distinction between a "leave it" command versus a "yuck" command. I've done some cursory research, but there is divergent information from sources that do not adhere to marker-based reward training. I trained my last Shepherd with "leave it" as a universal command to, well, leave it. So, is there a difference?

Also, I was watching your video training Maru to swim, and I noticed that you had him release his ball by offering a reward rather than a command. Was this just a function of his age?

Incidentally, wondering how old he was at the time, as I want to teach my pup to swim (she is 6-weeks old at this writing and will enter our home in 2 weeks) and am not clear on what age is best to begin water training.

Thanks so much.
Cindy
Cindy Cindy's Answer:
There is no difference between YUCK and LEAVE IT other than the words we use. The meaning is the same. There are different ways to train it but when I say YUCK to my dogs they know it means leave it alone.

I trade puppies for items they have until I have a solid OUT, the age from one pup to another varies but I choose to do this so they are more likely to give up what they have. You can teach puppies to swim when they are small, if you have a place to safely do so. I took Meru to a facility where they do dock diving and booked some pool time to teach him and I think he was around 11 weeks. We taught an entire litter of puppies to swim at 7 weeks some years ago.

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Expert Dog Trainer Cindy Rhodes
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