Hi again everyone,

Just wanted to give you another update.

Mac is an incredibly quick learner, and for it i think i might have made a mistake that could need correction.... ill explain and hopefully you can see what i mean.

The latest thing we've taught Mac is to 'leave it' with his treats. This is in an attempt to stop him pulling down our Christmas tree.

So we make him 'sit', 'lie down' and then put a treat on the floor followed by the 'leave it' command. To which he will back off from the treat. We then immediately mark this with 'YES' and reward him with a different treat.

This all seems great but if we have only 1 treat and we try some 'leave it' training he will generally ignore this treat unless we pick it up and give it to him. Alas, we cannot 'release' him effectively. Then again i suppose we do not wish to release this behaviour if it involves a Christmas tree.

I guess what i need to do is train the 'wait' command with a follow up release command. Would this make more sense?

Sorry for the confusion and lack of understanding on my part, i look forward to your remarks.

All the best,

Daniel

 Quote: daniel gregory

The latest thing we've taught Mac is to 'leave it' with his treats. This is in an attempt to stop him pulling down our Christmas tree.

So we make him 'sit', 'lie down' and then put a treat on the floor followed by the 'leave it' command. To which he will back off from the treat. We then immediately mark this with 'YES' and reward him with a different treat.

This all seems great but if we have only 1 treat and we try some 'leave it' training he will generally ignore this treat unless we pick it up and give it to him. Alas, we cannot 'release' him effectively. Then again i suppose we do not wish to release this behaviour if it involves a Christmas tree.

I guess what i need to do is train the 'wait' command with a follow up release command. Would this make more sense?

Sorry for the confusion and lack of understanding on my part, i look forward to your remarks.

All the best,

Daniel

When you say you have one treat do you mean one type of treat or just 1 treat? You never want to train the dog to leave an object and then pick up that object IMO. Leave it to me means just that...leave it for good...never touch.

You want to make sure he NEVER gets the treat either. If he gets it and you said leave it you would have to repeat leave it's with you "winning" about 100 times (I may be exaggerating here)for the dog to remember leave it means leave it. So far the dog thinks leave it means I just have to wait until he looks away or says the release. Best real life example is what if that "treat" becomes a bufa toad in your front yard (tons here in Fla - very deadly) and your teaching to leave it but then wait and take it? Or if its a cat running into traffic? All good examples that leave it doesnt mean you will get it, it means you will never get it, end of story.

You can teach your pup to wait for things like the door, placing the leash on, toys, placing food down, ect but I wouldnt use treats on the floor (or however your teaching for leave it) since your using them for leave it that way. You can use treats if you hand give them but to be honest mine all learned wait at the door because the reward was to go out side or with dinner because it was the reward. If you want to teach your dog to pick up something or take something I would use an actual command for that, not a release.

Daniel, you are trying to put too many elements together at once: Sit, Down, Leave it. You don't need this complex behavior to teach leave it and Sit and Down could deteriorate if you don't reward the correct ones or fix the sloppy ones.

This Shell Game video shows how to teach leave it.