Well, quincey knows loose leash, without me having to say it. He will walk next to me loosely. If he starts to pull and walk in front of me, then I will say "uh uh" then he will go back and walk beside me. So you see he knows a lot, just these other two commands he must master. Thanks everyone

 Quote: Jennifer Schnegg

Well, quincey knows loose leash, without me having to say it. He will walk next to me loosely. ....

That's very very good. That and the recall under distraction are often way up there as challenges for many owners.

Jennifer's 1st post
Here's the first post about this same topic, for those that missed it.

Jennifer, I'm unclear why you would attempt this again, without first teaching your dog to 'drop it', or 'leave it'.

Do you need some pointers on how to teach this? Yes, to answer the question you posted, you should teach him 'drop it', before you take something from him.

Start with a toy (something not super high value) and use food as the trade. Initially, you want him to see the food in your hand; wait until he drops the toy, mark it, 'yes!' and reward with the food. Do this with different objects and when he's reliably dropping things for the food reward, you can name it...

Connie, is recall not the same as come. You were saying it is another important command to teach a dog.

 Quote: jennifer lee

I teach them to drop things by having an equally high value item and trading them for the one they have. I click the second they release the item and then give them what I have. Repeating the trading process several times. This way they learn that if I take something really good they get something really good in return.

I taught "drop it" by playing Two-Ball. No command at first, I'ld just show him the other ball, and he'ld drop the one he had in his mouth, eventually I added the "drop it" command.

Do I think we should be able to remove things from the dog without being growled at, of course!
But go about it the right way. Try having a different high value treat on hand and do a trade off. Marker training is the perfect way to achieve this

I took care of this, but maybe too harshly.

I think the things that helped me were 1) the OFF/DROP IT command, 2) conditioning her to understand then when I approach her eating, more often than not good things happen, and 3) the alpha roll. I can't say I'd recommend the alpha roll, or that I did it correctly. I've always questioned my decision there.

When my pit bull was a puppy, we learned from a dog trainer to play the trading game where we take the food away, over a high-value treat, then give the food back. Never had any problems with that.

Then one day I gave her a dental stick (she loves 'em) and noticed she ran behind the couch to eat it. Immediately I thought, "This is no good". I didn't want her to be protective over her objects, so I went to go grab her to bring her to the middle of the living room to eat it.

I reached behind the couch to get her, and she growled at me. I backed off confused, because it's the first time she'd ever done that. Then I just decided to pick her up anyways. She was probably only 10 pounds at the time. She went psycho on me, bit my hand, and drew blood with those razor-sharp puppy teeth. In only took a second, but she made noises I never from a dog before and got her saliva all over my hand.

I was shocked, and angry. I got a glove, and after she finished the stick I called her to the bathroom - where she couldn't run and hide. I gave her another dental stick and started petting her with my glove on, moving closer to her head. When I got around her head, she started growling. When I got to her mouth, she attacked. Immediately, I alpha-rolled her, pinned her to the floor and gave two very loud NO BAD DOG's.

She submitted. I let her up and gave her treat back. Her demeanor changed and I continued to pet her as I gave her some more treats.

For the next few days, I made it a point to feed her dental sticks from my hand only. She could chew them while I was holding them.

It's six years later, and she's never growled at me since. But I've always wondered if I was too harsh on her that day, and if I could have done it in a less physical way.

I don't play the trading game anymore. I never take her actual food or treats away. I do occassionally pet her all over, including around the mouth, when she's eating food and treats. I also give her treats from my hand while she's eating. Everytime I pet her while she's eating, her ears go back and tail wags. I take that as a good sign.

If I need something she has, I say OFF and she drops the object, backs away and sits. If I just wanted to clean the item off, then I clean it and give it back to her, often with more treats. Occassionally, I just take it because it was dangerous/dirty (i.e. cat shit). If she's about to swallow, then she won't drop it, so I just stick my hand in her throat to fish it out.

I like that I can get close to her around valuable objects without any aggressive behavior - so I practice that. However, if I really need to take something, I ask her to drop it first so there's no confusion. Even when I fish crap out of her throat, I give her the option to drop it first, so she's knows it's coming.

If I were you, I'd probably train the OFF/DROP IT action, I'd feed her low value kibble and give her high-value treats by hand while she's eating, and I'd learn more about what can be done to establish your dominant position and pack structure. Doesn't have to be in that order. In fact, I'd start them all immediately.

But take my advice in the proper context. I'm just a first time dog owner of six years, still on my first dog. I just ordered Leerburg's video, Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Pet. Without having seen it, I'd say Ed's advice trumps mine, and that DVD is probably the one you want.

another thing that worked for me was doing something to get the dogs attention and away from what he's protecting.

Tucker (current dog) never has a problem with releasing anything he has, so it's never been an issue.
My other dog did. And instead of fighting him on it I would try to give him a high value treat. If that didn't work I would sit on the floor not too close but close enough so he could see me and either pretend to be doing something or grab one of his toys and start playing with it. More often than not he would come over to me to see what was going on. That is more of a distraction method, but i always find that if i get closer to the dogs level, on the floor or kneeling, they LOVE it and will always come over to see what's happening!
So if for some reason you can't get his attention with another treat (when we say HIGH value, we mean high, like hot dogs, cheese or cooked bacon etc) then try getting his attention another way. Like I said don't get too close so that he feel's threatened, but close enough so he can see what you are doing. And ignore him, don't call his name or anything....just start playing with something or even just read the newspaper. Dog's love it when you come down to their level.

 Quote: Mike M. Lin

I took care of this, but maybe too harshly.

I think the things that helped me were 1) the OFF/DROP IT command, 2) conditioning her to understand then when I approach her eating, more often than not good things happen, and 3) the alpha roll.....

You lost me at alpha roll.....

Yesterday I had given my dog his high valued treat, let him chew it a couple hours and needed to take it away before taking it away before getting ready for bed. I didnt want to step on it when getting up at night. What I did was to trade it for another high treat that would take long to eat. He had no trouble with that. I first held it a bit away from the bone he was chewing and the smell made him check it out. Let him chew it a few minutes and then took the bone away he was chewing earlier. I am still teaching the "drop it/leave it" commands.

 Quote: Michael_Wise

You lost me at alpha roll.....

Yeah. That's my point. If I had to do it again, I would have established pack structure differently. At the time, I was reading training articles that were focused on dominance over your dog, and was hearing a lot about the alpha roll.