Teaching to DROP!
 

Bella loves to chew on pens when she manages to get her teeth on one, right now she has a bobbypin in her mouth that I can't seem to get her to drop.
She will run away from me at high speeds and never actually drops it. I fear she can hurt herself.

How can I teach my puppy to drop?

OMG, i hope someboyd answers with advice. My 17 year old still doesnt know how to do that! and i have had her for 5 years!!!!

There was an "It's Me Or The Dog" eppy about this a few weeks ago. You can teach Drop It / Take It simultaneously. I don't think Thor is especially trainable, but he got Drop It pretty quickly.

Give the dog her object of choice, in this case, a pen. Then show her a treat. She will probably open her mouth to get the treat (if she doesn't, switch to a higher-value item). As she opens her mouth and drops the pen, say "Drop It" and give her the treat. Give her the pen (say "Take It") and praise. Show her a treat, say "Drop It"... you get the picture.

Oh, do we have the same problem! I, too, am hoping for a great answer! Lexi will run, and she's fast. She might go behind the kitchen table, so when I try to go one way, she goes the other, and vice versa. Another favorite is to run behind the couch, where the only way I can get to her is by moving the whole couch, and by then, she is gone to somewhere else. Right now, there is a straw back there, which she got by scratching a hole in the garbage bag and extracting it from there. :rolleyes: She picks up so many things, and quite a few of them, I'm sure, would be dangerous if swallowed.


What works for me sometimes is if I remain calm, and say, "Lexi, come get a treat." She will then - if she feels like it - come over for her treat, dropping the item so that she can eat. Unfortuately, it doesn't always work, and I am not always near the treats. Plus, I don't want to reward her for picking up things. At some point, I'm sure she'll figure out that if she picks up something she shouldn't have, she'll get a treat. :eyebrow2:

I am guessing that the "correct" answer would be to work with her on "drop it" at a separate time, just like teaching any other behavior or trick. And I will just have to make the time to do that...one of these days!

The other suggestions are really good that you have gotten! I think I might try some of them. But I started working with Lucie when she would grab things I didn't want her to have, I put 1 finger up in front of her to catch her attention then I tell her "drop it" and she lets go.
When she's running around and finds something I try catching her in the act so I can tell her "leave it" before she gets it. It's working fairly well so far. She can tell by my tone when she's doing something she shouldn't be.

I think I taught Thor Leave It a little TOO well. I'm usually yelling it at him while we're walking and he's considering whether or not to eat that delectable piece of trash he's discovered. The problem is that now he doesn't trust that any treat comes easy. I'm trying to teach him to Shake now, and he actually runs away from the treat when I bring it towards him!