i am so amazed too! i am really amazed when she drops food! she drops other stuff for me, like bully sticks, chew sticks. but i couldn't believe she was willing to drop a piece food that she already started chewing! LOL!

gus is so smart. he knew how to do it even though you didn't practice with him!?! wow! i think yorkies are so smart!!

milu used to argue with me at puppy school, because there are certain tricks she didn't like. i asked the teacher if milu's brain was too small and she doesn't understand what i told her to do? the teacher told me no, milu understands, she just didn't want to do the trick, but it's too bad because she has to. LOL!

haha! you are tricking jackson!

i think it's really important to teach them 'leave it' and i think what might help with that is you make jackson associate leave the command with treat. every time you say leave it, you give him treat immediately after he does it.

like maybe you can say, "leave it, want a treat?" "leave it, treat!" like that for a while, then eventually, you can leave out saying the treat part, and he will just listen to "leave it" command. (because he knows he will get a treat if he does it)

YES!!! i feel so proud of her! :D

thank you! they are really smart little doggies! :aimeeyork

well, i actually learned after chasing her that one time to never chase her like that again. because she did swallow a really big piece of steak... she inhaled it!!!! when i finally caught her, i was sure she had dropped it somewhere, i thought it was impossible for her to eat a piece that big. but i was wrong. it was possible :eek::eek::eek:

i think what has helped me with getting milu to drop even yummy food that she has in her mouth is i offer her a treat when she drops whatever she has in her mouth. so i think now she trusts me that i will give her something good if she listened to me. for example. when she dropped the dried beed liver for me. i actually gave it back to her.

after she dropped the beef liver, i picked it up. told her she was a good girl, then i break up the liver into smaller pieces and gave it to her as i keep saying "good leave it" "good leave it" with each piece that i was giving to her. do you think that would work for joey too?

thank you :) yes i am surprised. they are so smart!

lol! she is a big girl now! :)

wow! i don't know, i don't think that little boy wants to share! LOL!

That sounds like a good way to do it! One time when I was trying to teach Joey not to bark, I used the pennies in the can method for this, and on one of my more vigorous shakes, the lid went flying off the can and pennies went everywhere. Joey scrambled to pick them up and this scared me too death, and I yelled "drop it", and he did, I guess pennies aren't that tasty, and I offered him a treat in return. I picked up all the pennies I could find, but some must have gone under the chair, that I didn't see, and several days later he was still finding the occasional penny and bringing them to me for a treat. Little guy found out the value of money at a very young age. :D

well, milu is my first dog. so i am not really an expert or anything! when i went to puppy school with milu, the teacher even rolled her eyes at me because i was doing a bad job training milu! i really had no clue!!!

but don't worry, they will learn once you learn how to teach them! :)

the teacher told us it's really important to teach the leave it command because if there was road kill and your dog got a hold of it, then you really need them to drop it!!!!

how the teacher showed us to train them to leave it was to have the dog sit or lay down, and put a piece of treat in front of them. tell them to "leave it"
and if they take the treat try to stop them and say uh-uh. give them a treat and say "good leave it" if they don't go for the treat.

eventually, you make them wait longer and longer before you give them the treat. (and always say "good leave it" to reinforce the command) so they know why they are getting a reward.

also, once they master "leave it" you can put treats on thier paws or their nose while you make them leave it. LOL! it's really cute to see how many treats you can put on their legs and have them leave it there. hehe.

let me know if you have any questions. i don't know if i did a good job explaining how to train the "leave it" command.

LOL!!! OMG! that is so cute! :)
you know, i think they can tell when we are scared. like when you said drop it, you were very scared and serious. so he listened immediately.

i think milu can usually tell when i am scared, because it seems like every time i am nervous about something, about her possibly getting hurt, she is always very obedient in those times and follows her commands 100%.

Yeah, I agree, I think this is what some dog trainers mean by giving a command rather than "asking" them to do something!

LOL, yeah, whenever I say "want a treat?" though, I always give him a treat! LOL. So I guess that's why it works.
I'll definitely work on the "Leave It" more, thanks for the tips! The problem is whenever he KNOWS I have treats, he won't
even put anything in his mouth so it's kind of hard to teach him to drop or leave it when he's willingly dropping it without
me saying anything, know what I mean?! LOL

I saw one trainer put the treat on the table, and when the dog went for it, she used the "leave it command." Then she waited a few seconds, and gave the dog a treat, she kept repeating this making the dog wait a little longer each time. Don't allow them to get the treat off the table, if you are trying to teach them that this is a no no, always pick up the treat yourself and give it to them, or give them one frrom your hand.

Ohhh, good idea! Thanks for the tip :)

nancy gave you good advice on how to train the leave it command. also, another thing that i did you might want to give a try is i used to carry treats around with me at all times. that way, milu knows that she will get a treat every time she listens to me no matter what. (since i always have the treats with me)

it's kind of a pain to carry treats with you all day but what i did was put her treats in a bag and i made kind of a necklace with the treat bag by attaching the bag to a piece of ribbon. so all day long i would wear this treat bag necklace with me. it really helped! lol! milu listened very well when i wear that 'necklace'!!! :D

(i know they sell treat pouchs that you can wear on your belt, but i liked my necklace better because it was more out of the way and easier for me to wear all day long)

also, you can try to teach the leave it command this way: