LISTEN UP The value of LEAVE IT or DROP IT
 

I live in a big city - in fact the largest one in Canada. Unfailing every year at least two stories of dogs being poisoned are in the news. A sad commentary on the nature of humans. And rarely is the perpetrator ever caught. But that is another rant all together.

These are two quite different commands. Both incredibly usefull when you walk your dog or say accidentally drop one of your meds on the floor.

I start with the Leave it command. I prepare myself with numerous treats in hand and then drop one treat on the floor instantly saying in a no nonsense tone of voice Leave it! I immediately reward the puppy from my hand. This continues on reward etc until I have utilized all the treats in my hand, I then pick up the treat I dropped and sometimes but not always give it to my dog.

Drop it is much more difficult to train in my opinion. I start with low value toy and a very high value treat. Drop it command is given - the dog drops it - reward is given - sometimes one treat sometimes multiple treats for obeying. THen I pick up the toy and say take it to the dog. The dog takes the toy voice or praise reward.

Every single day you do this until you get to 95% or better obedience in the house.

Now take the training out to your backyard. Then on walks

This training might literally save your dogs LIFE!

Leave and drop have saved my dogs lives multiple times. My chi has literally spat out a chicken bone on command that he found. One of my dogs found a poisoned meatball and she dropped it when I shouted. And I drop pills sometimes (I have shaky hands) and they'll leave those too.

Seriously cannot overstate the value of these commands.

Teddy has selective listening but I've been slowly working on it come stay leave it and drop it

Good for you

I so agree with this life-saving advice. My Lexi knows these commands very well - because she knows she will get an ultimate favorite treat & lots of praise, hugs & kisses for obeying & she likes this so much more than what she thinks the item I dropped may be worth. I am not saying she did well always in the beginning - with me needing to induce vomiting quickly that thank the Lord worked when I accidentally dropped a pill.

Macy and I do therapy visits at a nursing home once a week. Leave it is one of the most important things to teach if you do any kind of nursing home visits with your dog. Pills, raisins and M & Ms are a few of the things I have seen on floors in resident's rooms. Thanks Gemy for the tip on leave it and drop it.

You are very welcome. For those of us reading but maybe not knowing - raisins and chocolate are very toxic to dogs - and most human medication too.

Every dog you ever have in your life. Needs basic commands. leave it ,drop it,stay, come. Sit . Could save there life easily. More is better but at least these.Even Winnie listens. She good at 20 commands...But its always her idea

Oh yeah, I see "that" look in her eyes. Lol Reminds me of my Lexi at times.u

Great post Gemy!

Haha, love the little shirt, and Winnie's adorable face.

Drop it, leave it, and a a few related personalized commands have saved Max and Teddy when they each found chocolate, chicken wing bones, and other things on our walks. It's amazing the things they find!

Completely agree! I wonder if Bella would do if she had something se really valued in her mouth, but at least for a treat in training she will drop things.

Max picked up the leave it command very quickly. At a class we were told to put a treat on the floor next to our foot. When Max went for it I put my foot over the treat and calmly said "leave it". When he backed off i gave him another treat that I had in my hand and said "take it". Within minutes of starting this exercise I did not need to put my foot over the treat. I would say leave it and he backed off from the treat looking at me. It came in very handy very shortly after that when Toni went to open a big bottle off Tylenol and someone (I will never admit to who did this) had not closed the bottle and hundreds of pills fell on the kitchen floor. Of course Max sees these small things that are close to the size of treats we give him all over the place and immediately went for them. She said "leave it" and he stopped in his tracks and looked up at her without touching a single pill. This command is a must.

REally great postings folks. It s so nice to see that other Yorkie owners recognize the value of these commands.

Another important one I'm still working on with Fallyn is stop. Moxie will drop to her belly on the ground as soon as I say stop, which has saved her life! She got off the lead at a gas station when we were traveling. My son was getting her out of the car and he didn't have the lead on correctly. I said STOP and she hit the ground and stayed until I picked her up! I was SO proud of her!! Fallyn, though, is still working on the stop. She will stop, move a little, stop again, move a little. She's my hardheaded girl. They both know leave it and drop it though!

For sure STOP is one of my most important emergency commands. Never Ever to be disobeyed.

My trainer poo hooed the STOP command and said a good Come should be relied upon - I said Nope I want to do this and train it in

Two scenarios Magic as a young prox 9mth old and about 90 lb dog went to attack or at least hazzle a woman who came up on us unexpectedly. He went for her - I SHOUTED STOP he stopped! Then a few months later when we were hiking - he was off lead and about 5-0 feet away and a group of horse riders came up on the trail. I know my boy sure enough he started to go to investigate these big beasties. I started running towards him - and then Yelled STOP he stopped and waited for me to come up. My trainer said Awh I see now the usefullness of this command. Well Done Gail.

Toby doesn't listen to a damn thing I say,except for Drop It! Which I have to state in my meanest sharpest military sergeant voice or he thinks I'm not talking to him. Or maybe he just doesn't care. I haven't actually asked him which it is yet. But when I say it, he drops it. So now I've managed to use that to keep him from running from me when he gets outside out front too. I say drop it and he crouches down like "oh s**t!" and doesn't move. Mind you it took using one of those training collars on him to get that cooperation from him. I'll clarify that never have I ever used a shock collar. I used one that does three short bursts of simple vibration for correction. And it works like a charm and doesn't harm them in the least. But I am glad for its effectiveness because it has saved at least $300 in smaller bills from being shredded, a few tylenol from my boyfrieend blindly reaching for migraine pills, several medication bottles, sugar free gum, every pair of gloves any visitor has brought into the house , and kept Toby from being hit by a car. Thank goodness for the many uses of one command.
Mind , he only drops it when I say it. He just laughs at scott or nikki when they give the command. But baby steps are still steps

Absolutely agree with drop-it and leave -it. This past summer Cody and I are in the back yard, I am appox. 15 feet away from him, I NEVER take my eyes off him when we are outside, I see him sniffing at something, I go to see what has caught his attention, it was a dead chipmunk, I tell him to LEAVE IT, and he backed away giving me time to pick it up with paper towel I always have on me for poop clean up. All I could think of was, someone put out mouse poison and the little chippy got into it, a chipmunk just does not drop dead. A dog picking up a dead rodent that may have died from poison can have serious if not fatal affects on your baby. Thank you Gail for these 2 commands reminder everyone should teach their dogs.

Well as its Saturday and Ted and I are home I alone I usually do tricks at this time to keep him active and using his mind. Well I grabbed a handful of kibble dropped a piece and held his chest and said sit and gave him another piece and he was over that one I dropped so I'd let him take it. After that we eventually got to the point id drop around 3 before he'd get mad and want to go take them all so I made a little trail going Ted sit then I'd drop it then sternly I'd go leave it as he prepped to get up then if he did he'd get a good boy or a piece and We'd do this until there's a nice trail I made then I'd say go get it and he'd vacuum my mess! I feel it's a quick command he's picked up on unlike roll (literally took me all summer he just mastered it in November but could try in September) I'm trying to teach stay and come but I can't figure that out