Leave it
Basic Manners · 23 steps · by Push Drop Stick
Your Dog will learn to leave (not touch) food temptations while standing and walking for the verbal cue 'Leave It' as well as automatically.
Leave it tells Your Dog not to touch something before it ever reaches their mouth. It is the partner to Drop it, which asks Your Dog to spit out something they already have. A reliable leave it keeps Your Dog safer around dropped food, scavenged scraps on walks, and tempting but dangerous objects.
**Safety:** No amount of training makes a dog 100% reliable, so if Your Dog tends to swallow non-food items like rocks, wood chips, or fabric, lean on management too: supervise closely, keep risky items out of reach, confine Your Dog when you cannot watch them, and consider conditioning a basket muzzle. The Drop it, Crate, and Muzzle plans all help here.
For this plan you will also need:
**- A No Reward Marker:** such as "Oops," to mark the moment Your Dog fails a rep by trying to eat the food temptation. This helps them learn why they won't be getting a treat for that rep.
Training steps
Closed fist
Setup: Your Dog is standing. If they sit, that is fine, but try to keep them standing in general.
Hold a treat in your hand but keep it closed. Present your closed fist to Your Dog and allow them to sniff it as much as they want to. Patiently wait for them to pull away for 1 full second, then open your hand and give them the treat. Use the timer and if Your Dog can't pull away for 1 second within 1 minute then try using a lower value treat.
Success: Your Dog pulls away from the food temptation for 1 second.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Closed fist for 3 seconds
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Hold a treat in your hand but keep it closed. Present your closed fist to Your Dog and allow them to sniff it as much as they want to. Wait for them to pull away for 3 full seconds and then open your hand and give them the treat.
Success: Your Dog pulls away from the food temptation for 3 seconds.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Open hand for a split second
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Hold a treat in your hand and keep it closed, show it to Your Dog from a few feet away and then open it and close it right away. If they leave it, give them the treat.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Open hand for 1 second
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Hold a treat on your palm and show it to Your Dog from a few feet away for 1 second. Be prepared to close your hand if they go for it. If they leave it, give them the treat.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Open hand for 2 seconds
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Hold a treat on your palm and show it to Your Dog from a few feet away for 2 seconds. Be prepared to close your hand if they go for it. If they leave it, give them the treat.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Open hand for 3 seconds
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Hold a treat on your palm and show it to Your Dog from a few feet away for 3 seconds. Be prepared to close your hand if they go for it. If they leave it, give them the treat.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Add the verbal cue
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then hold a treat on your palm and show it to Your Dog from a few feet away for 3 seconds. Be prepared to close your hand if they go for it. If they leave it for 3 seconds, give them the treat.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Put a treat on the floor but don't let go
Setup: Your Dog is standing. Use the verbal cue 'Leave It' at the start of each rep.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then move to place a treat on the floor but don't actually let go of it before quickly lifting it back up and feeding it to Your Dog, if they don't go for it.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Put a treat on the floor for a split second
Setup: Your Dog is standing. Use the verbal cue 'Leave It' at the start of each rep.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then barely even place a treat on the floor before quickly picking it back up and feeding it to Your Dog if they don't go for it.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Put a treat on the floor for 1 second
Setup: Your Dog is standing. Use the verbal cue 'Leave It' at the start of each rep.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then place a treat on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog for 1 second. Be prepared to cover it if they go for it. If they leave it, pick it up and give it to them. Do not let them eat the treat off the floor for reinforcement. That would teach them to expect to eat the things you ask them to leave, which defeats the purpose!
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Put a treat on the floor for 2 seconds
Setup: Your Dog is standing. Use the verbal cue 'Leave It' at the start of each rep.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then place a treat on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog for 2 seconds. Be prepared to cover it if they go for it. If they leave it, pick it up and give it to them.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Put a treat on the floor for 3 seconds
Setup: Your Dog is standing. Use the verbal cue 'Leave It' at the start of each rep.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then place a treat on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog for 3 seconds. Be prepared to cover it if they go for it. If they leave it, pick it up and give it to them.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Drop a treat on the floor
Setup: Your Dog is standing. Use the verbal cue 'Leave It' at the start of each rep.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then drop a treat on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog. Try to use non-bouncy treats and be prepared to cover it if Your Dog goes for it. If they leave it, pick it up and give it to them.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Drop 2 treats on the floor
Setup: Your Dog is standing. Use the verbal cue 'Leave It' at the start of each rep.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then drop 2 treats on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog. Try to use non-bouncy treats and be prepared to cover them if Your Dog goes for them. If they leave them, pick them up and give 1 to them.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Drop 3 treats on the floor
Setup: Your Dog is standing. Use the verbal cue 'Leave It' at the start of each rep.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then drop 3 treats on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog. Try to use non-bouncy treats and be prepared to cover them if Your Dog goes for them. If they leave them, pick them up and give 1 to them.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Automatically leave a treat on the floor for 1 second
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Place a treat on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog for 1 second. Do not use the cue.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Automatically leave a treat on the floor for 3 seconds
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Place a treat on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog for 3 seconds.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Automatically leave a dropped treat on the floor
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Drop a treat on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog. Try to use non-bouncy treats and be prepared to cover it if Your Dog goes for it.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Automatically leave 3 dropped treats on the floor
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Drop 3 treats on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog. Try to use non-bouncy treats and be prepared to cover them if Your Dog goes for them.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Outside from 3 feet away
Setup: Your Dog is on a leash.
Plant 5 treat temptations around your yard (or a familiar outdoor location) before you start. With Your Dog on-leash, walk close to the temptations but use the leash to keep Your Dog 3 feet away. As soon as Your Dog notices it, say the verbal cue. If they leave it, praise them and then give them a better treat from your pocket and move onto the next temptation.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Outside from 1 foot away
Setup: Your Dog is on a leash.
Plant 5 treat temptations around your yard (or a familiar outdoor location) before you start. With Your Dog on-leash, walk close to the temptations but use the leash to keep Your Dog 1 foot out of reach. As soon as Your Dog notices it, say the verbal cue. If they leave it, praise them and then give them a better treat from your pocket and move onto the next temptation.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Walk past a treat outside
Setup: Your Dog is on a leash.
Plant 5 treat temptations around your yard (or a familiar outdoor location) before you start (use the same ones from the previous step or use new ones). With Your Dog on-leash, walk past each temptation, close enough that they could eat it if they choose. As soon as Your Dog notices the temptation, say the verbal cue. If they leave it, praise them and then give them a better treat from your pocket and move onto the next temptation.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Automatic leave-it outside
Setup: Your Dog is on a leash.
Plant 5 treat temptations around your yard. As soon as Your Dog notices a temptation, do not use the cue. Rather, wait to see what they do. If they leave it, praise them and then give them a better treat from your pocket and move onto the next temptation.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Nice work! Your Dog can now leave food on the cue 'Leave It' and even ignore dropped treats automatically.
To make it rock solid, proof it in new places and around bigger distractions: restart the plan on the proof steps, or play the goal games you just earned.
Ready for more? Pair it with Drop it so you are covered both before something goes in Your Dog's mouth (leave it) and after (drop it).