Training Tutorial: How to Teach Your Dog to Leave It
Isn’t “Leave It” one of those phrases that seems to just fly out of your mouth as soon as a new puppy or dog comes home? That’s often before your dog has learned what those words actually mean. We thought it would be fun to quickly show you our favorite way to teach “leave it!” Keep scrolling for our step by step process on how to teach your dog to leave it, which we also breakdown in the video above. We’ll show you how you can teach either an implied leave it (that means you teach your dog you want them to ignore that thing by default) and a cued leave it (where your dog understands how to respond when you say “leave it”).
What is “Leave It” in Dog Training?
The way we teach “leave it” will initially tell your dog to look at you immediately. Teaching them what to do provides way more clarity up front than trying to teach them what NOT to do. Leave it is a cue you would use before your dog actually puts something in their mouth whereas the “drop it” cue is something you would use if your dog already has something in their mouth. There are other moments you can use “leave it,” but we will keep it simple for now (fun fact: there are also a million other awesome cues you can use instead of leave it -- like your recall cue!).
✅ Step by Step: How to Teach Your Dog to Leave It
1️⃣ STEP ONE: Reward your dog for Eye Contact
TOC co-founder, Christie Catan, rewards Colby, the golden retriever puppy, for eye contact during their training session for how to teach your dog to leave it.
In this step, you are simply telling your dog up front how they will win this entire “Leave It” game: Eye Contact. To start, sit in front of your dog and wait. The moment your dog looks at you, mark and give them a treat. Keep repeating this until your dog is constantly looking at you (aka they know how to win the game). Eye contact is going to be what “leave it” means for your dog when you teach it initially to make it super clear for them.
2️⃣ STEP TWO: Fade In your Treat Hands
With food in your hands, make closed fists behind your back. Slowly creep them around your hips and down your legs toward your knees through various repetitions. Still mark and reward your dog everytime they make eye contact (the way to win the game is still the same). If your dog is stuck staring at the treats, you may need to back your hands up a bit and work up the “line” more slowly. Do not say “leave it” yet (we want the behavior consistent first). You want your dog to win -- so move at the pace that makes that possible. Keep doing this until your closed fist treat hands are in your lap right in front of your dog. You are actually building a calm default behavior for your dog when you have food in your hands (and it isn’t one where your dog mugs your hands trying to get the food).
3️⃣ STEP THREE: Open your Palms
With some food in both of your hands behind your back, flash one hand out (with food in it) with your palm open (if you need to start with it closed, that is fine too). Your dog will likely look at your open hand, and if you wait a second, your dog is likely going to look at you since that is how they have won every other variation of this game! When they look at you, mark and reward. (Looking away from the food in that outstretched hand to look at you looks a whole lot like a leave it, doesn’t it?!)
4️⃣ STEP FOUR: put Food on Floor
Slowly progress to putting the food on the floor. Perhaps start by flashing your food hand out and resting your other hand on the floor. Take baby steps with lots of reinforcement along the way to help your dog understand that eye contact is still the way to win this game. You are still not saying “leave it.”
5️⃣ STEP FIVE: Reward with “Take IT”(Optional)
Once your dog is consistently looking at you in the presence of food on the ground, you can mark and reward with “take it” (say “take it” and then point to the food to let your dog know they can have it).
6️⃣ STEP SIX: Add the Verbal Cue Leave It (Optional)
Once your dog consistently looks away from your food hand when you flash it out, you can add a verbal cue (aka say “leave it” when you flash your hand). Since your dog already knows how to win this game without that cue, you just need to mark and reward when they look at you when you do say the cue to associate the behavior they are already giving you with the verbal cue you choose.
📝 Additional Notes on How to Train Leave It
This is such an effective way to start to teach “leave it” because you are showing your dog the behavior you want (“look at me”) rather than trying to teach the more abstract behavior of “don’t do what you are doing.” Having clear criteria (aka rules for how to win) creates a super strong foundation for this behavior! You can then start to practice this with more and more objects and in more and more settings (aka start to proof and generalize the behavior).
Note, if you want your dog to always leave something as their default, we recommend teaching an “implied leave it” (this means you practice the behavior of leaving it but never use the verbal cue). I tend to teach an implied leave it for things I just always want my dog to leave as a general rule, so I don’t have to constantly say “leave it” (for example, I never really want my pup to eat rocks, so if they tend to want to eat those, I teach an implied leave it). You can bring in nature from outside and practice this exact game using a pinecone! And as far as verbal cues go, you may find some of your other cues work just as well (for example, I use my dog’s name, a quick kissy noise, or my recall cue in situations where people might say “leave it” since those cues have super strong responses and very clear criteria).
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Christie sits on the ground with Colby the golden retriever during a leave it training session.
