Training Tip Tuesday, LEAVE IT, Sponsored by Anytime K9

Hello my canine companions. It's Riley with another tip for your humans. This tip is very important and could save your life. It is called "leave it" and my human uses this trick to stop me from eating chicken bones off the ground or to stop me from greeting a not so nice doggy.

"Leave it" can be used for lots of things. I don't particularly like this trick because I like a tasty chicken bone just as much as the next pup, but when I hear "leave it" I stop in my tracks and leave the bone alone.

My human taught me to "leave it" by first telling me to "take it." She gave me tiny pieces of yummyliciousness and said "take it." Then she put some ordinary kibble in her hand and said "leave it." Well in my mind a treat is a treat and so I licked and pawed at her hand to try a get the kibble but she just said "leave it." Finally I got a little frustrated and bored and looked away from the treat. Well do you know she surprised me yet again and said "good boy" and gave me a piece of moist yummyliciousness from her other hand! She repeated this several times until finally it hit me, "take it" means I can have the treat and "leave it" means just that.

Once I got the hang of it she replaced the "take it" yummyness with boring kibble and the "leave it" kibble with tasty yummyness but it didn't matter, now I know that "leave it" means "leave it!" We practiced with socks, some people, and even other dogs. So now when I see a chicken bone, no matter how much I want to crunch down, when my human says "leave it" I do just that. Pass it on.

Riley
CEO (Canine of Extraordiary Obedience)
AnytimeK9

PS--If you live in the DC or NYC areas and are interested in training with AnytimeK9, please check out their website. Be sure to tell them that Scoop sent you!