Dog Training - How To Teach Your Dog The “Leave It” Command
As usual, below is your Cool Dog Newsletter. Today I am going to focus on the very important “Leave it” command. Many dog owners fail to train their dogs this command, and that is a major mistake.
The “Leave it” command can prevent your dog from getting in trouble, and at times it could be live saving, either for your dog, for a baby or for an elderly.
By teaching your dog to “Leave it”, you will have won half the battle of the dog training world.
Here is your article:
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Title: How To Teach Your Dog The “Leave It” Command
Author: Dr. Mayra Alfonso
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The “Leave it” command is one of the most important commands you can teach your dog. It will keep your dog out of trouble. Dogs tend to get into everything, including trash, cigarette butts, chicken bones, sometimes even stool.
Just imagine how wonderful would be that instead of having to scream No to your dog, you could just stop his behavior with a simple Leave it command. One of the things we need to avoid when we are training our dogs is to repeat the word No too often. You should use the word No, only for emergencies. In that way if you ever have to tell your dog No, he knows that you really mean it.
One of the problems that some dog owners present (especially women), when they are training their dogs is that they say the command Leave it, too softly. When you give your dog the Leave it command, you want to say it with a deep tone of voice. Your dog needs to know that you are serious about it.
So how do you teach your dog to leave it? You want to purposely set up your dog into the situation in which you are going to use the command. A technique that works very well is by putting a treat on the floor, allowing the dog to get close to it. When you see the dog trying to get the treat, you say the command Leave it. As you say the command you place your foot on top of the treat. Immediately after the dog stops from trying to get the treat, give him another treat.
There are two important things that you’ll need to remember when you are teaching this command to your dog. The first one is not to give your dog the treat that you just told him to leave, if you do that you will be teaching him to wait. The other thing to remember is that you have to say the command with a deep voice, but you do not need to yell at the dog.
Keep in mine that some dogs require more practice than others. There are some breeds that can be very persistent (terriers), and it will take a lot of repetitions for them to take it seriously. But practice makes perfection.
After a few practices, and once the dog learns the narrow use of “Leave it,” then you can start broaden its use to more practical things, like not getting close to a baby, or not getting food from the table.
Just imagine how wonderful will it feel when your friends come over, and you will not have to hide the cheese from your dog. Everything will be great when you just say “Leave it.”
Have a great Cool Dog day,
Dr. Mayra Alfonso
Cool Dog Newsletter
