Training a Dog to Obey the Leave It Command

Video Transcript

" Hi! I’m Tracy Tenner with Better Behavior Dog Training here at Extra Care Animal Hospital in Davie, Florida. We’re here on behalf of expertvillage.com and we’re going to be teaching you how to teach your dogs tricks. Just to repeat for a moment tricks are things that we really enjoy watching our dog’s do, but as far as a dog is concerned it’s just really another command. There are certain tricks we can teach to make us laugh, there are also tricks we can teach that might save a dogs life one day in a real situation. The trick we’re about to show you is one of those things the trick is called leave it, it encourages the dog not to pick something up that he sees on the ground, we see it as a trick and then we say okay and the dog gets it and everybody has a good time, but in reality if your dog were to see a chicken bone on the ground or something dangerous we would really want him to learn how to leave it on command. So I’m going to take a treat I’m going to put it on the ground and Sarah is going to ask Ed to leave it and when she’s ready she’ll go ahead and tell him it’s okay and he’ll be able to take it. So here’s the treat I’m going to put it on the ground as Sarah tells Ed what she wants him to do. Notice he looks completely away from his treat towards his handler and then when his handler gives him permission, okay, okay, okay good boy! We’re going to demonstrate the leave it trick again only this time we’re going to make it a little more realistic, we’re simply going to have the treat on the ground as Ed walks by with his handler and when his handler sees the treat, she’s going to ask him to leave it and continue to walk by without picking it up. Notice I’m putting the treat on the floor and now the handler and dog will walk by, good boy. We’ll we hope you’ve learned a lot about teaching your dogs tricks today and if you would like any further information you can contact us at www.extracareanimalhospital.vetsuite.com, thank you very much."