Today we're looking at the two things
you need to keep your dog safe and keep
all your fingers: leave it and take it
coming up.
Ian here with Simpawtico Dog Training and
today we're going to be talking about
developing your dog's confidence and control
with their mouth. But before we do that
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resources about the stuff we talked
about. Now let's go over these
concepts so you have an idea of how
we're working here. Take it teaches your
dog to take things gently from your
hands. For puppies this is the
cornerstone of developing a soft mouth
and learning bite inhibition. For older
dogs we can't teach bite inhibition
anymore, but we can still teach them to
take things more gently and to wait for
us to approve and release things that go
into their mouths. Leave it is a
potentially life-saving thing for dogs
to learn. The goal is for your dog to
learn that things they want are not
guaranteed. If you drop food on the floor
for example most dogs will torpedo after
it. As the saying goes the five-second
rule is no good if you have a two-second
dog.
Not only is it rude and annoying it's
potentially dangerous. What if you
dropped harmful things like a grape or a
piece of chocolate? Or if you're in the
bathroom and you drop a pill...your dog
is going to dive for all of that stuff so
we've got to start teaching them that
things that hit the floor are not
theirs. More than that dogs also need to
learn that anything they want in the
world isn't necessarily theirs to stick
their nose into like McDonald's wrappers
or roadkill or squirrels and chipmunks
or even other dogs. Teaching your puppy
leave it and take it together will help
prevent her from guarding food and toys.
Now for the purpose of this video we're
going to be using mainly food for the
focus. Towards the end of the video I'll
give you some tips for helping expand
this concept to toys games and even
tasks like fetching and retrieving.
There are a lot of moving parts to
getting really good at what I call the
Holy Trinity of mouth control: take it,
leave it, and drop it.
I don't want this to turn into a half
hour long, ultra-technical videos so for
right now I'm going to blaze through
just leave it and take it, and give you
some practical exercises you can start
with today. Let's get started!
Phase one: take it. First we start
teaching the dog to take things gently
from us. We cannot have them snapping for
things like a crocodile so we're going
to measure out some food during mealtime
and hand-feed them.
Yup. You heard me right. Take a piece of
kibble, say "Take it" and give it to them.
After several repetitions, hearing the
verbal phrase "Take it" becomes a reliable
predictor of receiving something from
your hand.
However the caveat is that it's got to
be done politely, so if they become
over-exuberant in taking the food we
give them feedback and take the food
away.
Use your wrist like a pivot and just
flick it away.
One thing I see people doing a lot is
giving an instructive reprimand like
"Gentle" or "Easy."
This isn't necessarily wrong but if you
use it too much, which is what a lot of
people do....
Ok, gentle... gentle... GENTLE!
Then you're implying that they
only have to take it gently or easily
when you say that. The expectation needs
to be universal: every time, everywhere. A
more productive kind of feedback is just
a simple
"Nope." This signals that they need to keep
trying.
Of course effective feedback includes
both sides of the coin so make sure to
praise them when they do take it gently.
The food itself is a reinforcement but
we need that voice to be a big part of
it too because once we get into leave it
they may not get the food, so praise for
a job well done lays the foundation for
good behavior down the road.
Also watch the head angle. If they're
looking up at it there's a greater
tendency to jump and snap. Lower the food
so it's coming straight in or even a
little below. Also use your palm for a
dog with a big mouth,
otherwise your fingers will disappear
inside those jowls. This phase goes
really quickly. For puppies I always
teach my students to hand-feed for the
first few weeks and this is such a
powerful and easy thing to do. Even for
older dogs though, a day or so of this
should drastically change the way
they take food from you. Phase two: leave
it and take it. We start this process
pretty simply. You don't necessarily even
need to wait to start this. Present food
in your hand to your dog and say one
time "Leave it." They're going to go for it
and when they do close your hand and say
"Nope"
and then wait. You don't need to repeat
yourself and don't move your hand, no matter
how much they fuss at it or how long
it takes.
Wait it out! The instant that your dog
gives up—and they will—immediately say
"Good! Take it!" and hand them the treat.
Timing is critical here; don't pussyfoot
around. Praise and reward immediately. As
you practice, your dog will start
responding faster and faster. You'll also
see them starting to get comfortable
while they wait. These bargain-basement
stays are exactly what we're waiting for so
reinforce the heck out of these. Then
start hanging out with it. Get three
seconds before you let them have it then
five and ultimately 10 before you let
them take it. Count these out as you wait.
Remember the feedback is part of
learning. You're marking the behavior and
letting them know that's what you want.
This is important. As soon as you feel
comfortable, start diversify the types of
things that you practice leave it with.
Using some of your dog's favorite
interactive toys is a really good way to
do this and it's a fantastic gateway to
not only proofing this behavior but also
teaching drop it.
Tug is a great teaching game for these
along with fetch & retrieves. Check out
my video on the four types of toys for
more info. Practice also with paper
products. Dogs tend to find tissue paper,
toilet paper, toilet paper rolls, and
crumpled up paper absolutely fascinating.
Make sure they understand that the rules
apply to everything in the universe.
The only difference here is that you'll
be rewarding them with food or a toy
instead of the paper product. Phase three:
supercharge leave it and take it! Now
you're ready to raise the criteria, which
is how we get better.
The previous steps are pretty standard
obedience class fare but we aren't going to
stop there;
we're gonna go to the extreme! So now we
repeat the leave it and take it
exercise by placing the item on the
ground.
Use your hand to cover it if necessary. I
don't recommend letting the dog slurp
food off the ground though. I don't want
them getting used to doing that so when
you use food as a lure pick it up or
have a second one in your
hand ready to give them. Don't forget to
use "Take it." Then get to where you're
standing up and covering it with your
foot or blocking it with your body if
necessary. As before we want
bargain-basement stays without having to
cover the item. Give good feedback for
eye contact, give good feedback for
showing self-restraint. Then we're going
to drop it from a few inches off the
ground. Then we're going to drop it from
waist height.
Then we're going to toss it short
distances. Boy this is usually where they
crack! Keep at it. Give feedback for good
performance and feedback for poor
performance, and challenge yourselves.
Finally get to where you can actually
toss the item in their direction without
them taking it.
Phase 4: take it outside. When leave it
and take it are well understood you
should have things pretty well on voice
control, meaning that if you say "Leave it"
your dog will stop moving towards
something and wait for your next
direction. Now it's time to raise the
criteria and challenge ourselves again.
First off we need to do the exercise in
as many places as possible. As I've
mentioned before dogs don't generalize
very well; if you train your dog in the
kitchen you have a great kitchen dog, so
we always practice things in as many
places as we can so they learn it means
the same thing everywhere. On a walk we
want them to leave things alone when we
tell them to. The best way to practice is
to do a setup. Have something setup that
the dog wants like a bowl of food or a
pile of treats or their favorite ball.
Then do some flybys. Walk by and pay
attention to the signals you feel in the
leash. Point at the item and say, "Leave it."
See what happens. If your dog keeps
trucking and pays attention to you,
great! Praise and reward them with a
treat from your pocket. If they strain to
get the item we go back to exactly how
we practiced in the beginning:
wait it out. When they give up, praise and
reward just like before. Then fly by
again. Every re-exposure makes it easier for
them to listen because the item is less
exciting each time. That means more
opportunity for you to reinforce what
you want.
Here's a pro tip: always face the
direction you want to go. Turning around
validates the item they want. Facing away
keeps your energy moving in that
direction. When it's clear that your dog
is listening, you're ready to hit the gas
and reward them in motion while you're
walking away.
Couple this with all of your other
walking tools like getting and keeping
their attention, good voice control,
off-leash following, and solid heeling when
necessary, and you've got a Swiss Army
knive's worth of tools in your back
pocket. So there are as I said a lot of
moving parts to this whole thing.
Here's a list of some more pro tips to
help you excel. Try your best to not let
there be mistakes. If your dog gets the
food or toy from you that's
self-reinforcing and will encourage them
to keep trying because sometimes it
works.
You must do your best to make it as
error free as possible. If you're working
with your new puppy, help them develop a
strong chew toy habit. If your puppy always
wants to play with chew toys she won't
seek out inappropriate objects that need
to be taken away.
Additionally teach your pup to
voluntarily give up her to toys when you
ask. For older dogs don't let them
scavenge around. Dogs are opportunistic
scavengers and if snooping around
yields rewards it's self-reinforcing and
they'll keep doing it, so keep them
focused on you and reward them lavishly
when they do as you ask. Right away start
using toys and games as part of your
take it and leave it training. Tug for
example is an awesomely productive game
for teaching manners and restraint. In
this vein you should start incorporating
drop it into your repertoire too. Leave it is for
things your dog wants, drop it is for
something they already have, so make sure
that's part of your practice too. We'll
take a bigger look at drop it in another
video.
All right guys: WOW! This was a dense
video.
Good luck with leave it and take it.
Don't let yourself get too discouraged.
Take your time with it and re-watch this
video if necessary.
Stick with it and you'll be creating
some really good habits which, as they say,
are as hard to break as bad habits. So
here's my question for you: what are some
other things you'd like to see videos
about? What are you struggling with? What
makes your blood boil?
Let's connect in those comments. Don't
forget to thumbs up this video and as
always: keep learning, keep practicing, and
I'll see you next time. Thanks for
watching.