Hello and happy holidays! It's a busy season, so let's keep things simple and practical:
Maybe you've got decorations up for Christmas. You might do what I did last year and drop a glass bulb on the floor, watching in horror as it shatters into tantalizing shards right under your poodle's nose. There may be lots of yummy foods, some of which isn't good for poodle tummies. Maybe you're a little more stressed than usual, and your house isn't as poodle-proofed as you'd like. What trick would serve you best this month?
Leave It!
You may be thinking, "Well that's a boring trick!" But not only is it a potential lifesaver, when taught correctly, it's also rather impressive:
"The goal of teaching your dog to ignore dropped items is developing automatic behavior. In other words, rather than taking an item from the ground, your dog should leave it be without being asked. You won’t always see the hazards first, so you might not say your cue in time. Ideally, your dog should look to you for permission before eating anything off the ground."
"Leave it" is an important and potentially lifesaving command that all dogs should learn. Training your dog to "leave it" takes patience, but it's worth it.
www.akc.org
Can you drop a treat on the floor, inches from your poodle's nose, and know that they'll ignore it until you give the okay?
If not, let's get started.
As always, please share your progress, big or small. Challenges, too. And if your poodle is already doing this one reliably, increase the difficulty and share your goals here.
I mix it up. Sometimes she gets the original item (like in that video), and sometimes she doesn't. When she does, it's not automatic; she doesn't get to race for it, unprompted. I use the "Get it" command after she's been rewarded.
Another way I mix it up is by sometimes picking up the item before she gets a reward. Sometimes she gets the original item after. Sometimes she doesn't.
I practise those variations in moderation, and always with a jackpot reward of treats and play. That's because Peggy has shown a tendency to guard some resources, and I don't want to trigger any of that anxiety by training. In fact, I want to do the opposite.
If your poodle is prone to resource guarding (something you may not know until you inadvertently trigger it) tread lightly and playfully with this stuff. In fact, we should all tread lightly and playfully.
I'm not a trainer, but in my personal experience, to be most effective, the words "Leave it!" (or whatever will roll best off your tongue in an emergency) should have the same impact as "Let's play with this cool toy!" or "Want some yummy chicken??" It should elicit anticipation.
That doesn't mean you're being permissive or wishy washy. It just means you're outsmarting your very smart poodle.
Don't have time to watch that video right now, but I want to soon! Cody is good at "leave it" in training sessions but is not reliable in real life. And he eats everything so we need to work on generalizing this!
Best thing is to avoid walking in places with abundant temptation. That's just stressful for everyone. But for the occasional too-good-to-resist temptation? That's where I find my "waaait" command (my version of leave-it) works best. We practise it during play:
I toss something for her to retrieve, but occasionally I say "waaaait" before she reaches it. For turning back to me, she gets a BIG reward (an even better toy, a handful of treats instead of the single treat I tossed, etc.) and, most times, I let her go after the original item, too.
We have hallways in our house that meet in a "T" shape. I'll sometimes stand at the intersection and toss treats. She gobbles the treat and races back to me. Then I toss a treat in a different direction. This is a great game for getting her to consistently orient back to me. (I gusss you could call it a silent recall?) But it also creates good opportunities for the occasional "waaaaait."
She's learned that obeying that command is way better than ignoring it.
If she does occasionally slip up, the game abruptly ends. Not sure if there's a better way to handle that, but would love input from others.
You can also recreate "random temptations" by pretending to accidentally drop something. I'll do that in the kitchen sometimes. If she looks up at me instead of snatching it? Woo hoo! Big party.
We're still learning take it and we're making progress. Are there any tips to helping Basil understand when I say "take it" that she can go?
Sometimes she confused and sits there still after I say "take it".. like she's needing extra confirmation that she won't be stopped when going for the treat.
Out of about ~8 tries, the first 4 she's really confident when I say "take it", then it's hers. Then towards the end of trick lesson time, she slows down as to think, "I just heard him say "take it", but did he really mean it? I'll just sit here and watch until I'm 100% sure." So, I end up trying to say it with a lighter & happier tone... or I end up taping my foot by a mound of chicken on the floor repeating "take it" as to affirm her that now is it okay. Then once she does, "yes" followed by "take it" again to try and reaffirm her that that word means okay-for-treat-in-my-mouth.
I'm not sure there's something I'm missing to help her draw the connection. We're doing steps 1-4 according to the directions.
We're still learning take it and we're making progress. Are there any tips to helping Basil understand when I say "take it" that she can go?
Sometimes she confused and sits there still after I say "take it".. like she's needing extra confirmation that she won't be stopped when going for the treat.
Out of about ~8 tries, the first 4 she's really confident when I say "take it", then it's hers. Then towards the end of trick lesson time, she slows down as to think, "I just heard him say "take it", but did he really mean it? I'll just sit here and watch until I'm 100% sure." So, I end up trying to say it with a lighter & happier tone... or I end up taping my foot by a mound of chicken on the floor repeating "take it" as to affirm her that now is it okay. Then once she does, "yes" followed by "take it" again to try and reaffirm her that that word means okay-for-treat-in-my-mouth.
I'm not sure there's something I'm missing to help her draw the connection. We're doing steps 1-4 according to the directions.
This could be a poodle thing. Beyond 2-3 consecutive reps, Peggy's likely to look at me like, "What do you want from me, human??"
I'd say try breaking up your reps with play or some other fun training. But honestly, four good ones, in a single session, would be more than enough to satisfy me.
"Drop it" was more challenging for her understand or me to teach. But, I want to think we made baby steps because there were maybe 3 times during the month where she traded me for a higher valued toy or treat during our walks.. like many treats for a smelly dirty napkin. I did my best to mark the behavior with "yes" then "drop it" with an enthusiastic praise and amount of treats. But now I know what to look out for too. I'm optimistic we'll get there eventually.
In addition, Basil loves "touch". We practice this one tons and she'll nose boop to tell me she wants treats. Sometimes when we cross the street I'll ask for "touch" so she will keep nose booping my hip until we safely cross... So, that's good.
Thanks for bringing this full circle! We are doing pretty good, although poodle brain has the ability to in a split second calculate all the variables to decide whether it’s worth it to leave it or not. As long as the reward is higher value he’s rock solid. If it’s not, for example when he finds something interesting walking and I’m silly and have forgotten treats or they are boring treats maybe 50/50.
A dead bird was more high value than the treats I had this morning so leave it did not work!
I just have to be smarter than he is. Which is not easy!
We did have improvement thru the month in "leave it" whether open hand or dropped on the floor unless the bit of chicken bounced right at their feet. I need to try with not-chicken to see if that helps.
Eye contact improved considerably, so yay!
I sometimes traded a chicken bit, sometimes inspected the floor chicken and authorized that and other times just authorized the floor chicken without inspection.
I'm calling this one better than expected and will continue on it, as with the others .
Yay! I do think this one’s worthy of daily practise. Luckily, there are so many ways to make it fun.
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