Leave it
Basic Manners · 24 steps · by Push Drop Stick
Your Dog will learn to leave (not touch) food temptations while standing and walking for the verbal cue 'Leave It' as well as automatically.
Leave it tells Your Dog not to touch something before it ever reaches their mouth. It is the partner to Drop it, which asks Your Dog to spit out something they already have. A reliable leave it keeps Your Dog safer around dropped food, scavenged scraps on walks, and tempting but dangerous objects.
**How to pay a leave it.** Two rules, one firm and one a preference.
The firm one: **Your Dog never eats the temptation off the floor.** Pick it up first, every time. A dog who gets to hoover up the thing you just asked them to leave is learning that leave it means wait a second, and that lesson fails you on the walk where the temptation is a chicken bone.
The preference: **pay with a different treat where you can.** Mark, then feed something else from your other hand or your pouch. Handing over the treat you presented is not wrong, and this plan leaves it open to you, but the cleaner lesson is that the things we ask Your Dog to leave are not the things they get. If you do want to release a temptation to them sometimes, put it on its own word like 'get it' or 'find it', so getting it comes from that word and never from 'Leave It'.
Note that the demo clips were filmed before this was spelled out, so in them you will see the presented treat being fed.
**Safety:** No amount of training makes a dog 100% reliable, so if Your Dog tends to swallow non-food items like rocks, wood chips, or fabric, lean on management too: supervise closely, keep risky items out of reach, confine Your Dog when you cannot watch them, and consider conditioning a basket muzzle. The Drop it, Crate, and Muzzle plans all help here.
**An optional no-reward marker.** Some trainers like to say a light, flat "Oops" the instant Your Dog goes for the food, purely as information about which rep did not pay. It is optional, and it is not a telling-off. Skip it if it comes out sharp or if Your Dog gets frustrated. Withholding the treat carries the same information on its own.
Training steps
Look at the closed fist
Setup: Your Dog is standing in front of you. A low value treat is inside your closed fist, and the treats you will actually pay with are in your other hand or pouch.
Hold your closed fist a few inches from Your Dog's nose and let them sniff, lick or nudge it as much as they like. Each time they LOOK at your hand instead of working at it, mark and feed from your OTHER hand. Keep the fist still and closed for the whole minute and pay every look, as often as they happen. The treat inside your fist is never the one they get.
Success: Your Dog looks at your closed fist and takes a treat from your other hand.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Closed fist
Setup: Your Dog is standing. If they sit, that is fine, but try to keep them standing in general.
Hold a low value treat inside your closed fist and present it to Your Dog, letting them sniff as much as they want. Patiently wait for them to pull away for 1 full second, then mark and pay: a different treat from your other hand is ideal, or hand over the one in your fist. Use a low value treat from the very first rep, and wash or switch hands if you have been handling something rich, because the smell stays on your skin.
Success: Your Dog pulls away from the food temptation for 1 second.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Closed fist for 3 seconds
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Hold a low value treat inside your closed fist and present it to Your Dog, letting them sniff as much as they want. Wait for them to pull away for 3 full seconds, then mark and pay: a different treat from your other hand is ideal, or hand over the one in your fist.
Success: Your Dog pulls away from the food temptation for 3 seconds.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Open hand for a split second
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Hold a treat in your closed hand, show it to Your Dog from a few feet away, then open it and close it again right away. If they leave it, mark and pay: a different treat from your other hand is ideal, or hand over the one on your palm.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Open hand for 1 second
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Hold a treat on your open palm and show it to Your Dog from a few feet away for 1 second. Be prepared to close your hand if they go for it. If they leave it, mark and pay: a different treat from your other hand is ideal, or hand over the one on your palm.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Open hand for 2 seconds
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Hold a treat on your open palm and show it to Your Dog from a few feet away for 2 seconds. Be prepared to close your hand if they go for it. If they leave it, mark and pay: a different treat from your other hand is ideal, or hand over the one on your palm.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Open hand for 3 seconds
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Hold a treat on your open palm and show it to Your Dog from a few feet away for 3 seconds. Be prepared to close your hand if they go for it. If they leave it, mark and pay: a different treat from your other hand is ideal, or hand over the one on your palm.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Add the verbal cue
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It', then hold a treat on your open palm and show it to Your Dog from a few feet away for 3 seconds. Be prepared to close your hand if they go for it. If they leave it for 3 seconds, mark and pay: a different treat from your other hand is ideal, or hand over the one on your palm.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Put a treat on the floor but don't let go
Setup: Your Dog is standing. Use the verbal cue 'Leave It' at the start of each rep.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then move to place a treat on the floor without actually letting go of it, lifting it straight back up. If Your Dog does not go for it, mark and pay: a different treat from your pouch is ideal, or hand over the one you lifted. Never let them take it off the floor.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Put a treat on the floor for a split second
Setup: Your Dog is standing. Use the verbal cue 'Leave It' at the start of each rep.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then barely place a treat on the floor before picking it straight back up. If Your Dog does not go for it, mark and pay: a different treat from your pouch is ideal, or hand over the one you picked up. Never let them take it off the floor.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Put a treat on the floor for 1 second
Setup: Your Dog is standing. Use the verbal cue 'Leave It' at the start of each rep.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then place a treat on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog for 1 second. Be prepared to cover it if they go for it. If they leave it, pick it up first, then mark and pay: a different treat from your pouch is ideal, or hand over the one you picked up. Do not let them eat it off the floor, or they learn to expect the things you ask them to leave.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Put a treat on the floor for 2 seconds
Setup: Your Dog is standing. Use the verbal cue 'Leave It' at the start of each rep.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then place a treat on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog for 2 seconds. Be prepared to cover it if they go for it. If they leave it, pick it up first, then mark and pay from your pouch or hand over the one you picked up.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Put a treat on the floor for 3 seconds
Setup: Your Dog is standing. Use the verbal cue 'Leave It' at the start of each rep.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then place a treat on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog for 3 seconds. Be prepared to cover it if they go for it. If they leave it, pick it up first, then mark and pay from your pouch or hand over the one you picked up.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Drop a treat on the floor
Setup: Your Dog is standing. Use the verbal cue 'Leave It' at the start of each rep.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then drop a treat on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog. Use non-bouncy treats and be prepared to cover it if they go for it. If they leave it, pick it up first, then mark and pay from your pouch or hand over the one you picked up.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Drop 2 treats on the floor
Setup: Your Dog is standing. Use the verbal cue 'Leave It' at the start of each rep.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then drop 2 treats on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog. Use non-bouncy treats and be prepared to cover them if they go for them. If they leave them, pick them both up first, then mark and pay one treat, from your pouch or from the pair you picked up.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Drop 3 treats on the floor
Setup: Your Dog is standing. Use the verbal cue 'Leave It' at the start of each rep.
Say the verbal cue 'Leave It' and then drop 3 treats on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog. Use non-bouncy treats and be prepared to cover them if they go for them. If they leave them, pick them all up first, then mark and pay one treat, from your pouch or from the ones you picked up.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Automatically leave a treat on the floor for 1 second
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Place a treat on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog for 1 second. Do not use the cue.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Automatically leave a treat on the floor for 3 seconds
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Place a treat on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog for 3 seconds.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Automatically leave a dropped treat on the floor
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Drop a treat on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog. Try to use non-bouncy treats and be prepared to cover it if Your Dog goes for it.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Automatically leave 3 dropped treats on the floor
Setup: Your Dog is standing.
Drop 3 treats on the floor a few feet away from Your Dog. Try to use non-bouncy treats and be prepared to cover them if Your Dog goes for them.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Outside from 3 feet away
Setup: Your Dog is on a leash.
Plant 5 treat temptations around your yard (or a familiar outdoor location) before you start. With Your Dog on-leash, walk close to the temptations but use the leash to keep Your Dog 3 feet away. As soon as Your Dog notices it, say the verbal cue. If they leave it, praise them and then give them a better treat from your pocket and move onto the next temptation.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Outside from 1 foot away
Setup: Your Dog is on a leash.
Plant 5 treat temptations around your yard (or a familiar outdoor location) before you start. With Your Dog on-leash, walk close to the temptations but use the leash to keep Your Dog 1 foot out of reach. As soon as Your Dog notices it, say the verbal cue. If they leave it, praise them and then give them a better treat from your pocket and move onto the next temptation.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Walk past a treat outside
Setup: Your Dog is on a leash.
Plant 5 treat temptations around your yard (or a familiar outdoor location) before you start (use the same ones from the previous step or use new ones). With Your Dog on-leash, walk past each temptation, close enough that they could eat it if they choose. As soon as Your Dog notices the temptation, say the verbal cue. If they leave it, praise them and then give them a better treat from your pocket and move onto the next temptation.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Automatic leave-it outside
Setup: Your Dog is on a leash.
Plant 5 treat temptations around your yard. As soon as Your Dog notices a temptation, do not use the cue. Rather, wait to see what they do. If they leave it, praise them and then give them a better treat from your pocket and move onto the next temptation.
Success: Your Dog does not touch the food temptation.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Nice work! Your Dog can now leave food on the cue 'Leave It' and even ignore dropped treats automatically.
To make it rock solid, proof it in new places and around bigger distractions: restart the plan on the proof steps, or play the goal games you just earned.
Ready for more? Pair it with Drop it so you are covered both before something goes in Your Dog's mouth (leave it) and after (drop it).