“Leave It” is one of the most popular things for people to say to their dog when they are distracted, but it is generally ineffective as a long-term solution, even if taught right. If we have a dog in for training that is overstimulated by squirrels or people on roller skates, we never give them a specific command to ignore that distraction. No matter how stimulating they may be, ignoring distractions is part of the larger picture of obedience training.
Leave it and Reliable Obedience
When we first start training a dog, we do not immediately jump to the type of environment you see in our videos. Dogs running around and people coming and going are hard things for dogs to contend with if they do not have the tools to work through these distractions. We start in a lower-distraction environment and teach the dogs what we want from them. They have a high reinforcement rate with whatever motivates them, be it a toy, food, or praise. Then we gradually start adding distractions. If the dog is motivated, it will often do its obedience for us rather than interact with, say, a neutral dog in the yard. If the dog does choose to ignore a command to interact with the distraction, we will mark it with “No” and give the dog an appropriate correction.
Telling the dog “Leave It” would be ignoring the real facts of the situation. The dog was performing a behavior that it had many repetitions of doing, and the dog had the option of staying in the behavior and earning a reward. The dog also understands negative consequences when it makes a mistake, so it understands what it means when a correction occurs. Instead of correcting the distraction, the correction is about breaking out of an obedience behavior. I don’t want the training dog to dislike the neutral dog. In fact, I want him to be able to switch on and off with interacting and playing with that dog. But I want the dog to ignore his buddy whenever I ask him to do a behavior.
“Leave It” means that the dog is allowed to get distracted and interested in something; it just has to break off when you ask it. A better strategy is to teach your dog that they are never allowed to abandon an obedience behavior unless you have released them from it. A healthy curiosity is allowed, but not to the extent that it prevents the dog from doing the behaviors we need. Hold your dog accountable for his training, and train to a standard where you do not have to be constantly calling your dog off of things. It will make your everyday walks far more enjoyable and create a better relationship between you and your dog.