#162 Leave It Good

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Let's talk about leave it and why we need to be
really careful that we're notturning it into something
punitive without meaning to.
When we ask our dog to leave it, we want it to mean hey, let's
not do that right now.
It's a cue meant to createredirection, interruption, not a

(00:27):
reprimand.
But here's the problem.
Sometimes we accidentally teachour dog that leave it means
trouble, not because we said itin a harsh voice, but because of
what we do after they respond.
Let's say your dog starts tochase the cat.
You call out leave it and heactually does.

(00:50):
He disengages, he comes back toyou and then you, still riding
that wave of panic, say bad, dog, you shouldn't be chasing the
cat.
Now your dog's sitting therethinking, dang, I did leave it
and I still got in trouble.
That's confusing and it teachesthem that they can't win and,

(01:15):
worse, it could start to chipaway at the trust.
You ask them to make a betterchoice and they did, but then
you punish them anyway.
Over time this can make your dogstart to think that whatever is
associated with the cue is bad,something they should fear or
chase away before they get introuble.

(01:36):
And we don't want our dogs tofear the cat or the neighbor or
our grandkids.
So let's flip the script.
If your dog responds to leaveit, celebrate it, even if the
original behavior wasn't perfect.
Maybe they barked at the catand then left it.
Reward the moment they chose tolisten, the moment they chose

(02:02):
to respond to the leave it cue.
That's the teachable moment.
That's when the magic happens.
And it doesn't have to be foodevery time.
Maybe sometimes you just smileat your dog, you say thank you,
maybe you offer a treat or ashort play break.
The point is make your dog feelgood about the choice that he

(02:24):
just made, because the goal ofleave it isn't to scold them for
noticing something.
It's to teach them thatnoticing something and choosing
to walk away equals a win.
So next time you cue, leave itand your dog responds, even if
your heart is still poundingbecause it was a close call,

(02:47):
take a breath and reward thebehavior that you want more of.
That's how you build aconfident, responsive dog and
keep leave it working with youand not against you.