Leave It
Ignore a tempting item or scent and look back at the handler.
- Teaching
- Reinforcing
- Proofing
- Maintenance
Maple's stage at Elementary
Teaching
Status: In progress
Success indicator
Dog disengages from a tempting target and looks at handler.
What it is
Addressing opportunistic behaviors in dogs involves staging situations where those behaviors occur in order to correct and redirect them.
How we teach it
Address Any Opportunistic Issues
- Establishing Training Environment: Create a situation where an opportunistic behavior occurs.
- Correct: When the dog begins to display that behavior, provide an immediate correction to disrupt the behavior.
- Redirect: Redirect the dog into another behavior or pattern in order to improve the default behavior in the future.
Leave-It
- Introduction: Begin with a low-value object, like kibble, and say “leave it” as your dog sniffs it.
- Reinforcement: Mark compliance with "yes" or clicker and then reward.
- Practice: Repeat until reliable response to "Leave it" command.
Practice at home
- Make it fun.: Dogs learn best when they are having fun. Make sure you are using positive reinforcement and make the training process as enjoyable as possible for your dog.
- Take Photos or Videos: Capturing your progress back at home or outside will help us provide additional feedback.
Watch it
Go deeper
The "Leave it" command is one of the most important commands that you can teach your dog. It can be used to prevent your dog from interacting with an object or person that you do not want them to have or touch.
Read the Leave it guideMaple's record
- Status
- In progress
- Recorded stage
- Teaching
- Progress
- 30%
- Started
- Jun 26, 2026
- Program
- Day School
Trainer notes
Clean around the lunch cart, food-on-floor reps next
Add structure to your week
See where Leave It fits in Maple's personalized training plan.