I’m a big fan of keeping things simple. When it comes to working with dogs, keeping things simple is required. Think of your dog as a lovable licking machine, but a machine nonetheless. The best way to work with a machine is to keep the commands you give it as simple as possible. Help the machine help itself (and you) by not overloading it and giving it something clear to work with.
As a dog trainer, I’m convinced that only a small number of command words is best and give the best results. There is one command I use all of the time and it’s great because it can be used in a lot of different situations. So when using this special command I can give my machine something simple but then the machine me in any number of ways.
So what are the words that I tell a dog to get a result I want? LEAVE IT. That’s it – LEAVE IT. These words, without a doubt, are the first training words your dog should hear.
If your dog starts to chew on your 1952 rookie Mickey Mantle baseball card utter the words LEAVE IT in a deep tone (so that your dog knows you mean business). If your dog sees a squirrel and darts towards a road to capture it – again…LEAVE IT. If someone knocks on the door and the dog begins barking – LEAVE IT. You get the picture. One command – many uses.
The LEAVE IT command is easy to train into the dog as well. Introduce a new toy; one that looks fun but it should be something she hasn’t seen before. When the dog starts to show interest in it simply say LEAVE IT, take the toy, and follow-up by giving the dog a treat. Repeat often, but only with the same toy. Eventually the dog can graduate to other situations and always follow-up with a treat and positive reinforcement. Before long, when hearing LEAVE IT, the dog will realize that the reward you will give her will outweigh the desire to go after that squirrel.