A cure for many doggy evils

Many of your dog's most irritating behaviors can be controlled when you teach her "leave it!" In just a few short training sessions, you'll be able to replace annoying behaviors with happy attention on you.

Wouldn抰 you like a single command that can tell your dog to:爏top vacuuming up everything on the floor爏top sniffing your guests爏top growling at other dogs爏top whatever she抯 doing that you don抰 like andpay attention to you?

It抯 not magic, it抯 搇eave it!?/P>

We take for granted when we teach 搇eave it?that you are the most important and interesting thing in your dog抯 universe. If you抮e not ?you抮e not spending enough time with her. It only takes a few minutes a couple of times a day to build a bond. And the rewards both of you get from that bond are priceless.

As a first step to teaching 搇eave it,?sit down in a chair with your dog, wearing his collar and leash, with you. You should have a handful of treats for the dog ?something he really, really likes and sees only during training sessions. Give your dog one treat at a time, saying 搕ake it?every time he gets a cookie.

After a few treats are down the hatch, conceal a cookie in the same hand (make a fist around it), so the dog cannot get it, and say 搇eave it.?Your dog will stare at your hand longingly, perhaps even try to lick or nibble at it. Sit patiently. When the dog looks away from your hand ?when he looks anywhere but at your hand ?say 揋ood Leave It?and reward him. Don抰 use the concealed treat ?give a treat from your reserve pile. Eventually you may want the dog to look up at you, but the point of this exercise is to get the dog to ignore the treat in your closed fist.

After a few short sessions with this exercise, your dog should look away from the treat hand as soon as you say 揕eave it.?When you抳e gotten this far, you can start showing the dog the treat and saying 揕eave it.?She should know by this time what it expected and look away from the treat. Again, reward as soon as she looks away and repeat 揋ood Leave It!?/P>

The first time an instructor taught us this exercise in class, our graduation ceremony included each of the dog-and-owner teams walking through a minefield of dog treats. Every single one of the dogs ignored all the goodies on the ground and paid attention to his/her owner throughout. At the start of class none of us believed it possible ?but all of us did it!

揕eave it?is, in essence, getting your dog抯 attention refocused onto you and onto more positive behavior. Dog owners often expect their dogs to stop doing something by saying 搉o,?but don抰 tell their dogs what to do instead! Replace a behavior you don抰 want with one you do. Dogs like rules and routine. They like knowing what抯 expected of them. Tell them!