# Leave it and drop it + a pee question



## NotAMuggle (Dec 4, 2020)

Piper is doing super well for a 13-week-old! She sleeps soundly through the night 8 hours straight in her crate, knows "sit" "down" "come" responds to her name, loves all people, is totally cool with the insane sounds and sights of the city, and has 100% success with pooping in the litter box since I got her.

I'm in need of advice on a couple things though:

1. Piper graduated from doing two front paws only in the litter box when peeing to now 3 legs in(so close aghh!) and somehow still juuust missing the box 😅. I tried turning the low end of the box the wall so she has to step all the way in over the high end and also separately tried pushing back the litter. Any other ideas? I feel like I'm turning her off to the box sometimes because every time she goes near it and starts to get (half) in I spring up and rush over to grab her to make sure she's all-in which may startle her. When she does go all-in I throw a praise party and give a small treat.

2. We are working on drop it and leave it. She's a smart cookie and catches on quick! Where I'm running into trouble is that she will indeed "drop it" get praised/treated thennnn go pick the object up again. Same with leave it. She will "leave it", get good girl'ed!/treated then as I move away go right back for it lol. What's the best way to teach drop it/leave it don't just apply for two seconds? I'm making these my big training focuses right now because the girl wants to put everything in her mouth when she's outside lol


----------



## LWalks (Feb 7, 2021)

I’ve never done litter box training, so can’t help you there, but ‘leave it’ was one of the first things we taught because when Charlie was a puppy, some horrible person in SF was poisoning raccoons using poison-laced meatballs, and several dogs had eaten them  when we taught and practiced leave it, what was most helpful was that we always did it with something he would never get— so say ‘leave it’ and when he looks at me instead of the object, he gets a different (ideally higher value) treat. Then we’d either move away from whatever he was leaving or pick it up and put it away. Initially we’d tried ‘leave it’ and then ‘take it’ with the same thing but it confused him because he started thinking leave it was always temporary... not ideal when there’s a dead squirrel on the street. We’d also make an ‘eh eh’ noise as a quick correction if he tried to go back over to whatever he was supposed to be leaving. If you’re doing this at home, you can also physically cover the thing being left with your hand (much easier than when they’re outside with some disgusting dead thing that’s the object of their attention!)

I am definitely not a professional and I’m sure some others on here will have much better tips, but that worked for us! Good luck- it sounds like she’s doing wonderfully well!!


----------



## NotAMuggle (Dec 4, 2020)

Lisa Walker said:


> I’ve never done litter box training, so can’t help you there, but ‘leave it’ was one of the first things we taught because when Charlie was a puppy, some horrible person in SF was poisoning raccoons using poison-laced meatballs, and several dogs had eaten them  when we taught and practiced leave it, what was most helpful was that we always did it with something he would never get— so say ‘leave it’ and when he looks at me instead of the object, he gets a different (ideally higher value) treat. Then we’d either move away from whatever he was leaving or pick it up and put it away. Initially we’d tried ‘leave it’ and then ‘take it’ with the same thing but it confused him because he started thinking leave it was always temporary... not ideal when there’s a dead squirrel on the street. We’d also make an ‘eh eh’ noise as a quick correction if he tried to go back over to whatever he was supposed to be leaving. If you’re doing this at home, you can also physically cover the thing being left with your hand (much easier than when they’re outside with some disgusting dead thing that’s the object of their attention!)
> 
> I am definitely not a professional and I’m sure some others on here will have much better tips, but that worked for us! Good luck- it sounds like she’s doing wonderfully well!!


Thanks for the advice! When you trained this was he on a leash? I've been doing it inside but thinking of maybe doing it inside on a leash so i can lead her away after she "leaves it." I also need to up my leash training in general. She has a hard time listening outside (understandable - distractions everywhere in NYC!). Times like these I wish I had a private backyard to work on this stuff!


----------



## wencit (Jul 15, 2018)

I'm not sure what your ex-pen set up is like, but when we did potty training when we brought home our puppy, there was literally no room between the crate and the potty. The ex-pen was set up so small that he was either in his crate or he was standing on his potty. As he was more successful with the potty, we sloooowly opened up the ex-pen so that he had more room. If your puppy is only half in his litter box, my suggestion would be to close up the space so that he has no choice but to be fully in his box when he goes potty. Hopefully that will help him get used to the feel of litter on all 4 of his paws when he goes.

Hope that helps!


----------



## LWalks (Feb 7, 2021)

NotAMuggle said:


> Thanks for the advice! When you trained this was he on a leash? I've been doing it inside but thinking of maybe doing it inside on a leash so i can lead her away after she "leaves it." I also need to up my leash training in general. She has a hard time listening outside (understandable - distractions everywhere in NYC!). Times like these I wish I had a private backyard to work on this stuff!


We did often use a leash when he was loose in the house and really young, just to make it easier to keep him close and avoid accidents. Whether or not the leash was on, we did a lot of luring— so basically you’re luring her away from whatever she’s being told to ‘leave’ with something really delicious (and ideally extra stinky so she knows it!), and then you can cover or move the left item once you’ve lured her away (a lot of times id step on it and then pick up a moment later when he was focusing on something else). Hopefully she catches on quickly to the game in it; it’s actually really good stimulation too because it requires focus!

Other think I would say is to try to be consistent in commands. So ‘leave it’ might be for things she never gets, whereas ‘drop it’ would be for a ball or a toy (which she’s allowed to have, but needs to give up on command). I’ve found that the more specific commands are, the easier of a time he has knowing what I’m asking for. After a couple of years, I also ‘enough’ for when we’re out on a walk, and he wants to spend 5 minutes sniffing one particular tree. Unlike the dead squirrel, or syringe, or used condom (also in a city lol...) which get ‘leave it’ because he shouldn’t even go near them, the tree is fine to sniff briefly, but ‘enough’ signals that we’re moving on.


----------



## Mando's Mommy (Dec 8, 2020)

Great questions! Following to figure out how to train “leave it” and “drop it” for Mando, too. The little guy puts everything in his mouth. Training in our backyard and deck don’t help much either...he just tries to eat all the sticks, acorns, dried worms, etc.


----------



## LeleRF (Feb 18, 2021)

NotAMuggle said:


> Piper is doing super well for a 13-week-old! She sleeps soundly through the night 8 hours straight in her crate, knows "sit" "down" "come" responds to her name, loves all people, is totally cool with the insane sounds and sights of the city, and has 100% success with pooping in the litter box since I got her.


I just want to take a moment to say big time KUDOS to you and Piper for already having all these things down! Really impressive! 👏


----------



## Mando's Mommy (Dec 8, 2020)

How did you teach Piper the “down” command? Mando understands “sit” and “stay” but not “down.” I’ve tried various methods and none seem to work.


----------



## NotAMuggle (Dec 4, 2020)

LeleRF said:


> I just want to take a moment to say big time KUDOS to you and Piper for already having all these things down! Really impressive! 👏


Ahh thank you but I can already tell I'll have my work cut out for me in other areas! Girl is insaaaane on the leash and we currently have her water bowl on top of a real human plate because she paws the water out of the bowl and drinks it off the floor (well now plate...) 😓


----------



## NotAMuggle (Dec 4, 2020)

Mando's Mommy said:


> How did you teach Piper the “down” command? Mando understands “sit” and “stay” but not “down.” I’ve tried various methods and none seem to work.


The same way I taught her sit! I noticed sometimes she goes into a down on her own (like maybe walks to the carpet and flops down after play or follows me around and goes into down near where I'm sitting), every now and then. I'd wait for her to go into a down and then right as she did it say "down!" then quickly follow up with "yes! good down!" and lavish her with praise. I'd also sometimes treat if I had a treat handy. I think this would be called capturing the behavior? Luring never worked for me at all with sit or down, but timing the verbal command and marking it with a yes when she did them on her own made her quickly get it!


----------



## Mando's Mommy (Dec 8, 2020)

NotAMuggle said:


> The same way I taught her sit! I noticed sometimes she goes into a down on her own (like maybe walks to the carpet and flops down after play or follows me around and goes into down near where I'm sitting), every now and then. I'd wait for her to go into a down and then right as she did it say "down!" then quickly follow up with "yes! good down!" and lavish her with praise. I'd also sometimes treat if I had a treat handy. I think this would be called capturing the behavior? Luring never worked for me at all with sit or down, but timing the verbal command and marking it with a yes when she did them on her own made her quickly get it!


Thanks for the tip. I think I just need to keep trying.


----------



## Mikki (May 6, 2018)

You have too much room in the ex-pen. I had a large ex-pen and at only a few weeks of age Patti didn't always make it onto the pad. Close! but Not Close Enough!

I added another potty tray: two potty trays side-by-side to take up room. Problem Solved? A few weeks later I was able to remove the second tray as she had it figured out.

Stepping UP into the potty tray may be the problem. You might try replacing it with flat potty trays in the ex-pen. Later you can switch back to having the dog step into the potty tray when she's older.

Piper is VERY! young and it will take months to train her and the training is ongoing for years - her life time. 

I don't mean housebreaking. That takes - "as long as it takes" quoting Karen. A lot depends on your house size and it's configuration. Someone who lives in a studio apartment housebreaking is quicker than in a 4,000 sq ft two story home. It took 10-months before I felt Patti was 100% trustworthy and she was allowed to freely roam three rooms in the home. Other parts were gated off until she was older and trained in those areas. 

If you have Piper confined to one room, are using an ex-pen and doing indoor-housebreaking she will quickly learn to use the potty tray, if supported by Praise! and Treats! When Piper goes three-months without ANY accidents then she will be Trustworthy and housebroken in ONE ROOM. A dog that has occasional accidents is NOT housebroken.

You have a long way to go. Piper hasn't yet gotten into the awful, obnoxious biting stage which lasts a couple of months. You'll probably be thinking: "What Was I Thinking when I thought getting a puppy was a good idea."

Around 10-months things tend to settle down and get easier.


----------



## NotAMuggle (Dec 4, 2020)

^ You're right about the ex-pen. I'm making it way smaller today, she has too much room in there. I was browsing some older threads here and my "puppy jail" is far too roomy. I thought she could handle the extra space bc she IS going over to the litter box every time, buuut she just keeps doing three legs in and the pee is juuust barely missing. The party ends today for little Piper! Ex-pen is being downgraded! lol


----------



## Kellcinn (Mar 2, 2021)

We started working on leave it upon her arrival. Izzy insisted on outdoor potties over a litter box as planned. Every stick, leaf, and old sod piece was considered 1st prize in her book. I rescued my Korean lilac by growling ‘Leave It’ and made a horrible eh eh deep throated correction noise while clapping my hands. She then learned cat food got the same reaction, and tissues. We are not 100% yet but I am trying to keep it to ‘absolutely leave it items’.


----------



## NotAMuggle (Dec 4, 2020)

I know I'm almost surely jinxing myself now buuut she seems over the "two front paws in the the litter box only" phase. We haven't had an accident in almost a week. 🙂


----------

