If your dog has something in their
mouth, will they drop it on request? Neirah, drop! If your answer was no, I want
to show you how to train “drop it” step-by-step without using any corrections. I’m going to demonstrate the process with two dogs
that do not have this skill yet: Brooks and Dezzi. I’m going to show you the progress that I made
with both dogs in just 2-3 training sessions. First, let me introduce the dogs. Brooks is a 9 month old Shepherd who is
really playful, fun and smart. However, she wasn’t the best at letting go of
items that she wants to keep such as chewie’s at home, or items she finds
out on walks such as plastic bottles. I’m going to show the three sessions I
had teaching teaching Brooks to drop it, and she’s also going to be featured
in a few more upcoming videos. Dezzi is an 9 year old pomerian that I fell
in love with the second I met. He looks like a tiny bear and has a really spicy personality.
I worked with Dezzi because he had a history of resource guarding and of biting people
that tried to take items away from him. Learning the cue “drop it” and voluntarily
offering things rather than guarding them was really important for fixing his resource guarding. I have a separate video coming up that addresses
his possessive aggression, so stay tuned for that. Before we get into the tutorial, I
want to talk about a common mistake that I often see dog guardians
make and that’s using “drop it” and “leave it” interchangeably when they mean
completely different actions from your dog. Drop it should be used when your dog
has something in their possession that you would like them to release.
This could be things like a ball, a chicken bone they find out
on a walk, or your slippers. The key piece here is that there’s something in
your dog’s mouth that you want them to release. The leave it cue should only be used when your
dog doesn’t have the item in their possession, yet. Maybe you’ve dropped something on
the kitchen floor that you don’t want your dog to grab, or there’s squirrels
or rabbits out on a walk that you don’t want them to chase. Leave it means don’t go
after that thing that you’re interested in. When you say leave it you’re
asking your dog for inaction, don’t go for that thing, whereas drop it
means release that thing in your mouth. Just like you wouldn’t use sit and down
interchangeably, it’s really important that when you’re training drop it you’re
really clear about what that cue means. Dezzi drop. Yes. I made a separate video tutorial for training
leave it which I’ll link in the caption. You have two options when it
comes to training drop it. You can teach your dog to drop the item into
your hand, or to simply release it to the ground. I first heard the concept of dropping the
item directly to the ground from Chirag Patel, loved it and have trained that way ever since. I prefer training the dog
to drop the item directly onto the ground for a few different reasons: Sometimes when you extend your arm
to take something away, your dog is going to take the action as either play which
will make them want to keep it away from you, or it might make them turn away and
want to guard the item even more. Using the floor as the drop zone
makes the request more neutral, and therefore your dog is more likely to do it. I also prefer this method because dogs pick up all sorts of gross things while out on
walks. I’d much rather my dog drop the chicken bone or piece of garbage onto
the sidewalk rather than into my hand. What you’ll need for training your dog to drop it: High value treats that your dog REALLY wants.
A mix of lower value items that your dog can practice dropping such as a ball,
chewie, toys, or even hard vegetables. Remember that every dog is different, so
one dog might drop a ball willingly while the next one is going to think that it’s the
most difficult request of their entire life. You’ll also need a clicker or a loaded marker word
so you can tell your dog when they did the right thing. If you don’t know what those are, I’m going
to link a video for that down in the caption. First I’m going to show you
how to train the drop cue, then we’ll problem solve struggles
that you might have during training, and lastly I’ll explain how to progress the
skill so that it works even out on walks. Step 1 is when there’s
nothing in your dog’s mouth. This step is going to seem really strange
at first, but please don’t skip it! We’re going to start teaching the cue “drop”
when there’s nothing in your dogs mouth. Think about this: What does your dog need
to do to drop something? Open their mouth. What does your dog need to do
to eat treats? Open their mouth. We’re conditioning that when your dog hears drop, they quickly open their jaw, which is the
exact action of releasing an item later on. Your dog is going to love this step! Kneel or sit in front of your dog with
some tiny treats in your hand. Say your dog’s name to get their attention,
followed by “drop” then immediately scatter a couple treats on the floor
next to your dog for them to get. It’s important to make sure that
you say drop BEFORE you scatter the treats. Remember: we’re training, not bribing. Drop. Drop. Ok, Dezzi sit. Yes. Good,
yes. Dezzi, drop, good. Dezzi drop. However, also make sure that once
you’ve said drop, you quickly move your hand. We want to condition a fast
response. This is too long of pause: Drop. Step 2 is progressing to having
something in their mouth. When you first start training drop, it’s
really important that you’re using an item that’s really low value to your dog.
This might be a toy, a boring chewie, or even a vegetable. Play around with a few
different things and see what works for your dog. If you start with something that your
dog loves like Brooks loves this chewie, you’re going to struggle. Kneel in front of your dog while they
have the item in their mouth. Again say “Drop” then IMMEDIATELY scatter a few
treats onto the floor for your dog to get. As your dog goes for the treats,
pick up the item that they released, then give it back. Repeat this a few times,
then slowly progress to higher value items. Two quick tips: Firstm if your dog is more interested in the
treats that you have than in taking the item back, try rubbing a little treat dust
on it to make it more enticing. And second, if your dog is REALLY uninterested in
taking the item back, turn training into a game instead. Here I’m playing tug with Brooks and I
decide to train “drop” at the same time. For this method, I’m not using the ground as an exchange
zone, but I am still placing the reward on the ground to help associate looking down and opening
her mouth with that cue. I progress from saying drop with a treat scatter to simply asking for a
drop and then rewarding her from my hand AFTER she completes the action. This is step three of drop
it training, which we’re going to discuss next. Step 3 is phasing out that treat lure. Now it’s time to test whether or
not your dog has learned the drop it cue. Your dog can be sitting,
standing, or lying down for this. Use a low value item again and this
time when your dog has the item in their mouth say “drop” then wait a few seconds. If they’ve been properly conditioned by steps 1 +
2, they should release that item in their mouth. Brooks drop. Yes. Two things might happen: First- they do release the item from your verbal
cue. This is amazing! This is what we want. Use your marker word to tell your dog that
they did it correctly, then give them a treat from your hand. Continue practicing with higher
and higher value items to proof this behaviour. The second thing that might happen is that they
don’t release the item after you’ve said drop. That’s completely ok. Just take it as a sign that your dog wasn’t ready for step
3 with this particular item. Without repeating the drop cue, simply scatter
treats on the ground in exchange for that item. Afterwards you can continue practicing with
that item with the treat scatter from step two to solidify that skill, or you can try to find a
lower value itemand again progress to step three. Dezzi, drop. Yes. If you’re enjoying this video, I would
really appreciate a like or a comment to let me know. Kind feedback really
encourages me to keep putting my time and effort into creating free content, so
if you’re enjoying this, please let me know! Step 4 is progressing the skill. It’s really important to practice with
your dog sitting, standing, and lying down to help them generalize this skill.
It’s also really important to practice while you’re standing since that’s more
likely to imitate real life scenarios. Let’s now let’s talk about some common struggles that I
see when people try to train their dog to “drop”. My puppy just won’t drop anything. Some dogs, or more commonly puppies,
value play more than treats. If your pup doesn’t want to drop anything, it’s important to ask yourself if you’ve
accidentally turned keep away into a fun game. Have you chased after your
puppy when they stole a slipper? Or tried to tug something out of their
mouth, often while making a loud verbal fuss? It’s likely that your dog found that fun,
and the behaviour therefore got reinforced. If this sounds like your dog, I strongly
recommend keeping your dog on a leash in the house for a week or two while
training drop so that you can avoid chasing after them which turns keeping
items away from you into a fun game. You might also want to try scattering the
treats a little bit farther away from you than I was doing in these videos to make
the exchange zone even more neutral. My dog learned drop it, but they
only listen to me sometimes. My first question is “are you rewarding them for
every drop?”. If not, that’s likely your answer. Drop is a hard request because you’re
asking your dog to let go of something that they found interesting. It’s important
to reward your dog for listening to that cue. There are three cues that I continue to try to
reward every single time I say them, forever: Drop it, leave it, and recall. If you are rewarding every single
time and you’re still struggling, it’s likely that you’re not using a high enough
value treat as the reward. I’m going to link a 2 minute video up here that will explain to you how
to find which treat is highest value to your dog. Second, make sure that you’re practicing taking
the dropped item, then giving it back. This will encourage your dog to release it since there’s now
a history of dropping something, getting a treat, then getting the item returned to
them which is win-win for the dog. Of course, there will be some items in
real life that you don’t want to give back after your dog releases them, but
the more that you can practice reps of this win-win scenario, the more eager
your dog will be to drop everything. And third, if you notice that your dog
almost always listens to drop in the house, but almost never does out on walks, I have a
separate tip for that at the end of this video. My dog can’t get past step 2. If you’re dog seems fine with steps
1 and 2, but won’t drop without that treat scatter, it’s likely a timing issue.
It’s important to remember that we’re training, not bribing. Try filming yourself to make sure
that you’re saying drop before you place the treats because we do eventually want the dog to
do it on verbal request rather than checking to see if you have the goods first. Try to get in the
habit of saying drop RIGHT before your arm moves. The second thing to consider if your
dog is struggling with the verbal cue is whether or not you’re trying
to progress the difficulty quickly. Try to choose a less exciting
object for your dog to drop. If you’re still struggling, this is one of
the times I train drop a bit differently and include moments of play like I did
with Brooks during the tug of war. My dog backs away when I say “drop”. If there’s a past history of things being
taken or grabbed from your dog’s mouth, they might be more likely to try
to recoil or try to guard if you try to take things away. There’s
three things should help with this: First, rather than saying drop
in a stern way, say it upbeat. Second, when you place the treats on
the ground during training try to place them to the side of your dog rather
than reaching directly towards them. And third: Make sure that the vast majority of
the time, you’re giving that dropped item back. My dog won’t drop items out on a walk: I’ve had clients say that their dog is really good
at dropping things in the home, but it won’t drop anything while out on walks. It’s really important
to remember that training is contextual, and that you need to practice in a variety of settings. I
suggest bringing a low value item such as a toy out on walks so that you can repeat these steps
and practice the entire sequence of learning drop. Likewise, if there’s something that your
dog picks up on walks and it’s not gross, bring it back home to practice. Brooks loves
collecting plastic bottles and she wasn’t a fan of releasing them on walks, so I suggested
her guardians bring some home to practice the skill with an item she struggles with but
in a setting that she already knows it. Sometimes the most important thing
is trying to find that middle ground between what your dog already knows and is
good at and what they’re struggling with. My dog simply won’t release high value items! Typically, this is just a reps problem. Drop is not a skill that your dog is going
to learn overnight. It takes time to train and it’s also really important that once
it’s trained you maintain that skill. In my neighbourhood there are a lot of
magpies that go into garbage bags so there’s typically chicken bones
and other items out on walks. At some point, you’re going to encounter
a scenario like this where your dog finds something that’s higher value item than
whatever you have to train them with. My dog doesn’t release the chicken
bone because my treats are better. She does it as an immediate reaction because
it’s such a heavily reinforced and practiced behaviour. Neirah, drop! If in doubt,
increase the training repetitions that you’re doing and make sure you’re
using a really high value reward. Dezzi, drop! Please let me know in the comments if
this video was helpful and if you have any questions! To train leave it next, watch this.
