samsmama Posted January 12, 2004 Share Posted January 12, 2004 Friday evening I took Sam for a long walk. We arrived to a deserted park and I let him off leash for a little bit. He promptly ran over to some trees, and got really quiet all of a sudden. Of course I was curious what he was up to so I called his name. He came bounding out from the trees with a large branch and something frozen. I couldn't tell what it was, but I did know that Sam was REALLY excited. As I got closer, I realized it was a very dead squirrel, frozen, attached to a frozen tree branch. Gross. :x I wasn't so happy about him playing with this stinky thing so I tried to get him to leave it. He of course did not agree. He ran away from me and would not let me catch him. Once I got close to him, he stood his ground with his mouth around the dead branch/squirrel, and his hackles went up! Somehow I eventually was able to grab him and get the branch out of his mouth, but I was a little worried he was going to get aggressive with me. :oops: What does it mean that his hackles went up? Was he being aggessive? Should I be worried? How do you train dogs to "leave it"? He's in obedience class but we haven't covered that yet. I got him 3 and a half months ago from the Humane Society and he is one years old, golden retriever/lab mix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kendalyn Posted January 12, 2004 Share Posted January 12, 2004 :roll: I know what you mean. Buck is an expert at finding anything dead! I remember one time having to play tug o war to get a foot out of his mouth. It was really gross. I don't know what kind of animal it came from but it was a very large foot. I had to wash my gloves like 3 times before I felt comfortable wearing them again. To train a leave it command here is what I did: I put Buck on a leash and put treats on the floor one treat at a time, letting him take it. Then I put a treat on the floor and held him back from taking the treat with the leash and said "leave it". As soon as he turned his head away from the treat, I praised him like crazy and gave him another treat. We worked on this for about 10 minutes and came back to it later on in the day because Buck will lose focus if we work on one thing for too long. When Buck became good at it I took the leash off and did it with the leash off. It didn't take Buck very long to learn it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
courtnek Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 some dogs are very possesive of their food, and that's what he thought it was. However, that needs to be handled, that could become a dominance issue. Does he let you take his bowl away while he is eating from it? dont try it with your hand, but first with a broom handle or something, just in case. He should always surrender his food, toys and possessions to you on command. Kendalyn's "leave it" training is an excellent way to start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zheelah Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 Dogs also rais their hackles when they need to let heat out and it is accosiated with adrenalin and many of them do it whilst playing, you can see it very well on dogs with long hair on their back, like GSD, that they sometimes raise it a bit. A dog that is going to attack always gives of a warning, and his hackles would be raise from the top of the head all the way to the root of his tail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DogPaddle Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 Zaphod is a little skitty but when we is curious, excited, concerned etc his hackles go up. :niewiem: Maybe Sam was just over-excited with his find??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellieangel Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 Ok this is how we teach the "leave" at club... When we teach our puppies this at club we start with a treat in a fist and the pup is in a sit or a down and you hold your fist in front of the pup saying 'leave' the pup will most likely scrabble at it for a bit but will then look at you as if to say " what's going on ?" this is when you give a release command such as "OK!" and then release the treat. Your pup will soon catch on and get so that the instant you say leave they will look away from the treat or sit back from it,this is when you would progress to placing the treat on the floor in front of the pup and using the same leave command and release command when you let your pup have it. Eventually you will be able to move the treats further and further forward until you will eventually be able to place the treat on your pups feet and she will leave it. Little demo from Ellie and Rio....... [img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0bwDVAuMi47XjJvOscVoP*mNLGtMW40M8EiJ5y6ci4KFm3sdoJ04J7ob8Sy4ue8dkwwHBCYc!wl1AvZ2Oc6NMF8pZdaYy4lJzJIwRF9vN!UlT98*eTmSwwiHlt!7dF3ikebLfe!vOS9Z!InI5!XgDED!MrmDKM51n/Ellie%20and%20Rio%20leaving%20treats.jpg?dc=4675454620341903606[/img] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DogPaddle Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 Ooooh the treat on foot trick. That is how we [i]test[/i] leave it or stay. My brother would not believe me that I could get Zaphod (aka EatDog) out part Lab to do this but he is actually very patient about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samsmama Posted January 13, 2004 Author Share Posted January 13, 2004 Thanks for the visual, that's amazing! Your dogs are darling, by the way. I'll give it a try. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mouseatthebusstop Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 good demo photo Ellie..... I did not use treats when we did this one .. I say it like I mean it and it works--I will try the treat on the foot just to see if they can do it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellieangel Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 Oooooooh let me know how you get on Mouse :wink: Thanks for the compliments :oops: :grins: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 wow that is a GREAT Picture!! i'll have to try and get one of my 2 ding that :) lol they are experts at leave it :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsgalore Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 Beta will hold the treat on her nose as well as her paws! Both our dogs know 'leave it' as well as 'drop it'. Beta's hackles go up if you chase her around when she has a toy, just from excitement though. That is probably why your dog's hackles went up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samsmama Posted January 16, 2004 Author Share Posted January 16, 2004 How have you all taught drop it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DogPaddle Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 Well, Kavik learned by playing Kong - Kavik desperately wants to chase the kong. When he had it in his mouth and was near me, I would say DropIt and if he dropped it, I threw the kong - he learned. With Zaphod being a Lab he constantly tried to eat things so there were plenty of opportunities to say DropIt. If he didn't drop it I would abruptly walk over to him, quick as I could so he had no time to consume whatever was in his mouth, remove the item from his mouth while saying DropIt sternly. Once the item was removed, I'd wait 20 seconds and give him something he was allowed to have in his mouth like a kong and pat him on the head - he learned what toys to chew on. If the item was way back at the slimey back of his throat I would reach my whole hand in there and grab the slimey horribleness anyway. If he had already swallowed it, I would still stick my hand in his horrible slimey mouth and root about as if I was looking for it - this way he learns that swallowing it is no help. Zaphod learned DropIt very fast as well, now down, down tooks months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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