My Leave stands for: “Shift your attention away from that which caught it and walk away. It is not available to you, or not at the moment”. It is my universal one-word signal that stops my dog from pursuing anything that’s on his radar and I don’t want him to pursue—whether it’s via the eyes, ears, or nose. It always includes motion, and I want commitment: my dog to both mentally and physically disengage from dogs, people, wildlife, the slice of pizza on the sidewalk someone tossed or poop some asshat didn’t pick up. A child with an ice cream cone walking past, your heart pills spilled on the kitchen floor cause the kitty knocked it off the counter, your toddler having dropped his Oreo cookie—do you really want baby and pup charge for it at the same time? All of it is “leave”. The applications are endless.
This photo was taken shortly after we adopted Bowie, the border collie. The other dog, Will, was 12 1/2 then and quite liked Bowie. So they peacefully shared an interesting sniffing spot. Had a third dog approached, I would have told both Will and Bowie to leave the tree and move on—to prevent an argument over space.
“Leave” doesn’t rule out socializing. Your dog still gets to greet and play, but under you are the gatekeeper. It gives you time to evaluate the situation, and whether the other consents to a close-up and intimate. Many dogs don’t want a stranger dog in their space, so make sure you also ask the dog, not just his human. When your dog can say Hi, give active permission via a signal such as “say hello”. So you have time to decide from situation to situation.
Encountering a dog on the leash in an off leash area was automatically “leave” for my dogs. Ditto a dog who was muzzled or on a shock collar. Squirrels at the feeding station were too.
For many dogs heeding a “leave” is easier when they are off the leash than coming when called because it is less restrictive. When I tell my dog to leave the squirrel he can do whatever else he wants, just not that. I allow a level of agency, which is less frustrating than always having to trudge back to the human.
Leave also means: “Not of our world. Don’t worry about it”. Such, it functions as a safety cue that eases a dog who is nervous of a brief sound (it typically does nothing to make a thunder-phobic dog feel better).
How to teach it!
Like everything you want your dog to learn, teaching “leave” begins in your home.
Have your dog on her comfortable harness and on the leash, toss a treat out of her reach, and tell her to “leave”. (If your new rescue dog is too inhibited to even look at it, play the get-it game first, be encouraging, and only incorporate leave when she confidently plays along.) Your job is to prevent her, via the leash, from accessing it. That’s all. No tugging back. The only leash tension is the one your dog creates when she strains toward the treat. Also no gestural prompts and no luring no matter how much gusto she puts into trying to reach the treat. Be patient and hold out for 15-20 seconds. If she still hasn’t chanced her focus, toss one in the other direction. That is typically enough to prompt a dog’s attention away from the “leave” treat. As soon as she shifts her focus praise her. If your dog perceives your voice as a release cue and turns her attention right back to the “leave” treat, simply tell her again to “leave” and wait until she mentally disengages from it. After a couple of repetitions just about every dog gives up and commits to walking away. So don’t split the sequence of looking and walking away and reinforce separately, but lump the two actions together. As soon as your dog commits to walking away from the “leave” treat let her get one you tossed second. That is enough for every dog I ever worked with to understand the rule—your expectation when you say “leave”: mentally and physically disengage. But the majority of dogs you don’t need that extra mind jogger. Most figure out on their own within 15-20 seconds that fixating, straining, or vocalizing, doesn’t work. Out of frustration (admittedly) they try a different strategy, which typically is to shift their attention away from the “leave” treat, perhaps even to their person in a: WTF kind of way. Looking at you, though, is not the end game, so don’t demand that. The target behavior is looking away from the treat, then walking away and committing to it.
Although walking away is the ultimate aim, continue to jolly your dog up when she shifts her focus from the treat. That excites her to follow through. Convey with your voice that she is on the right track, but don’t reward until she also walks away—and on a loose leash because that is a behavior you absolutely want off the leash. If you walked first and brought your dog with you on a tight leash, you have no idea whether she is learning to respond to your verbal signal or the tactile information delivered through the leash and you might be out of luck the first time the leash isn’t on her.
Always pay attention to commitment. Backing up to gain momentum to lunge forward doesn’t count. But when you have it, pay generously. In the initial stages what my dog gets for walking away what had kept her attention is better in quality or quantity or both. Like everything I teach, I want “leave” to be a feel-good trigger, and for that to happen it needs a strong positive foundation. Celebrate your dog when she walks away, be genuinely happy. You progress a lot faster if she experiences that if she leaves this, she, wow, gets all of that. You could have a hierarchy of treats for this exercise, from lower value to can’t resist. If you can convince your dog that walking away is more rewarding than the other thing, you’ll set the stage for voluntary compliance in the future regardless what it is you ask her to leave.
The Next Steps
Once your dog made the link between word and action and consistently walks away in the context of treats, generalize your signal to other things.
Ask her to leave a person or stationary dog in the distance that caught her attention, or a bird in the yard she is aware of but doesn’t really interest her all that much.
People food on the counter your dog is ogling is another one. When your dog walks away, reinforce with people food.
Proceed to the next level only when your dog walks away willingly from the present one, and enforce the cue once given so that it doesn’t become a “I’ll gamble on it” signal.
Always remember hierarchy: from a treat in the house to a rabbit that darts out of the bush with no lower-valued stimuli you practiced with in between won’t work. In fact, to be successful outside you might have to put your thinking cap on regarding your reinforcements. Deer poop on a trail might be more enticing than what you have in your bait bag. Especially if the object of desire involves play or social attention, your reinforcement has to include that. Think toys: a flirt poles is something most dogs can’t resist. A cookie given in the mouth for leaving a hopping hare won’t cut it: playing catch-me-if-you-can with you might.
Step-by-step your dog will learn to mentally and physically disengage from his cat-mate who’s animated, passersby, birds, a ham sandwich you stealthily placed behind a bush on the walk to test her. Well rehearsed and reinforced, “leave” can even be a signal that prompts your dog away when she already is engaged, including from the dog she’s sniffing and whose body language you don’t like.
In theory, “leave” alone is enough for your dog to move on, but depending on the situation I periodically followed it with “keep going”—move on in the direction you were headed before you paid attention to that. Don’t underestimate the power of ongoing information.
Does “leave” mean never-ever? Not for me. I teach it as: “You can’t have it until further notice”, because I want flexibility. Let’s say I see a dog in the distance my dog is also aware of but I am not sure if it’d be a compatible playmate so I tell him to “leave”. As the dog comes closer I realize that it’s Buddy my dog had a good romp with a week ago, and I can release him to “go play”. The liberty to be able to change my mind is the best of both worlds: it allows my dog to investigate, play, socialize, even chase, while staying out of trouble. The exception are dogs who are at risk of injuring someone: then it’s never-ever.
How do you teach “until further notice”? Easy. Randomly allow access to what the dog originally wanted, and sometimes you reinforce for staying away from it for good.
Fun Fact: if you taught “leave” properly, your dog will love to hear you say it. That’s what you want, but don’t be surprised if she uses it to solicit for rewards and interaction. Whenever Davie felt we were especially boring on a hike she’d hang her schnoz into some wildlife poop or bark up a tree with no squirrel in it, and look at us at the same time waiting for the leave signal she then enthusiastically and instantly heeded, knowing she’d be in for some fun. It is okay when your dog does this. She is not trying to dominate and control you, she is thinking—and leaving. Exactly what you want. Be proud and play along.
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