I have read a lot of conflicting opinions on teaching a dog to drop and wondered what views/ideas people on the forum had??

food works best all the time with our staffy lol just a couple of goes and ours gets it straight away

Have another treat to hand- put it in front of the dogs nose (assuming it is food motivated, if not, have another toy). Give the command 'drop' (or 'leave') and if it drops the original treat or toy, reward with the new treat or toy. Repeat and gradually only reward at random intervals so the dog does not expect a reward everytime.

Thanks for this. I want my pup to learn the drop command so things don't get crazy if we end up in a tug of war situation

Sit with your dog, with a treat/toy of higher value than the one the dog has.
Now present the treat/toy to the dog (don't say anything) and when the dog drops - reward with the high value treat/toy.
It's important not to say anything to begin with because the dog hasn't the foggiest what you want. Until you can guarantee that your dog is likely to respond with the correct behaviour, don't say anything otherwise you risk miss associating the word making training slower and more difficult.

Keep practising until the dog is giving it up everytime he is presented with a swap. Now do the same but before presenting the swap say 'drop' or 'leave' etc., present the swap and reward for the drop (the drop that you should inevitably get as the dog knows what you want already from previous practice without the cue).

Keep practising this with your dog, adding the word just before presenting the swap and rewarding with the higher value swap.

Once you are sure your dog has associated the cue word with leaving the object they have and getting a swap, say the word but do not present the swap. If the dog drops - reward with the higher value treat/toy that you should have behind your back. If he fails to after a couple of seconds, just prompt him by presenting the treat/toy as a swap again.

Keep practising this with him until you do not need to present the swap at all, you only need say the word but make sure you still reinforce it with anything of high value - this can mean a treat, a different toy, giving back the toy/chew he gave up (that's a really good reward in many cases), a game or just praise and attention.

What your dog finds rewarding will depend on the dog - Takara is more than happy to have the thing back that she gave up so in set up situations, I will do that with her.

You can also vary the reward you give to keep it interesting and as katkin says, reward at random (or fixed) intervals. I only reinforce 'top quality' behaviours if it's something the dog has already learnt. Recall for instance - only fast recalls are rewarded, slow recalls get a 'good but slow' response from me!

If the dog fails to give the response you want, pack up your food (and clicker if you use one) and leave the room. If you're training using the correct toys/chews they won't be of high enough value for him to enjoy them when you're not there and for him not to care that the fun training session and nice treats have gone!

Thanks for this. I want my pup to learn the drop command so things don't get crazy if we end up in a tug of war situation

Tug of war is a brilliant game to play with dogs and tires them out quickly as it stimulates them physically and mentally. It is also a great bonding exercise so very much recommended but as you say it's vital that you can tell him to leave and he will.

Tug of war is also a great way to teach drop because the game is only fun and the toy only alive whilever your holding it and bringing it to life.
If the dog refuses to let go, you either hold it very still and look away or drop it and walk off. Suddenly that game became very dull all because he refused to do as he was told!
If he does let go you can restart the game again as a reward.

I regularly play tug with Takara but because I regularly tell her to leave and then let her have it back, it never gets to a point where she's too excited so it never gets out of hand :)

Sit with your dog, with a treat/toy of higher value than the one the dog has.
Now present the treat/toy to the dog (don't say anything) and when the dog drops - reward with the high value treat/toy.
It's important not to say anything to begin with because the dog hasn't the foggiest what you want. Until you can guarantee that your dog is likely to respond with the correct behaviour, don't say anything otherwise you risk miss associating the word making training slower and more difficult.

Keep practising until the dog is giving it up everytime he is presented with a swap. Now do the same but before presenting the swap say 'drop' or 'leave' etc., present the swap and reward for the drop (the drop that you should inevitably get as the dog knows what you want already from previous practice without the cue).

Keep practising this with your dog, adding the word just before presenting the swap and rewarding with the higher value swap.

Once you are sure your dog has associated the cue word with leaving the object they have and getting a swap, say the word but do not present the swap. If the dog drops - reward with the higher value treat/toy that you should have behind your back. If he fails to after a couple of seconds, just prompt him by presenting the treat/toy as a swap again.

Keep practising this with him until you do not need to present the swap at all, you only need say the word but make sure you still reinforce it with anything of high value - this can mean a treat, a different toy, giving back the toy/chew he gave up (that's a really good reward in many cases), a game or just praise and attention.

What your dog finds rewarding will depend on the dog - Takara is more than happy to have the thing back that she gave up so in set up situations, I will do that with her.

You can also vary the reward you give to keep it interesting and as katkin says, reward at random (or fixed) intervals. I only reinforce 'top quality' behaviours if it's something the dog has already learnt. Recall for instance - only fast recalls are rewarded, slow recalls get a 'good but slow' response from me!

If the dog fails to give the response you want, pack up your food (and clicker if you use one) and leave the room. If you're training using the correct toys/chews they won't be of high enough value for him to enjoy them when you're not there and for him not to care that the fun training session and nice treats have gone!

WOW!! This is the greatest post ever!!

Tug of war is a brilliant game to play with dogs and tires them out quickly as it stimulates them physically and mentally. It is also a great bonding exercise so very much recommended but as you say it's vital that you can tell him to leave and he will.

Tug of war is also a great way to teach drop because the game is only fun and the toy only alive whilever your holding it and bringing it to life.
If the dog refuses to let go, you either hold it very still and look away or drop it and walk off. Suddenly that game became very dull all because he refused to do as he was told!
If he does let go you can restart the game again as a reward.

I regularly play tug with Takara but because I regularly tell her to leave and then let her have it back, it never gets to a point where she's too excited so it never gets out of hand :)

Where do you stand on growling while playing tug of war? Should they be allowed to Growl a little or not at all??

Where do you stand on growling while playing tug of war? Should they be allowed to Growl a little or not at all??

hi i would like to know this too as my dog always growls when he has his toy, im going to try the drop advice though as he still hasn't got the hang of it, we are always playing tug of war:roll:

I encourage it but that's because mine doesn't growl much at all.

IMO growling is perfectly fine and natural. You will find most of the 'experts' that tell you growling isn't acceptable are those that believe tuggy games cause dogs to become competitive and 'dominant'.
Tuggy games simulate the natural tugging of a piece of meat. Naturally, dogs - being pack animals - will tug the prey between themselves to tear it up into manageable chunks. Without each other, they wouldn't eat as they need help to tear it apart.
Because of that, tug strengthens the bond as it simulates that natural tugging that dogs would do between themselves.

Going on the above, I don't mind a bit of growling. The important thing is to remember there's a fine line between very excited and verging on aggressive as the dog is so stimulated by this point it can easily become out of control. Therefore, don't let small children (or even bigger children/adults who don't understand the rules) play tug with the dog and recognise when your dog is getting OTT with the growling.

Most, well socialised dogs will growl during this sort of play and I often growl back at Takara to encourage the pully game as she's a bit of a wuss!! :lol:

I'd say it really depends on your dog - don't over excite an already wound up dog, but a little bit of growling does no harm as long as your dog can accept enough is enough. :)

(Glad you liked my post!)

I wish my parents dog was taught how to drop/leave things. She refuses to drop anything if you try and get it off her, then she drops it herself and barks at it, so you go to pick it up to throw it, and she grabs it again and wont let go!
It's really annoying coz she's a lot stronger than me and I can never get anything from her!
She's a OAP now so probably too late to try and get her to do anything!

I wish my parents dog was taught how to drop/leave things. She refuses to drop anything if you try and get it off her, then she drops it herself and barks at it, so you go to pick it up to throw it, and she grabs it again and wont let go!
It's really annoying coz she's a lot stronger than me and I can never get anything from her!
She's a OAP now so probably too late to try and get her to do anything!

If Ailsa tries to grab something she's dropped, I put my foot on it and tell her to 'leave' and use a treat to focus her attention til it's safe to pick the original thing up.

Mandie - my oldie was 11 1/2 when I got him and has learnt a heck of a lot since then (he was never trained in his previous home).

Takara does the whole tease thing as well - it's to get me to play 'keepaway' (where she will act as though she'll let me have it then run off with it and get me to chase her).

I try to engage in one game of keepaway a day but it has a cue word (I'mmmmmm gonna getcha!) so that we only play it when I say that - if I say 'leave' it means 'leave'.
I find that by allowing her to play it on my terms, she doesn't play it at times when it's unsuitable.

Because keepaway is a game to them, if she goes to grab it when I've asked her to leave - I just walk off and refuse to play. Also if you're having trouble getting them to bring it back, sit down and ignore the dog - eventually they'll bring the toy to you because it's really boring playing with it alone! (unless it's a ball on a rope which Takara loves to swing around her head and smack herself with).

That's good that they can still learn even when they're OAP's then!
But I don't see my parents much now since I moved from London to Sheffield so there's not really much I could try and do, and my parents are strong enough to get things off her, whereas I'm always the one that goes flying whilst playing tug of war!

I know not to give up on Kizzy now then! I can't even get her to sit! She sits after a while when I have treats, but if I say to her sit, she just stands there giving me funny looks!

And when you call her name, she only understands it when I say it, or when someone fakes my voice, otherwise she doesn't take any notice.


I think I have a weird dog! :(

She learnt quick about leaving toys though, and fetching them and dropping them. I'm glad my parents dog didn't teach her to not drop things like she does, haha!
Although sometimes we need two toys, so if she decides to not want to drop one, we can distract her with the other, but then sometimes she goes running after the other toy with the first one still in her mouth!

Hehe bless her! Aren't they funny things, no - don't give up on her. It may take a while but all of a sudden it'll click.

Takara used to only respond if I had treats. I simply taught her that if I had to use a treat for an already learned behaviour, she didn't get a reward. If I asked her for it and she did it while I had no treats in my hand, she got a food reward. You can only do this with already learned behaviours though ;)

The only reason they do it is that dogs don't generalise and many dogs take things very literally. 'sit + treat in the hand = I put my bum on the floor' whereas sit on it's own - what does that mean?

So they aint being clever or manipulative to get a treat - just canine :D

Parka growls like mad when we play tug, but his tail wags constantly throughout and you can tell hes only playing, hes makes a right racket.