Build self control by teaching your dog to "leave it"....

LEAVE IT (stationary exercise)
 
Teaching your dog to “leave it” will help improve your dog’s impulse and self-control and is something we often underestimate the importance of. Yet, impulse and self-control are needed in order for a dog to successfully live with us in our world filled with expectations and rules. For example, it requires impulse control to NOT jump on a visitor, to NOT pull on the leash, to NOT run after the squirrel, to NOT steal the food out of the child’s hand, even though it is right in our dog’s nose height. Therefore this “Leave It” exercise is always included in my curriculum for my Puppy class as well as Basic Manner class.
 
Take five minutes every day and work on this exercise until your dog successfully understands the concept of “leave it” while you have treats on the floor. 

1. First take a handful of treats in your right hand and only two treats in your left hand.
2. Present your right hand as a closed fist in front of dog in head height. Your dog can lick, paw, chew on your hand. It is important that you try and keep your hand still. If you move your hand around too much, you will increase the chance of creating more arousal and/or frustration and thus less thinking, which will make this exercise much harder for your dog.
3. The moment your dog stops licking/chewing/pawing at your hand, mark with “yes” (or clicker) and quickly give your dog a treat from your left hand. Get your dog’s focus back on your right hand, still with treats and still presented as a closed fist. Repeat step 2 and 3 one more time.
4. With no more treats in your left hand, now when your dog stops licking at your right hand, open you hand to show treats. If your dog moves towards the treats in your hand, quickly close your hand again. Continue to keep your hand steady and in same position at all times. When your dog moves away from your closed fist, open your hand again. Continue to close your hand if your dog continues to move towards the treats every time you open your hand.
5. When your dog can look at the treats in your open hand for even just one second without moving towards them, mark with “yes” and give your dog a treat, by using your left hand to take a treat from your right open hand. Give the treat quickly to you dog and repeat. As long as your dog can control himself and leave the treats alone, continue every two to three seconds to mark with “yes” and reward him by giving him a treat from your open hand.
6. When your dog will successfully leave the treats in the palm of your hand alone for about five to six repetitions, it is time to increase the temptation by lowering your hand a little bit. Even just lowering your hand one inch, can make a big difference for the dog. Go back and repeat step 4-6 in this new position. Make sure you have a nice reliable “leave it” behavior from your dog on each level, before increasing the temptation by lowering your hand down to the next level. 
7. Slowly work your way to the floor. When treats are on the floor, you increase the temptation by moving your hand away from the treats.
8. The goal is to be able to leave the treats on the floor and have your dog leave them alone by choice. When you find your dog is successfully continuing to leave the treats alone, you can now add the verbal cue “leave it”. We always add a verbal cue as the dog is performing the desired behavior. For the final step, I would put treats on floor, move my hand away from the treats while making sure my dog stays focused and in control. I would then say,“leave it”, wait about half a second, mark with “yes,” and then give my dog a treat from the floor.

Reminders:
If you run out of treats in your right hand, release your dog from the training by saying "free" and give him a break while you prepare with a new handful of treats.
Short, successful sessions are always best. Take your time with this exercise. Spend several days working through the steps.
It is crucial that your dog does NOT have any success trying to steal a treat out of your hand. Remember, a dog will continue the behavior that works for him. This means that if your dog has continuous success in “stealing” the treat out of your hand, it is harder for him to learn that by leaving the treats alone he will get them faster.
No verbal corrections are needed. You only need to say marker word “yes”, the release word “free” and verbal praise, such as “good boy”.
Do not add your verbal cue “leave it” until your dog has fully understood the concept of leaving the treats alone. We are looking for 80-90% compliance rate, before adding any verbal cue.
To test (proof) the behavior and your dog’s understanding of this exercise, try to see if you can stand up, while leaving a treat on the floor. Will your dog still leave the treat alone? If yes, mark with”yes” and give your dog the treat. If not and he tries to eat it, quickly move your foot on top of treat to prevent the dog being successful in eating the treat!
When he masters this exercise, can you drop a treat on the floor and he will still leave it alone?
Can he leave his favorite toy alone? A bone? A piece of paper? A pill?
Keep thinking of new scenarios to help test your dog’s ability to leave things alone on the floor.

Video: ​Click here to watch video
(Please notice that in  the video, I do not show the first step with the two treats in my left hand. I had already worked with Two Dot for about 5 minutes and wanted to make sure we kept the video fairly short)

Now that your dog understands “Leave it” while being in a stationary position, the next step is to teach your dog to “leave it” when walking by the temptation. This is an increase in difficulty for your dog and an exercise that again needs to be taught step by step to help make your dog make good decisions.