Our friend @winstonthepup0928 on Instagram brings us today’s blog post and video topic-teaching your dog impulse control! I love this and have found it so useful in a variety of situations.
This is a two part process, because there is more than one way to teach impulse control. In addition to teaching the ‘leave it’ command, the ‘wait’ command also teaches impulse control. For today, we are focusing specifically on the ‘leave it’ command.
When teaching this command you want to use something very low value for the food you want your dog to leave alone. For example, their kibble. You can also set them up for success by making sure they’ve eaten for the day before starting the exercise. In contrast to using low value treats to leave, you’ll want to use high value treats as the reward. This will encourage your dog to ignore the kibble because they would rather have their favorite treat instead.
Check out this video with our foster dog Freddy as I work through the detailed steps of the ‘leave it’ command. You can see how I work to balance between challenging Freddy and ensuring he is successful and understanding what I am asking. As I mention in the video, I have only worked on this with Freddy twice; so you can see how in just a few minutes a day you can make a lot of progress.
I really cannot stress enough the impact that repetition and consistency has with your dog. Whether you are shaping new or good habits, or unknowingly shaping bad habits, it’s all about repetition. That’s why I find my style of training so easy. I literally just ask for the same things over and over, throughout the day. Then one day I look over and realize my foster dog is staying out of the kitchen on his own! It’s so rewarding to see the consistency pay off.
Check out the video and of course, let me know what else you’d like to see on the blog or YouTube!
