Teaching drop it with a freeze-dried salmon trade

Salmon treats for drop it training work as a trade: your dog holds a toy, you say the cue once and show a small bit of salmon, the toy comes out of the mouth, and you pay. Then you hand the toy back. Start with toys your dog cares less about, and count every trade in the allowance.

How do you teach drop it with salmon treats?

Drop it asks your dog to let go of something already in its mouth. Every trade in this routine uses a toy, and nothing else. One trade, step by step:

1. Have the salmon broken into bits before the toy comes out.
2. Let your dog hold a toy, then say the cue once.
3. Show a bit near your dog's nose.
4. When the toy drops, pay the bit.
5. Pick up the toy and hand it back.
6. Close the pouch with its reseal, then wash up once the session is over.

Our salmon is freeze-dried from raw fish, which is why the last step ends at the sink. The bag says: "Wash your hands after handling it."

Do not pull the toy. Pulling is not part of this exercise, and a dog that will not let go is a question for a trainer, not a tug of war. The salmon is only the payment, and it arrives once the toy is down.

One more thing about the cue: say it once. The steps above are written for a single cue followed by a single bit, and a cue said over and over is a different routine.

What should your dog practice dropping first?

A toy your dog does not care much about. Start with the least interesting one in the basket, and work toward the favorite in small steps, one toy at a time.

We are not saying which toy that is, because only you know which ones your dog carries around, chews on or ignores. Pick a few and rank them in your head. Practice with the plain one before you ask for a trade on the one that never leaves your dog's side. Salmon is never the item in this exercise; the toy is the only thing being dropped.

The listing says each medium sized piece breaks into small, quick rewards, and a trade needs only one of those. Break them down far enough that each trade pays at once.

Should you give the toy back after the trade?

In this routine, yes. You pay the bit, pick up the toy and hand it back. The trade is a swap, and the toy is part of it from both ends.

Think of it as returning a borrowed tool after you finish with it. Your dog hands over the toy, gets paid, and gets the toy again. A trainer can tell you more about when to keep a toy instead.

If you are working with several toys, give back the same toy you took. Each trade then starts and ends with the same object, and you can keep track of which toy you are practicing with.

How much salmon does drop it practice use?

Each trade spends one bit, and bits are a share of the day. The treat budget calculator on our product page takes the daily calories you give it and shows 10 percent of that as salmon by weight, in grams and ounces. It does the arithmetic in weight only. Its sum rests on the label's energy line of 3,020 kcal ME/kg, so every gram it shows is a gram you can spend on trades.

Your veterinarian sets your dog's real number. When the vet's share is different, the vet's share is the one to use. Broader session setup lives in our guide to salmon training treats. Every other salmon page is listed on the guides hub.

A day with many trades leaves fewer salmon bits for anything else, since the weight you start with is the weight you have.