Practicing leave it with freeze-dried salmon

Salmon treats for leave it training can play either part: the thing the dog is asked to leave, or the reward for leaving it. One way to start is a bit closed in your fist, a wait, and a second bit paid from the other hand. Per the listing, the medium sized pieces break into small, quick rewards.

How do you teach leave it with salmon treats?

Here is the closed-hand round, a version that needs nothing but your two hands and a few bits:

1. Break a piece into bits. Put one in your fist and the rest in a pocket or a dish behind you.
2. Hold the closed fist out at the dog's nose level and say the cue once.
3. Wait. Sniffing, licking and pawing at the fist get nothing; the fist stays shut.
4. When the dog backs off or looks away, pay a bit from the other hand.
5. Repeat a handful of times, then end the round.
6. Wash your hands and put the pouch back. The bag says: "Reseal the pouch once it is open and store it cool and dry."

Teaching leave it with treats has many versions, and this is one of the plainer ones. The basics that every session shares, how bits are handed over and when the pouch is closed, are in our guide to salmon training treats, so this page sticks to the leave it part.

Should the salmon be the item to leave or the reward?

Either, or both. One version puts a plainer treat on the floor and pays with salmon. Another uses salmon in both roles, bait in the fist and payoff from the other hand. Nothing on the bag or the listing settles it. Salmon as the reward for leaving it is a choice you make at the kitchen counter, and you can make it differently next session.

If the item on the floor is salmon, keep a hand or a foot ready to cover it. The bag says: "Provide fresh water and supervise while feeding." Leave it practice with food is feeding, so a bowl of water sits nearby and you are watching the whole time, not reading your phone.

The salmon is freeze-dried raw. Any session where bits touch the floor ends at the sink. The bag says: "Wash your hands after handling it." That covers your hands; the floor is your own call.

How many pieces does a leave it session use?

Nobody has counted, least of all the bag. The label's figure is energy, about 85.6 kcal per ounce in a 1.5 oz pouch, and the way to turn that into a session is the treat budget calculator on our product page. Type in your dog's daily calories; the calculator starts at 10 percent as its default and shows the result as salmon by weight. No piece count comes out of it, and the percent that fits your dog is your veterinarian's call, along with the daily calorie figure itself.

Weigh the session's share into a dish. Every bit that leaves the dish counts, including the one in the fist, which gets paid out on a later rep. When the dish is empty, practice is over. The bag says: "Not intended as a complete diet." A long leave it session does not turn the pouch into dinner.

When should you ask a trainer for help?

When the steps stop working, or when the dog starts doing something the steps do not cover. A dog that grabs the bit off the floor every time, holds a growl at the closed fist, or will not back off at all is a dog a trainer should see in person. We cannot see your dog from here and will not pretend to.

Signs of pain, an odd way of moving or a dog off its food are for your veterinarian before any trainer. Everything else we have written about the pouch is on the guides hub.