Hi all,

I have a question about my three-month old Husky and is understanding of the "leave it" command.  So far he is very receptive to a variety of commands on just verbal cue - we have been able to fade out hand signals.  He has a constant habit of licking/scratching at the baseboards under the cabinets in our kitchen and does the same thing in any other house he has been in.  I can tell him to "leave it" from anywhere and he will back away from whatever he is licking/scratching, look at me, and sit there.  However, after a period of time (sometimes 10-15 seconds, sometimes several minutes) he will return to investigating the object again and doing the same thing.  How can I train a "leave it" that means "leave it alone indefinitely unless I tell you otherwise?"  I don't have a huge problem with him sniffing around under there, as sometimes kibble or treats fall there, but I don't want him doing this for just no reason, so I don't want to teach him "no you can never sniff around under there at any time" but to just listen to me for a longer period of time with "leave it."  Now, I know he is very young, and overall I think he is extremely bright to be doing so much at such a young age.  I'm not expecting him to get this completely RIGHT NOW, but I would like to know if anyone has tips on training this.

Joe, for me it's dependent on where and what is going on. If I never want my girl to go back to item I told her to leave, I tell her enough. You can also use your recall command to bring your pup to you, which may keep him away from said item for awhile. With certain things I have done the whole switching or trade off routine, since as a pup they can get distracted and refocus on what they were looking at before. So it really is up to you on the length of time, distracting at a young age usually worked for me. Most of this type of training will be tedious, because he is young, as he grows he will understand the difference of what you are asking, just be consistent and persistent.

At this age, no, not really, just keep a close eye on him, and keep asking 'leave it.' This kind of thing will fade with maturity, but with puppies, you can't rush that. It's great that he's making so much progress as a 3 month old. If it were my puppy, I'd simply restrict his access to whatever he keeps going back to. It sounds like he just enjoys it too much to walk away for good right now. So, pick up, block, or cover up what you don't want him getting at, or even restrict his access to the room entirely. You're off to a great start and need to be patient for him to mature. You have a very loooooong road until he's the dog you want, so, enjoy the fact he's learning so fast, and enjoy it before the brat phase hits.

When we taught Danzig "leave it" we gave him a treat when he came back to us. Generally he didn't bother going back after that but for this situation I'm sure you'll have to say it several times. At 7 he still knows exactly what leave it means and does not need to be reinforced with a treat. It's actually possibly the best command he's learned so far since it can be used in a variety of situations.