Hi everyone. I’m new to the forums and got great advice about possibly adding a new member to my family, so now I’m looking for more advice on training. Bandit was rescued as a puppy from a bad breeder and as a result he has a lot of behavior issues but he has come a long way and I am proud. I’ve recently taught him leave it and he was making good progress or I thought he was but he only leaves the toys he doesn’t care much about and this other ball he absolutely loves he refuses to drop it and will run away from me and try to dig to hide it. No treats are working not even his favorites. Leave it command won’t any good if he only gives up what he wants. Any advice? Thanks in advance.

Put leash on and put something he really wants on ground and walk by. Say leave it then pull him away. Give treat. You can also put in a sit wearing the leash and toss treats on the ground saying leave it with each toss. Correct through the leash if he goes for it. Until he sits and waits for the treats don't let him have it until you can step back without him going for the treats, then you can release him to have them.

As for the drop it. It can be a pain to train it when what they want is high value. I've always had to find something else that was higher value. Some have had luck swapping to clicker training. I can't remember how old Bandit is right off the top of my head. In the year range they can go through what we call the teen phase and that pretty much just requires you going back to step one and surviving it until they grow up and out of that phase.

Thank you Jenn for your advice it’s very helpful. I didn’t realize until your post that I had two different commands confused. I’ll definitely start to teach leave it as I’ve been only doing drop it. Bandit is 1 year and 6 months. I actually hope that he is in a teen phase, because that would explain a lot as to his behavior lately. I’ve been working with him a lot, and feel like I was making progress, but lately it seems like things have gone in reverse, but I keep doing my research and am working everyday at it. I’m glad to have such great support here. He certainly loves that ball today I tried to bribe him with meat and he wouldn’t trade, so for now that toy is off limits until he starts listening to me. Thanks again for your help.

So for drop it with his toy, I would find another toy that is high value and trade between them, like instead of offering him a treat to drop it. you would offer him the other high value toy. Maybe get a second one of his favorite to work with him on. After trading some, then you can start showing the other toy as a lure and just picking up the original dropped toy and throwing it (if he likes fetch)

As for leave it, this is a good video for teaching leave it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQdg0qOVik0

There is no one right way for training, this is just the style of training I use personally.