In Leave It, Part 1, your dog learned to reliably turn away and look at you when you held food out to your side. It’s now time to expand his understanding of the cue “leave it.”

Remember that no matter what, the exercise will always follow this pattern:

The dog notices a “forbidden” item or distraction.
You say “leave it.”
You wait for your dog to look away from the distraction and give you eye contact. (Block his access to the distraction if needed.)
Say “yes!” or click to mark that correct behavior.
Reward your dog.

Adding variables

You’re now going to make this training game look different, a little bit at a time, so that your dog will be able to recognize the cue “leave it” in various contexts.

Instead of holding the hand with treats straight out from your side, hold it a foot lower in the air. If your dog is successful, progressively lower it closer and closer to the dog.
Place the treats (or other tempting item) on a raised surface, such as a coffee table, counter top, or chair. Keep your hand close to the treats. If the dog tries to eat them, cover them with your hand, and wait for him to remember to give you eye contact instead.
- Tip: The higher the raised surface, the easier it is for the dog to ignore. Start with taller counter tops, then progress to couch cushions and coffee tables.
Place the treats (or other tempting item) on the floor. Keep your hand close or be ready to block with your foot. (Just be careful not to kick your dog!)
- Tip: You can reward by picking up the treat/item and handing it to your dog, or by giving him a different treat from your hand. Do NOT tell your dog to “get it” and help himself to the treat - that will make it more difficult to teach him to continue to ignore the item.
Practice with a variety of treats and food in your hand, including “people food.” If you want your dog to be able to ignore trash and “people food” on the ground, you need to practice that ahead of time! You can reward your dog by giving him the same food that he’s turning away from, or give him something else from your other hand.
- Tip: Make sure the reward is as good as, or better than, the distraction. If you're using hot dogs as your distraction, don't try to reward your dog with a dry biscuit treat.
Practice with small objects in your hand, including both dog toys and items you don't actually want your dog to get at. Reward with treats or by tossing the dog toy.

Troubleshooting

If your dog can't turn away from the distraction in your hand, raise the hand up again until he is successful a few times, then retry the harder step.
If your dog tries to get at the treats in your hand, keep it tightly closed. Either wait him out (licking, nibbling, pawing will not be successful!) or raise your hand up again.
Do NOT repeat the cue “leave it.” Repeating it while your dog continues to ignore the cue will teach him that it's meaningless noise. Instead, make the training easier for him, so he can practice the correct response.
If you make a mistake and your dog does eat the treat, just go back to an earlier step, get more successes, then retry the harder step.
If you make a mistake and your dog grabs a forbidden item, stay calm and trade him with the “drop it” cue. Do not make a big deal out of it, or the dog might get excited and run away with the item, or guard it.

Adding difficulty and reliability

After all that, you're in the final stages of teaching your dog to reliably respond to the cue “leave it,” no matter what the distraction is or where you are!

Ask your dog to continue leaving the distraction: Start as usual, and reward your dog for giving eye contact after you cue “leave it.” Then wait, and see if he either a) continues to look at you instead of the distraction, or b) glances at the distraction but then looks at you again. Reward either choice.
- If instead he tries to help himself, repeat the cue “leave it” or block him.
- After a few reps of this, remove the distraction, OR remove your dog from the area, OR give your dog something else to do while you continue to monitor so he doesn’t help himself to the “forbidden” item.
Do “surprise reps”: Place the treats (or object) out on a raised surface or the floor, wait for your dog to happen upon them, cue “leave it,” and reward when he gives eye contact.
- Tip: Make sure you set the the treats out in such a way that you will be able to cover them with a hand or foot if needed. You don't want your dog to hear “leave it” right as he dives in and eats the forbidden food.
Drop a treat/item: Deliberately drop a treat in front of your dog. Again, be ready to block if needed. Pick up the treat/item after your dog turns away, so he doesn’t snatch it up afterwards.
Drop multiple treats/items: Leave the treats/items on the floor and continue dropping more in front of your dog, repeating “leave it” if needed for each dropped item.
Walk past treats/items on the ground: Previously, your dog was standing still during most of these exercises. Now he needs to turn away and look at you as you are both walking by the distraction. Give a wider berth at first, then get closer as your dog is successful, until he can walk right over top of the distraction.
Plant distractions in front of your house: At first, you can use objects that your dog is unlikely to pick up, or put food into little plastic containers. This way, if the distraction is too great, he still won't be able to eat it and ruin the training.
Practice as needed when on walks: At first, be ready to block your dog using a hand or foot if needed. Start with less interesting distractions, like sticks and pebbles, and work up to being able to turn away from a chicken bone on the ground.