©Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA, USA Dog Behavior, LLC

Earlier this month I was walking one of my dogs and passed a lady walking her beautiful Border Collie. I would estimate this lady’s age to be in her mid-forties. She was wearing workout clothes and was walking at a fairly brisk pace with her dog.

“There is a term in the dog behavior world called “cueing behavior”.”

As I got closer to her, I heard her issuing her dog commands (i.e., cues) like a machine gun. Her staccato delivery of these commands had to make her dog nervous because I know it made me a little anxious as I passed by. There was one command that she was really hurling at her dog. That command was “leave it”.

Problematic Dog Command

The “leave it” command may be one of the most overused and abused dog commands. Its intended use is for the dog to leave a physical item alone that it is investigating. For example, if a piece of bacon is unintentionally dropped on the kitchen floor, this command instructs the dog to leave it alone. That’s it. Simple and useful. It’s actually fairly easy to train too.

However, there are many owners who use the “leave it” command as a replacement for “stop whatever behavior I’m thinking you should stop doing right now”.

Examples of Misuse of This Dog Cue

Here are some examples of the improper use of “leave it” that I commonly see:

A dog is looking at another dog and is becoming reactive (e.g., barking, growling). To stop the dog from looking at or reacting to the other dog the owner says “leave it” repeatedly. The problem? The owner’s dog doesn’t know what to “leave”. The confused dog doesn’t know if it should stop walking, stop sniffing, stop pulling, stop sitting, etc. In short, the owner is asking their dog to understand they are to stop the behavior the owner is thinking of at the moment.
A dog is sitting in front of a bowl full of dog food - it’s dinner time. The owner wants the dog to wait until the dog is given permission to start eating. Instead of teaching the dog to wait until the dog gets a command to start eating, the owner keeps saying “leave it” over and over until the owner is ready for the dog to eat. In this instance, “leave it” has become nothing more than a distracting phrase repeated over and over until the owner is ready for the dog to begin eating. The dog is painfully waiting for the noise coming from the owner’s mouth to stop in order to start eating.
There is a term in the dog behavior world called “cueing behavior”. It simply means that some things we do around dogs unintentionally cause unwanted behaviors. There are many reasons for this. An example of this would be the improper use of the “leave it” command. For example, a dog hears a sound outside the home and starts to bark. The owner reflexively starts to repeat “leave it” to get their dog to stop barking which only causes the dog’s behavior to intensify and for the owner to say “leave it” louder in response - everything escalates.

Impact on Dog Behavior

Are you familiar with the boy who cried wolf? It’s a story about a boy who keeps warning about dangerous wolves being present when there aren’t any; eventually everyone starts to ignore him. Dogs do the same thing when we overuse commands or use them improperly.

When owners frantically use “leave it” for any behavior they don’t like and expect the dog to understand what the owner wants in that moment, dogs start to ignore the command. In short, “leave it” can become a command the dog interprets as “my owner must be stressed and is confusing and stressing me again - I’m going to ignore it as best I can”.

The “leave it” command is a good one if used for its intended purpose of leaving a physical item alone that the dog is investigating. Any competent and experienced dog trainer or dog training school can help you teach your dog this valuable command and to use it properly .