How To Teach Your Puppy To Drop Things – Mistakes Most People Make

Using A House Line

Puppies explore the world with their mouths, so it’s really a good idea for you to put a house line on your puppy when they have some freedom in your home. This is especially important when you’re trying to work on some of these behaviors where you need your puppy to relinquish an item. You’re puppy is going to find that object really gratifying so giving you that extra little bit of control by using a house line can be really, really powerful.

Now, if you’re not sure what a house line is a house line is a lead with a clip but without a handle that is about 8 feet long. It can be used to prevent bad behavior, to stop unwanted behavior fast, and to help you teach your dog good manners. You attach the house line to your dog’s collar (this collar should be an ordinary flat collar and not a slip or choke collar) and let it drop onto the floor and trail along the ground.

The house line is put on before exciting events or whenever your dog will need to learn good habits. You’re going to start this exercise with an interactive toy. Since we’re teaching our puppy to drop things, regardless of what those things are, we want to be able to have a little bit more control. This is very important as your puppy is learning this process.

Pick A Toy and a Treat

We’re not really teaching your puppy to specifically drop a ball, a sock or any other particular item. We just want your puppy to learn exactly what to do every time they hear you say drop it. So you want you to choose something that is a little bit interactive. Maybe it’s a rope tug toy or maybe it’s a fabric Frisbee. It doesn’t really matter what the thing is. Having said that, I don’t want you to start with your puppy’s favorite toy. It’s going to make it a little bit more challenging to convince them at first that it is a good idea to drop their favorite toy. Also that whatever we’re trading for is worth it.

So it is best to pick something that’s of moderate value to your puppy. But make sure it’s something that’s interactive and that you can control as well. You’re going to use a trade system to teach your puppy to drop things, and it’s going to rely on your timing, which we’ll talk about in just a moment. But I want you to find a food that your puppy really likes. Maybe it’s steak or cheese or chicken or something like that. If you have a puppy who loves playing with toys, picking up things and holding onto them I would probably start with one of these higher value foods.

Timing Is Important

Avoid something like kibble at this point. You really want to get your puppy into the habit of hearing that word and then dropping that item. Using something that they really love, that’s really good smelling or that they think tastes really good is a great way to do that. Practicing this exercise at a mealtime is also a really great way to increase the value of the food. Your puppy’s going to be really excited about the exchange because they’re a little bit hungry. They will be thrilled about getting that food in exchange for dropping that toy. As with a lot of exercises in dog training, timing’s really important for your puppy to learn this skill.

Watch Your Presentation

A lot of people become dependent on having a cookie, a toy, a treat or something to trade for in their hand. But here is what happens in that case. If you do this your puppy knows that you always have food, etc in your hand. Then before you say drop it and you go to give them the reward you’re starting to condition them that the only time they need to listen is when they see the food. They know that they won’t have to give up something unless you go to the pantry and grab a cookie of theirs and then say drop it.

So here’s what I want you to focus on. Give that puppy one second between when you say drop it and when you present the food, so it allows your puppy to register that information. And then all of a sudden, by surprise, the food is presented. So you’re gonna think the word then in your head. I want you to think drop it, then present the food. I love to use something like a bait pouch or maybe like a loose-fitting sweater or something that I can kinda hide those treats in before presenting my puppy with that food trade.

Conditioning The Response

Now this is going to allow you to start to condition the puppy to respond to that command knowing that in one second, before they actually see the food, they’re going to drop it. So it’s going to be drop it, then present the food. Training the skill this way keeps us from having to go get food and wave something really delicious in front of our puppy’s face for them to release that item. It really trains your puppy to hear that word and then one second later, respond.

This is a really great opportunity for me to talk about controlling that object or controlling that toy, whatever you’re using. This is why we want to use an interactive toy. Controlling that item is going to be really important so that your puppy can’t decide to move a couple of feet away or maybe go hide behind the couch or not engage with you. It’s really important that you’re able to reinforce that command or reinforce that drop it command for your puppy. So I want you to hold the toy, and here’s the key to holding the toy. I want you to hold it still.

Controlling The Toy

Puppies will find it really gratifying to play a game of tug with you with the toy. It’s really important that you’re not accidentally continuing the game of tug as you’re teaching your puppy to drop it. It’s just too much fun. Also a good idea is to maybe brace the toy on your leg. Or if you’re sitting down you can brace it on your knee. Whatever it is, take some of the fun and excitement out of that toy by making it absolutely still before you ask your puppy to drop it.

If you have a puppy who’s completely committed to playing the game of tug even though you’ve braced the object or kept the item really, really still, you can always put your food away and gently take your puppy’s collar. You’re just going to hang onto their collar and hold them still while you hold the toy still. They’re gonna figure out pretty quickly that this game isn’t fun anymore, and then they’ll release the object. So at that point, you can praise them and tell them what a good job they’ve done, but do not feed them at this point.

Reduce The Length Of The Game

The next time you’re going to try this exercise, I don’t want you to play tug with them as long. Don’t give them that toy for as long a period of time. We don’t want to get them into that mental state yet where they reach the state of mind that this toy is just an absolute blast and they’re not interested in food. So I might give them that item again and very soon after, tell them drop it, present the food one second later, and see what sort of results you get. Depending on the puppy, you might also need to reduce the value of the toy.

Some Variables To Consider

Maybe this toy is too great a challenge, or maybe you need to find a better food trade. Maybe they don’t really want cheese at this point but something like steak can be a real advantage to you. But understanding what you’re dog is finding gratifying and understanding when they’ve reached that point of no return where they don’t want to release that toy anymore is gonna be really important for your training. After a few sessions of your drop it training, you might start to see your puppy drop things really quickly.

So if you say drop it and before you’ve even gone into your bait pouch or gotten that food out, your puppy has dropped the item, I want you to jackpot reward them. Really mark the moments where they’ve put in an extra effort, and really acknowledge the fact that they’re getting faster. You can start to differentiate those great responses with the ones that are pretty good. So really highlight those moments for your puppy when they’ve done a really, really great job. Puppies can be really situational, so I want you to practice this exercise in different areas of your home, maybe outside versus inside.

Change up Your Training

I want you to practice it with different items. You know, at this point, I really want to reinforce the fact that using an interactive toy, something like a rope tug or a Frisbee or whatever is really advantageous. Because we can control it, we can make it less fun if we need to. But keep in mind that practicing it all over the house, practicing it outside with different items is going to very quickly transfer into your puppy understanding the word, the drop it command, versus dropping a Frisbee when they come back each time.

In Conclusion

So every time, whether it’s a sock or a tennis ball, doesn’t matter what the thing is, when your puppy hears drop it, they know exactly what to do. With repetition and some good timing, you’ll be able to level up your drop it training.

If you like this puppy training post please give me a thumbs up, leave me a comment or a vote. Thanks a million for reading my post and I’ll catch you wonderful people later!!

As found on Youtube