"Drop It"Training

[R AJODHIA]

Hello,

I've been doing "drop it"excercise with my GSD (1.5 years old).

She understands that if she drops a toy/item, she'll get rewarded.

However now, immediately after picking up an item, she drops it expecting a snack, before I give the "drop it" command. I don't reward her with snacks in those cases. She still continuous this behavior though. Results in general are still varying when I ask her to "drop it" without using any snacks (just on command only), so for now I continue the training with rewards. Any tips?

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi there!

In this case, you are doing correctly. We want to reward drop its only when cued. She may be attending to subtle cues that are invisible to us, for example, she may think that "any time I carry an item in my mouth and my owner looks at me, I may be asked to drop and then am rewarded". Trial after trial, she should get the idea that rewards only happen when she is asked to drop and that by anticipating, she is only wasting time and energy. 

It may also help to catch her when she doesn't expect you to ask her to drop it, for example, pretend to be reading a book, or watch her with the corner of your eyes. Keep treats hidden in your pocket during the day so that you can catch her unprepared. Some dogs are very attentive so they are more likely to be in "training mode" when they see us carrying treats in our hands or pocket.