How I Trained My Dog to Ignore Dropped Treats (and How You Can Too)
What does your dog do if you drop all your treats during training? I teach my dogs to ignore anything I drop unless I give permission, and your dog can learn this too.
When we talk about teaching “leave-it,” most people think about giving their dog a verbal cue to stop them from grabbing something they shouldn’t. That’s important, but there’s an even more powerful version: the automatic leave-it.
An automatic leave-it means that your dog sees something tempting, like a piece of food on the ground during a walk, and ignores it without you having to say a word. This skill is a lifesaver in real-world situations because dogs often find things before their owners have a chance to react. You can’t give a leave-it cue if you don’t know there is something to leave. Training your dog when it’s okay to take food is also important because they learn a simple rule: ignore it unless told otherwise.
Teach “Search” and “Free”
Before training a reliable leave it, teach your dog that when food falls to the floor, it’s only theirs to take if you give permission.
I use the word “search” for this. It’s a marker that means, “Go get it, it’s yours.”
You can start by saying “search” and tossing a treat a short distance in front of you. Let your dog go get it. You say the word slightly before throwing the food. Make sure you don’t say 'search' at the same time as tossing the food. Separating the action from the word is essential. Repeat this process until your dog clearly understands that “search” means they have permission.
You can use “search” during training. Floor feeding can be beneficial for specific training exercises. It sets your dog up for the next movement. Let’s say you are training your dog to place toys into a basket, but you want the trick far enough away so that it looks like your dog is doing the entire trick without help.
Instead of always marking with “yes” when your dog is correct and having your dog take the food from your hand, you could mark with “search” and then toss the food a few feet away. Your dog would go for the food and then line back up with the basket, keeping the desired distance.
The search game is great for recall training, heelwork, and more. For recall, you can practice tossing the treat out after saying ‘search,’ and then calling your dog to you after they eat the treat. When working on heelwork with your dog, you may want to send your dog away to encourage them to step back into the heel position quickly at your left side. Consider other training exercises where moving your dog away is beneficial for the skill set up.
Another way to release your dog to food is by using the term “free.” The difference is that you will place the food on the ground or in a dish for your dog. You may want to do this when working on position changes. Your dog works a distance away. You cue: sit, down, stand, and release your dog to food. Your dog ignores the food until you say “free.”
Teach an Automatic Leave It
Now, in a separate session, we’ll teach them to leave it without using a cue. Any food that hits the ground will be left unless you mark it, and the dog knows the food being delivered is theirs. It’s essential to prevent mistakes. That means working on steps that feel easy until you are sure your dog understands. Mistakes do happen, but your results will be better if you prevent your dog from making too many of them. You don’t need to use a harsh tone, and you certainly don’t need to provide any physical correction to stop your dog from grabbing the food. Remember, this is a quiet, automatic 'leave it' command. Our goal is not only to think about training from a positive perspective, but also to train this as a reliable and automatic behavior.
The food your dog is leaving should be of lower value than the treat you are feeding your dog for being correct at this stage. Later, you can challenge your dog more.
Place a treat on the ground and cover it with your foot or a container. Let your dog see you put it there.
The moment they stop trying to get it mark (say “yes”), give them a different treat from your hand. You can mix this up with a few searches, just make sure to mark them with “search” and then throw the treat far enough away that your dog doesn’t confuse it with the treats they are still leaving. You could also simply mark "yes" and use direct feeding.
Keep the treat on the floor untouched, rewarding your dog for ignoring it. Repeat this a few times.
Make it easy at first. Don’t encourage your dog to go for it so that you can correct them. Our goal is to prevent mistakes, not create them.
As your dog improves, start uncovering the treat for short periods. Mark and reward the instant they ignore it.
You can also put your dog on a leash or increase the distance if your dog is too excited about the food being close. If working on a leash to plant the 'leave-it' food further away, you would mark when your dog looks in your direction, instead of the direction of the uncovered food. Be careful that your dog does not run out and hit the end of the leash when training this. Ideally, the leash will be attached to a body harness for this exercise.
If you are keeping the food your dog has left under your foot or in a container, you want to mark ‘yes’ and feed them quickly as you uncover it, even if it seems like your dog forgot it was there. They most likely didn’t forget, and if you wait too long, your dog might make a mistake and gobble up the food they are supposed to leave. You can increase duration later, but not at this stage.
Make it More Difficult.
Gradually make the exercise more challenging:
Uncover the treat for longer.
Place it closer to your dog.
Practice walking them over or past it without taking it.
Use different types of food (start with boring kibble and work up to higher-value treats).
If your dog tries to take the food, you’ve made it too complicated. Go back a step. Repeated mistakes will slow down progress.
Advanced Level: TrickovationⓇ Leave-it
Once your dog is rock-solid at ignoring the food, practice:
Walking past the treat on the floor.
Turning your head away while they still ignore it. Dogs know when you aren’t paying attention, so train for this.
Dropping food randomly during training and having them leave it unless you give permission.
Build a habit that works outside of training sessions, like on walks, at picnics, or when something falls on your kitchen floor.
TrickovationⓇ leave-it games are a lot of fun, and they provide a challenge. One example is the "search" to "leave-it" game.
Search to Leave-it: Your dog will alternate between chasing food and leaving it alone. When your dog has mastered both “search” and the automatic leave it, play a fun switching game:
Say “search” and toss a treat which your dog goes to get.
Next time, toss a treat without saying anything—they should leave it alone.
Mix it up, so they learn only to take food when you say the magic word.
Train a Verbal “Leave It” as Another Skill, Not a Replacement
While the goal is for your dog to leave things automatically, it’s still helpful to have a verbal “leave it” as a backup cue to help your dog in difficult situations. Training both the automatic leave-it and one on a verbal cue helps make sure your dog is covered no matter what.
You can repeat the exercises with a verbal cue so that your dog understands one too.
The More Creative you are, the Better the Results.
If you practice many different styles of leave-it, the results are stronger. The most difficult types of leave-its are the ones you can't plan for. Dogs distinguish between these moments and training time. To prepare for life outside of training sessions, work on real-life leave-its. Pretend to drop a piece of your food for your dog to leave, walk away from a snack on the coffee table (only when your dog is ready for this step), and practice in fun and creative ways.
Just today, my training treat bag fell off, and the treats landed on the floor. I was working with one of my poodles and had high-value treats on me. Instead of diving for food, my poodle sat. This three-second moment showed me my dog’s progress and understanding of the work we have been doing. I fed her a jackpot of treats for offering the sit, and gave my dog a lot of praise too.
Final Tip:
An automatic leave takes multiple sessions. Dogs might master a basic version quickly, but true reliability comes from practicing in short, successful sessions over time.
When you get there, you’ll have a dog who can walk past dropped food and only take what’s truly meant for them—and that’s a skill worth having for life.
