As a professional dog trainer, there are two cues I commonly see used incorrectly: Leave It vs Drop It. Are you accidentally confusing your dog and making these two potentially life-saving cues basically useless?
Let’s fix that!

Prefer video content? Watch this on Youtube here 👇:

Here’s a harsh truth:

If you’re not clear about what you’re asking for, your dog can’t possibly be clear about how to respond.

Think about this: You wouldn’t ask your dog to sit when you actually meant lie down, right?

So if your dog doesn’t lie down when you didn’t ask for that, it’s not fair to be frustrated.

But I see this mistake all the time when people use “leave it” and “drop it” interchangeably.

We want our dogs’ response to these cues to be immediate—no matter what has caught their interest.
To achieve that, each cue needs to have one clear meaning.

These two cues can literally be life-saving, so let’s make them crystal clear!

🐾 “Leave it” means: Don’t go for that thing you’re interested in.
It’s preventative, and is basically asking for inaction.

🐾 “Drop it” means: Let go of what’s already in your mouth.
It’s corrective—it’s asking for a specific action.

Here’s a real-life example of using leave it or drop it:

✅ Dog is eyeing a chicken bone on the sidewalk? → “Leave it!”
✅ Dog already grabbed the chicken bone in their mouth? → “Drop it!“

Or another way to think about this is: Leave it stops trouble before it starts, Drop it fixes it after it happens.

Using these important safety cues interchangeably when they mean different things will confuse your dog and lower the effectiveness of both.

So here’s the simple rule to help you remember when to use leave it vs drop it:

👉 If it’s on the ground, say “Leave it.”
👉 If it’s in their mouth, say “Drop it.”

Easy for you, and crystal clear for your dog!

Well-trained leave it and drop it cues could literally save your dog’s life—so take the time to train and use them properly.

I created a free guide that includes video tutorials for how I train all of the obedience cues, including leave it and drop it. You can grab that free guide HERE.