One of the most important obedience and general commands to teach your dog is to swap items they see as high value resources on command. The biggest mistake people tend to make with teaching this training technique is not having an item your dog would hold to equal or greater value to swap for. Your dog would then quickly learn that dropping or giving up something they enjoy having like food or toys is not beneficial to them. This can then turn into a game of chase or worse, even develop undesirable behavioural issues, like resource guarding which can become a dangerous trait for your dog to have. Teaching your dog to “swap” or “drop it” is an invaluable command to learn. As well as it being a fun challenge to practice with your dog, it is an excellent training cue in case your dog should ever get ahold of something dangerous they’re not supposed to have. So let’s get started..
STEP 1 – TEACH YOUR DOG TO SWAP BETWEEN TWO TOYS
Start with two toys that are either the same, or which your dog values the same. Throw one of the toys for them to fetch. When they come back to you, show them the second toy and play with it enthusiastically. It’s important to show them how exciting and fun the second toy is, so that they want to drop the one they have. You may have to be patient but try not to lose your enthusiasm!
STEP 2 – MAKE SURE YOUR DOG FINDS THE SECOND TOY JUST AS REWARDING AS THE FIRST
You may have to wait for your dog to drop the first toy but when they do, mark them, or respond to the action, with a ‘Yes’. As soon as you’ve done this, play with them using the second toy, and make sure they’re having just as much fun as with the first one.
STEP 3 – SWAP THE SECOND TOY FOR THE FIRST ONE (AND SO ON)
While your dog is playing with the second toy, pick up the first one and repeat the process. With practice, your dog will begin to automatically drop the first toy when you offer them the second one. If your dog prefers a game of tug, you can do this instead, with two suitable toys, following the same steps.
STEP 4 – TEACH YOUR DOG TO ASSOCIATE THE WORD “DROP” WITH DROPPING A TOY
Once your dog is consistently dropping the first toy when you show them the second one, you can introduce your cue word, “drop”. To start, practice as before, and say “drop” as your dog lets go of the toy. Keep doing this, and when your dog is immediately letting go of the toy when they hear the word “drop” you can move on to asking them to simply “drop” the first toy without using a second one.
Make sure that when your dog does respond to your cue word and drops the toy they are always rewarded.
