I have been trying to train Jed to 'leave', as in whatever is in his mouth he is to put in my hand, two weeks we have been doing it, and the penny just didn't seem to drop, tonight, in error, I said drop (as we would have said to dog's I grew up with) and he did it, and now will 'drop' things in my hand every time I say it. I know it could be pure coincidence, and have nothing to do with which word I used, but can, or do dog's respond to different words differently?

Dont know about the word thing, but the way we taught our dog to 'leave' was not just to say the word leave and think she'll drop it, we had to pull the toy away for the first few times whilst saying the command and when she let go of it she got a treat and the toy back, now she will leave anything for us- even her marrow bones!

>can, or do dog's respond to different words differently?

Know the answer to that without backup. Yes. Think of your dog as having the intelligence of a foreign (pick a nationality) toddler. Vocalisations have no meaning until that's been taught. 'No' could mean 'table'. 'Heel' could mean' Mount Everest'. It's meaningless sounds.

Back to the point. To my gundog 'Leave' meant 'Don't touch''. 'Give' meant 'bring that and put it in my hand'. She understood the difference.

This is what I mean, obviously I know you could say any word to a puppy but until he has learnt what it means, he doesn't have a clue what it is you are trying to get him to do, but maybe because of the different tones you even unintentionally use, it connects with the dog differently?

I have always said leave the split second he has let go of the toy (or thing) but Jed has never, ever, taken any notice of it, but tonight using drop, he gave me the toy every single time, maybe as I said, it is as much to do with the way we say the words, I suppose 'leave' comes out as a long deeper tone than a quick 'drop' no matter how excitedly you say either words... maybe he just decided to take a slight bit of notice of what I was saying ;) :P

Hi Natalie,

Any chance you use another word that may sound like "leave" to Jed?  One of my boys was destined originally to be called "Lincoln" (went off the name for a couple of reasons as it happens) but one of those was because we used to say "be clean" to the dogs as their command for toiletting in the garden and realised he was actually confusing the sound (luckily, just ignoring his name when called in the garden rather than "performing in the house :D )

Just a thought - might not apply at all!  Regards, Teri  

I have thought through all of the words we use with him, the only one which might have sounded the same is Lee - my hubbie, so maybe that has something to do with it, but to be honest I normally call Lee Babe or something else as cheesy so not sure if Jed even knows that he is called Lee...

I will keep thinking though to see if I have missed one or two :D

Aanyway natalie the 'leave' or 'leave it' command is much better used when you want him nit to touch something as it can be said quite sharply.  Mine all know that leave means not to approach or interfere with other dogs, or pick things up t6hat they shouldn't have.

Drop it or Thank you is what I hear most peopel use for the retieve being given to hand.  Mind most are still trying to get their dog to 'hold it' :D

I've noticed that once with Opi - for a long time I failed to get her to understand that "stand" meant exactly that - then one day I said "up", and up she went.  Now she responds to it every time, but still won't respond to "stand".

They pick up on the tone too - my basic commands (sit, down etc) all have a specific note and tone that the dogs respond to, and won't respond if I say it another way.

Natalie, what else do you do when you want Jed to leave something? Do you hold out your hand or even give any slight body signal? I bet even without meaning to you could be giving him some sort of body signal that goes along with you leave command so even when you accidently changed the command, he understood you as he responded to your body language, which, after all, dogs are so much better equipped at reading.

Maybe it is something to do with body language, I always hold my hand out flat palm up, but I haven't really taken much notice of what I do with the rest of my body, purposefully so he doesn't get too used to me being a certain position.

I say "mine" when I want Henry to give me something in my hand and "leave" when I don't want him to touch anything.  It could have been the tone in your voice or the sincerity of the command that made him change his mind and decide to give it to you.

Ah, well, there you go then...he is dropping it on the signal from your body language, i.e. holding out you hand. In obedience training, and I'm talking competetive obedience here, many ppl use hand signals as part of the command and when being judged, they are counted as extra commands if used alongside verbal commands. Once he has understood that you holding out your hand means let go, you could probably say anything and he will drop it. As I said, dogs pick up body language signals a lot quicker than verbal commands as it is the language they themselves speak. Mystery solved methinks. :p

Sorry, still catching up...

Yes but I used to hold my hand out in the exact same way when I was saying leave. I think it must just be the tone of the different words, leave is a long low sound no matter how exciting you try to make it sound, whereas drop is a quick high sound again no matter how you try to say it.

Either way he will now 'drop' anything on command - even his chicken!!

On a related topic (but slightly off the point) I have just hit a gap in my training. 

I have never taught 'drop' (i.e. let it go out of your mouth and on to the floor) but only 'give' (i.e. let it come into my hand).  This has served well until today when Miss Thing foraged by a neighbour's bin and came away with something in her mouth that looked like a dead rodent...This would not be pleasant for anyone but I have an absolute horror of dead animals.  What to do?  It might have been killed by poison..she'll ingest it and die writhing in agony...Oh God, here goes...(What if bits drop off? I'll faint.) Drama over - it was a small lamb bone thank heavens - potentially deadly but not quite so repulsive. 

However the moral of this story is: we are now training for the 'D' word.

I don't know if this actually answers your question, but we use 'drop' in order for them to drop something or give it to us.  We use 'leave' if they're showing interest in something on the ground and they know not to pick it up (well it doesn't always work, but that's the theory).

Wendy