# Daisy knows that "Leave it" is not the same as "Drop it"



## Bob Engelhardt (Feb 14, 2012)

We had taught our previous 2 V's that "Leave it" meant "don't take it" or "give it up", depending on whether they already had "it" or not.

I tried to do this with Daisy, but the "give it up" variation was iffy - sometimes it worked, but not reliably at all. She loves to fetch & when she brings the ball back & I tell her to "leave it", she won't. If I try to take it from her, she resists determinedly. It was baffling.

Then one day we were at a pond and a boy who happened to be there was throwing the ball for her. When she came back to him with it, he said "Drop it" and she did. After this had happened a few times I had to accept that it wasn't a coincidence. Since then I have been using "Drop it" and she does it all the time.

I figure that her first owners had taught her "Drop it"; that's what she knew; and if I wasn't going to use it, she wasn't going to give me the ball!

Bob


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## einspänner (Sep 8, 2012)

Smart girl! She's probably been wondering why you weren't asking the right way.


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