Teaching Drop It Trade Game Kit
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The dog has the toy. You want the toy. The second you reach for it you have started a game of keep away, and the dog is faster than you. This kit turns that into an exchange instead. A bone shaped tug toy sized to a dog over 23 pounds, a treat good enough to outrank it, and a cheaper one for the long middle stretch once the pattern is learned. The whole set of kits lives on the Bundle Guides hub.
Twenty three pounds and up, with something in its mouth
This is the kit for a dog big enough that reaching into its mouth is a bad idea. Old enough, too, to have worked out that running away is fun. A retriever adolescent, most of the time. Our guide to teaching drop it as a trade game covers the method in full, including what to do when the dog has something it should not have.
It is the wrong kit for a dog that growls over food or a bed. Resource guarding is a different problem with a different plan, and it wants a trainer in the room rather than a toy in a box.
One toy worth holding, two rates of payment
Da Bone is the object the dog gets to keep winning. American Dog builds it from 1000D nylon in a classic bone shape, in Medium at 12 by 5 by 1.5 inches for dogs 23 to 55 pounds and Large at 16 by 7 by 2 inches for dogs 55 pounds and over. It squeaks and it floats, so it also works for water fetch. American Dog says it is a toy for playing with your dog rather than leaving out for solo chewing, and that supervised play is always recommended because no dog toy is indestructible. Size it to the dog before the first session, because a Medium in a rottweiler's mouth disappears and there is nothing left for you to hold.
Our Freeze-Dried Beef Liver is what makes the exchange worth making. The only ingredient is beef liver, freeze-dried in small batches in Malvern, Pennsylvania, and the smallest bag is 1.5 ounces, which is the size to start with while you learn your own pace. Liver is the opening offer, every time, for the first week or two. A dog holding a squeaky toy it likes will not let go for something it gets anyway at dinner, and that first impression is the whole thing you are buying here.
Freeze-Dried Cheddar Cheese Bites take over once the dog is already dropping on cue. One ingredient, cheddar cheese, in an 8 ounce bag, freeze-dried the same way. This is the volume treat. You will run twenty exchanges in a session eventually, and paying liver rates for all twenty is both expensive and unnecessary once the dog is no longer deciding whether to trust you. Keep the liver for the day it picks up something in the driveway.
No flirt pole in here
Plenty of drop it kits include a flirt pole, and it is a real training tool with a real use. It is the wrong order for this particular problem. A flirt pole is built to get a dog as excited as possible about chasing a thing, and you are trying to teach the opposite half of the sequence, the part where the dog gives it up. Build the release first on a toy the dog already has in its mouth, then add speed later. We do not carry a flirt pole either, so this is easy for us to say.
Two weeks of exchanges
Start with the bone in your hand rather than the dog's. Offer it, let the dog take it, and then do nothing at all for a few seconds. You are establishing that having the toy is normal and nobody comes running.
Then hold a piece of liver at the dog's nose and wait without saying anything. Most dogs open their mouth on their own. The instant the bone hits the floor, say your word, pay, and hand the bone straight back. Giving it back is what makes it a trade rather than a confiscation, and it is the step people skip.
Once the drop is reliable, add the word before the liver appears instead of after. That is the point where you have a cue instead of a lure, and it usually takes several sessions rather than one.
Week two, move to cheddar for the ordinary repetitions and keep liver for anything the dog found on its own. Practice outdoors too, since a dog that drops in a kitchen has learned to drop in a kitchen.
What it replaces in the toy basket
The usual version of this is a basket of toys the dog guards one at a time and a person who ends up prying a mouth open twice a week. One toy that is genuinely fun to hold, used deliberately, does more than six that sit around. The bone goes in the car and in the lake. The treats are the only recurring cost, and one of the two bags doubles as your everyday training pay. If liver is not the right currency for your dog, the rest of our freeze-dried dog treats work the same way.
Questions about the bone and the trade
What if the dog grabs the treat and keeps the toy?
Then the treat is not winning and you need a better one, or you are too close and the dog is guarding. Move back a step, use liver, and offer from further away. A dog that can hold a toy and eat at the same time is telling you the toy is worth more.
Should I use the same word for dropping a toy and dropping a sock?
Yes, and that is the reason to practice on the toy. You are building one word that works under pressure, and the time to teach it is when nothing is at stake.
Medium or Large?
Go by the weights American Dog lists rather than by breed. Medium covers 23 to 55 pounds and Large covers 55 and over, and the toy needs to be big enough that both of you can hold an end of it at once.
How it ships
The bone is made and shipped out of Denver, usually within five to seven business days. American Dog items are sold and shipped by American Dog through Shopify Collective, not made or shipped by Sniff and Shift. The liver and the cheddar leave Malvern together, and that is enough to start the kitchen version of the exercise with any toy the dog already owns. Sorting out a second and third reward tier is easier on Explore, which splits the range by protein, life stage and format, and the kits for other cues handle recall, stay and the rest. Do the first five exchanges tonight with a toy you already have.
Related guides
- Trick training variety kit
- Distraction proofing treat kit
- Long Stay Duration Treat Kit: What to Put In It
