I need help retraining the leave it command with my very drivey gsd Jake. He will "leave it" with almost everything. Will leave food, will leave the cats if he is pestering them, etc. But will NOT leave toys. Especially outside. Inside he will give them up, outside he won't. Which is ok sometimes, I like it when he plays with the others with a ball his mouth, because he doen't play as roughly that way.

But he also is the "toy" police. He takes all the toys the other dogs play with, and won't allow them to have them. If he takes the frisbee they are playing with, he won't give it back to us either. He will come, he will down, he will NOT drop it. The only "fights" we have ever had here, have been over toys. He growls if a dog tries to take his toy, and if a foster doesn't heed the warning he will snarl and scuffle a bit. So there aren't any toys left out in the house, esp when visitors are here.

I've tried making that end play time, he doesn't care, he wasn't playing anyway most of the time.

I've tried exchanging it for tastey treats. No go.

I've tried out muscling him, works sometimes, if I stand on the frisbee, eventually he gets sick of holding it on the ground.

I now give him a ball when we go out, so that he will let me play with the others, or not take him out when I want to play with the others. BUT, I would like him to have a reliable out command. He has been known to pick up the neighbors kids toys that migrate into our yard, and I would like to get them back from him before they are chomped to hell and soggy!

I should also mention that he isn't AS bad one on one. If I take just him out, he likes to play fetch a few times, before he refuses to give it back.

Have you tried exchanging one toy for another? Or maybe starting with a low-value toy, asking for a release and then giving the toy right back to him?

The latter seems to work best around here...my guys don't have much of a problem giving up toys because they know 90% of the time they'll get them back right away.

Can you maybe start by exchanging a 'better' toy for an 'ok' toy? Maybe progress 'up' the chain, with you giving him something better and better for what he has? I'm sure you've learned his hierarchy of toys.

Then maybe once that's down, perhaps try exchanging 'equal' toys--ie identical frisbees. He gives you frisbee 1, gets delicious treat, he gets frisbee 2.

Then try to progress to him giving it to you, you give him a treat, then give it back to him.

Also, since you said he isn't AS bad one on one, definitely start the training only in that situation.

The other thing to remember, if you've got one end of the toy, and he's got the other, and won't drop it, that you're going to live longer than he is. So he's wasting more of his time than yours. Sometimes I have to think, or say, that to Ella when she's being a total butthead. 'go ahead, waste my time being stupid and stubborn. you're wasting 7 times as much of your own time. I can wait you out! HA!' It helps me be less annoyed, even if it means I'm crazy.