Ubu is not the type of puppy who takes things that don't belong to him. He just doesn't seem very interested in trotting off with one of your shoes in his mouth or anything like that. But it's still important for Ubu to learn to drop things that he has in his mouth, if even just for play so he's more comfortable sharing his things.
We start out teaching this by engaged him in play with a toy that he is likely to put in his mouth.
Once he's playing with the toy, I can tell him to drop and put a treat to his nose to encourage him to drop the toy. I'm going to avoid repeating the command but, instead wait him out without tugging on the toy.
As soon as he drops it, I mark it with "Yes!" and give him the treat. I put the toy behind my back for a few seconds and then I give it back to him to play with. Now he's been paid off really well for giving an item up. With enough practice, he should be able to drop food from his mouth if he happens to pick something up he's not suppose to have.
We don't always lure the dog to get the behavior we want, sometimes we capture the behavior we want. When you have a marker ("Yes" or a click), you can capture behavior you like.
For instance, we can wait until Ubu lies down on his own and mark that behavior and reward him. This works well if it's a behavior that he offers frequently or for behaviors that are difficult to shape or lure. But it can also be a very slow process.
Despite the fact that it is slow, we still use it in part to teach dogs what we want. By rewarding (with treats, praise, pets, play, etc.) when we catch him behaving in a way we like, he's more likely to repeat the behavior. It might not be the method I would use to teach a down but I would to get him use to staying in a position.
Everything is a learning experience. Everything...
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