Our dog trainer taught us that “leave it” was one of the most important commands you could teach a dog, that way if they ever got something in their mouth that could make them ill, the dog would know to ditch it right away. Buster has a pretty good grasp of “leave it” because (as our trainer taught us to), we reward him immediately and we reward him well for remembering the command. Tonight, however, Buster held this banana in his mouth FOREVER after being given the “leave it” command. I seriously think he needed the extra time to weigh the merits between banana and hot dog slice.
He eventually did ditch the banana.