Member

Posts: 160
From:Columbia, SC, USA
Registered: Dec 2003

posted 02-26-2004 09:08 PM         

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What is the best way to teach a dog to eat out of your hand (treats, etc) without taking your entire hand with him?

Someone told me to put the treat between my fingers but I don't see how that would help.

The puppy bites really hard and quick when you have a treat for him. I make him sit before I give it to him but when I go to hand it to him, he snaps. My hand has so many scars on it from this; just this morning he drew blood.

(p.s. He starts his obedience classes in 2 wks. I am really excited about the place; went to an info session yesterday. Very nice ppl, and they do agility and obedience trials as well. I think it would be fun to have Indy do the agility classes (after he gets trained enough of course) b/c I know he would love it. Even though it would be a little strange to see this huge St. bernard lugging around. Probably wouldn't win anything but he just loves to socialize and run and play. Ok thats enough. I'm just excited about it, wish I didn't have to wait 2 wks.)

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Member

Posts: 552
From:
Registered: Mar 2003

posted 02-27-2004 12:24 AM         

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I taught all ours by putting a really smelly (liver or rollover works good) treat in my hand, then closing my hand into a fist (leaving a little bit of the treat visible from the outside of my hand) and holding it out. When they licked or gently nibbled the treat, I opened my hand, but if they snatched, I'd close my hand again.... no treat for them. We kept doing this until they were just licking the treats up out of my hand, then I worked the treats down to my fingers instead of the middle of my hand, and started giving them like you normally give a treat. Some dogs will naturally pick up on this and always be easy about taking treats, others will tend towards being monsters all their lives and need frequent reminders (usually just pulling the treat back and saying sternly "Easy" is enough once they understand the concept). We've actually turned this into a game around here, I'll get a couple treats and sit with one of the dogs on the floor, and make them tone down their treat taking until they practically lick it out of my fingers, nice for when company is trying to give them a treat, especially with children.

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Member

Posts: 1387
From:Portland, Oregon US
Registered: Sep 2003

posted 02-27-2004 12:51 AM         

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I do pretty much the same as goob described above. Witt has alot of lip so when he takes a treat people tend to draw back their hand when they hear the suction noise his lips make...but he has the softest mouth ever. He ALWAYS takes nice. Dooley on the other hand is silent and sometimes over eager, he gets a bit hard at times and usually a reminder of "easy" or "take it nice" will be enough, but on the occasion that he is not listening, usually when he is excited, I will warn him with the "easy" if he doesn't take the hint, the next time I offer him a treat if he is snappy about it or hard mouthed I push my hand INTO his mouth rather than pull back like most people do. Most people will jerk their hand away, as far as I can tell this only encourages the dog to be snappier. I am not talking about shoving your hand down his throat or being rough..just invade his space and take him by surprise, he should move his head back. The dog isn't going to care for having your hand pushed into his mouth any more than you like being nipped. I prefer using positive methods like Goob described above, but with Dooley I eventually tried the technique I read about in a post and it worked for him.

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Member

Posts: 117
From:Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 2003

posted 02-27-2004 06:58 AM         

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Duke has always been a gentleman when accepting treats but Freckles initially was the "take hand and all" type. They both know to sit before the treat is given. I would tell Freckles to "Calm Down" while holding my left index finger on top of his nose. Then I would pass the treat under my left hand so he couldn't see it coming. My left finger kept him from lunging. Now he is pretty good but I can see when he is too excited so I hold back the treat telling him to Calm Down until I can hand it to him gently. He has learned that he will not get the treat by agressively snapping out.

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