I spent some time on youtube last night looking for some positive training methods of teaching a dog to take a treat gently.
Honestly you’d think after five years of screaming in pain every time we give Delilah a treat, one of us would learn.
Either we would figure out how to teach her in a way that she’d remember, we’d learn to tell her easy or she would learn how not to amputate fingers when she took a treat.
It is one of the harder aspects of using positive reinforcements for me.
Yes it’s true.
Delilah is Dogcula.
I am constantly cursing because she’s bitten my finger. Last winter I couldn’t figure out why my middle finger kept hurting. (While it’s true I do use that finger frequently, it’s not being used in a manner to cause pain…for me.)
Last night when giving her a treat, she drew blood.
Granted it was a small puncture, but it bled none-the-less. After treating it with antibiotic cream, I spent some time on youtube looking for some positive methods to teach a dog to take a treat gently.
None of the videos I watched really taught me much (okay, you caught me, I only watched two, but neither one was very helpful.)
I gave up on youtube pretty quickly because I’m just lazy I’d much rather turn to my friends and see how they manage their dogs.
What’s a few fingers when I’m so stinkin’ cute?
So tell me, do you have Dogcula’s living in your house, or have you taught them to take treats gently? If so, how did you do it?
I thank you and my hands thank you.
My lab, Torri, was a shark with treats.I didn’t know enough when I had her to teach her how to take it nice. I put her treats on the floor.
My current technique I’ve perfected through 3 Jack Russells and 1 Springer Spaniel (plus some dogs at the vet clinic I worked at). It involves holding the treat in my fingers and thumb then presenting the treat with the outside of my hand (knuckle side) toward the dog and the treat toward me. If they go to grab, they get my whole hand (Which hurts a lot less then a finger. They realize it’s too big and don’t bite with much force.) and don’t get a treat. They learned going fast got them nothing and I was able to gradually move the treat toward them as they learned control.
I also started using cues for when I give a treat. I did this because my oldest JRT lost his vision last year and would just bite out to get the treat since he couldn’t see it. I hold the treat by their mouth and say “easy” meaning a treat is coming then give the cue “there” meaning take it. It has helped him stay more calm when taking the treat because he knows it’s there.
Can’t wait to see what other techniques people have.
It’s true, she is super cute!!
I can take treats super gently, which is lucky as it was one of my tests to become a Therapy Dog – not that anyone is allowed to give me treats on my visits – Huh? 🙂
Anyway, Mum has always taught her Dogs by making us wait – she says wait as she moves the treat closer and if we try to snatch it she says no and we start again – I picked up on this really fast and even her previous Goldens learnt it (One of them, George used to try to take her finger as well as the treat as a pup, but he became super gentle too using this method).
I hope it helps,
Your pal Snoopy 🙂
PS – Forget to say, Mum says ‘OK’ when the treat is close enough and I’m allowed it
🙂
We use the “nothing in life is free” method for treats. Junebug can be a little overzealous, as could our Aussie. (Our Lab/Pit- gentlest treat taker on the planet.) So, the dogs have to sit and they have to wait.If they lunge for the treat it gets pulled away and they are told “No”
We then offer the treat again, using the word “gentle” kind of as a reminder.
If we’re we have a child around who wants to give the dogs a treat, we have them hold their hand out flat, and put the treat in the palm of their hand. As long as they don’t curl their fingers up, there’s no way a dog can bite them that way. But, in our 3 dog household, that generally also requires someone else to be making sure the other two dogs are getting treats at the same time so the poor kid doesn’t get bum rushed.
It’s funny, I in fact don’t remember how exactly we taught Elka….but we can say “careful” or “gentle” and she’ll be especially nice. Sometimes on walks she’s a little sharky.
You could look at Shirley Chong’s “Doggie zen”: http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/Lesson3.html
Owch! My immediate reaction is – feed her bigger treats! But I know that’s not really helpful. I’m afraid that the loud ‘ow’ worked for Flo and is working with Elsie too – do you still give her the treat if she hurts you? I have to say that I doggedly (!) hung on to them if the dogs were too snappy and so they didn’t actually get the reward. I’m sure you’ve done that… sorry, it’s my only suggestion. 🙁 I had the advantage of training ‘gentle’ when they still had puppy teeth though. Actually, maybe the bigger treat thing isn’t such a bad idea… perhaps you could teach her the word gentle using bigger things (so that you can whisk them out of her mouth if she’s too rough without fear of losing a digit) and work down to smaller things?
Hey Sampson, Hey Dogcula (couldn’t resist!), Jetty here. Hi Miss Jodi.
Well, according to Mom, I was once a teensy bit like that, only because I was excited that I was receiving a treat. Mom taught me that if I didn’t sit, first of all, nothing was happening. Then, she used big treats (she mostly treats after evening constitutionals with dental treats.) If I grabbed to hard, she opened my jaws and took it back. She would command gentle with a softer voice. I began to figure it out. With smaller treats, she used an open hand at first and then, as I calmed down in general, she could pinch the treat with her index finger and thumb and I would gently take it.
JJ is a bit like dogcula. Since she likes to help (jump on counter, washing machine, vanity, to see what’s going on with front 2 paws), Mom allows her to do that instead of sit. She removes the dental treat if JJ does not take it gently. JJ is up to the open hand smaller treat stage, although, now that Mom thinks about it, she’s doing pretty well with the treat pinched in index/thumb too.
This is not official, as Mom hasn’t really trained us in depth… so, take it with a pinch of treat!
I think Delilah is more likely related to me than Sampson, despite our good looks.
My peoples have not been able to teach me that trick either. “Some” times I will take treats nicely, but not “all” times. And I never give them a clue when I will become shark dog. I’ve drawn blood too. 🙂
The other two, you know, the ones that “behave,” learned to take treats nicely just by that “ow” thing. I personally like to keep my peoples on their toes.
Delilah is darn cute. 🙂 I guess my method is not positive, but I would say “no” and “take it nice” and withhold it if the doggie was too rough.
Tavish is such a Dogcula! It’s like he thinks he can play bitey face with us… our hands, our noses, etc. We’ve been trying to work on it, but it’s very tough.
Silas has always been good about this, mostly because he wasn’t that interested in food during his formative months.
In our last obedience class one of the ladies asked this. The trainer told her a lot of the things people have said here. Then she said, “Honestly, I have a dog like that. Nothing helped. I just throw the treats to him.”
I’ve also heard it recommended to use a lickable treat, like peanut butter or canned cheese or baby food. Put it on the back of your hand, and the dog has to lick it off, no teeth. Seems gross, but it might be worth a try.
I hold the treat in my hand and make a fist, then palm side down I move my hand toward them and say “easy” then if they do not lunge at it I roll my hand over and open so they can take the treat from my palm not the fingers. I hope that makes sense 🙂
ps and of course lots of praise for taking the treat “easy”
Lots of great suggestions here. Not sure I can add much except to notice Delilah’s state of mind when she’s particularly rough.
Even dogs who are normally gentle can get rough when they are scared or overexcited. I can tell just how scared Cherie is by her treat-taking behavior. If she can’t take treats at all, she’s terrified. If she bites when taking them, she’s just really scared.
If Delilah’s not particularly fearful, it might just be excitement. If you find she’s worse at some times, maybe try another reward she likes, like tugging a toy, a ball, or jumping up on you.
I assume we’ll see a follow up post, right? I’m dying to know what advice you took and if it worked.
We have one, and she is otherwise the sweetest collie in the house. I’ve been trying to figure out how to teach her to take cookies gently for years!