Calling all positive trainers!! I need your help and I need it fast.
How do you deal with a dog that is so treat motivated that the thought of a treat drives her lab shit crazy?
Of course I’m speaking about Delilah.
Delilah typically walks on the left side of me and the treat bag is clipped to my right side. The moment I reach for the treat, she spins around and shoves her nose at my hand/the bag.
Don’t listen to her, she likes to tell tales.
Yesterday we were walking past two dogs in their yard and I reached for the treat bag, Delilah whipped around and plowed into me, knocking the treat out of my hand and practically knocked me on my ass. This was all after I’d already pulled a few treats out in preparation.
Here’s what I’ve tried:
- Pulling my hand away when she reaches for the treat bag and telling her no. (She keeps doing it.)
- Turning my body away from her. (She follows me.)
- Treating Sampson first. (She will shove her face between Sampson and my hand.)
As you can see, none of these options work.
Last night after I regained my senses I thought about how I could possibly work her using the clicker but I drew a blank.
You see, I could really use your help. Please, please, give me your best ideas for working with a dog that’s lab shit crazy. Oh and while you’re at it, any thoughts to keeping her from chomping on my fingers?
Sorry we are of no help I am afraid. However I am sure there are plenty of our pals who have experience and good tips to share. Good luck. Have a terrific Tuesday.
Best wishes Molly
I know it’s not ideal but could you work on her sitting before she gets a treat? If either of mine are uber excited I will use the gentle command. If they grab for the treat I pull my hand (with the treat in away) and continue to do so until they are a little calmer and I can give the treat to them. It doesn’t work 100% of the time but it’s something. Obviously you would need to train gently taking a treat at home before adding in the excitement of being out and about and perhaps start with a less tempting treat?!
Sorry, I have no suggestions, Moey is lab shit crazy too and he is a Maltese! Lol!
Let me think on this and get back to you.
And we thought Bailie was a food monster! Mom switched the treat bag to her butt side in class with Bailie as she was so focused on the bag and always tried to keep some in her hand, but it sounds like that might now work in your case. I’m a dog, not a trainer, so I guess I’m not much help. To stay safe, perhaps a Weebles suit while walking to keep you upright. I hear Weebles Wobble but they don’t fall down???
Emma, you have me laughing now! I haven’t heard that Weebles jingle since I was in my 20s! Thanks for the smiles this morning!
Can’t get any help from me but will b interesting to see what others say. Glory is a food monger too
I haven’t dealt with this myself (yet…knock wood), even with Cricket, who is pretty treat motivated. But she’s pretty good about sitting to wait. She just sometimes jumps up on me, but she’s small so doesn’t knock me over. I’m sure someone will be able to help, because I doubt Delilah is the only crazy Lab out there!
Only treat her when she behaves the way you want her to. If she lunges for treats, no treats. I have been doing this with Freighter and it really works. He lunges, I don’t even take the treat out and he gets a “sit” command or a “stand” command. If he complies, then I say “good” and he gets a treat. If not I say “no” and no treat…we start walking and he is at heel. He has to do the commands as I say them and not make up his own for a treat. You need to start small and work up and sometimes just praise is the treat…lol. I am sure he feels gypped. Oh well. Also, enforce that heel position and that way she cannot bang into you. You may have to find a different place for the treats and cut down on dispensing them as frequently. Or use the dog show handler’s trick and keep the treats hidden in your mouth. 🙂
It sounds like me. If i do something good, I get 87 pets to 1 treat
Lily & Edward
I deal with Poodle shit dogs so no help here. I probably relied on treats too much when they were younger and now they go into a “what’s in it for me?” mode.
Don’t reward when she does that, wait for her to calm down or just continue walking. Agree with the previous commentors, get her to sit or do some other action before rewarding. May also try a lower value treat so she doesn’t get so excited??
I like what two brown dogs was saying. Don’t give a treat when she gets pushy about it. Because by you doing that, you are rewarding her pushy behavior, and she will keep doing this behavior, as she knows she will get a treat anyways. I don’t really have any sound advice for you, so I apologize, but I would definitely not treat her when she is almost knocking you down, plus being “treat pushy”
The treat is a reward for good behavior, except being pushy is not good. Especially for you.
Otherwise, is there something else you could use for rewards? Like a toy or something? Or would that make it worse? Maybe remove the treats completely and just use praise for rewards?
Good luck! Oh and, for the finger biting when your giving treats….Koda used to do that, and still slips sometimes, but I taught him the “gentle” command. I wouldn’t release the treat from my hand until he took it from me gently.
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
We’ve worked a lot on Barley’s control. One game we’ve played a lot is the “it’s your choice” game–our trainers used it to help get Barley to focus more on me than other distractions, so it’s our go-to warm up when we’re getting ready for a new situation. Basically, you start small. You put a treat in your hand and hold it out in front of the dog. If she noses at it, paws at it, reaches for it, you close your hand (if Delilah’s really enthusiastic, you might want to wear long sleeves and/or gloves). When she stops, you open your hand again. If she doesn’t try to get it, she gets the treat. If she goes for it, you close your hand again. Eventually you work up to doing things like putting them on their paws. It helped us a lot because Barley learned that I am in charge of when she gets treats and her behavior determines when she gets them.
Our agility trainer also has us do a variation of that. You put the dog on a leash and hold it close (some people step on the leash if their dog is really strong). You tell them to sit, give a treat, then toss a treat out of their reach. Most likely, they’ll strain and try to get the treat, but you don’t say no. You just wait until they stop struggling and then give your reward word and then give a treat. Then you tell them to sit, give a treat, toss a treat–and just keep repeating. Eventually, they will stop trying to get the treat. After you’ve accumulated a few treats on the ground, you can release them to get the treats you tossed.
I also keep my treat pouch on the opposite side of the dog (I am not coordinated enough to hold the leash in the left hand and reach into the pouch with the left hand!), but that increases the likelihood of the pup crossing in front of you (and if you are like me, you face planting on the road). Our trainers really emphasize treating the dog with the hand on the side they are on to keep that from happening and to always treat in heel position so they don’t get in the habit of crossing in front. It’s taken a lot of practice, but I usually carry a treat or two in my leash hand, so they are ready to go when she needs one. Then when she’s busy sniffing, I replace them.
I also agree with everyone who said don’t treat until she’s calm. If she gets a treat when she’s acting crazy, she’ll learn that acting crazy gets her treats. Eventually, try weaning off the treats. Our trainers told us it shouldn’t be like every fifth time you skip a treat because that teaches them a certain pattern of behavior, too, but if it’s random then that builds more value for the treats they do get.
If she can’t walk by the other dog (or other distraction) without a treat, you can turn and go in another direction (even if it’s just a few feet) until she’s got enough distance that she can calm down enough to take the treat calmly. Then once she’s done that, you can try your original direction again. Sometimes, you have to stop and redirect a lot–I’m pretty sure that my GPS watch thinks I’m drunk on 95% of our walks because we zigzag across the street and turn around and walk in another direction and then turn around and go back the original direction so often; we never have a straight line when I upload my maps 🙂 It is silly looking and your neighbors watching out their windows will think you’re nuts, but you’ll keep your dog’s focus and eventually she’ll learn that if she wants to keep going in the original direction, she needs to do what you want her to do.
Good luck!!
We Might have had a thought… butt by the time we Read EMMA’s comment…. WEeebles were laughing so hard WEeebles Furgot what WEebles were gonna say. BaaaaaWaaaah.
Mom Kim here – first what others have said – no treat if no good behavior is shown. If Delilah insists on whirling around you and almost knocking you down then no treat. Also, what about giving her less leash to move with. Also, when your arm moves to get a treat then what about stepping out with your left leg to block her movement. And one more little word – literally; instead of the word no – in a somewhat loud and sharp manner, as Delilah starts her move then you say EH! – fairly loud and sharp-don’t draw out that sound. I learned this from watching Victoria Stilwell – it does curb bad behavior as it has a tendency to sort of alerts or gets the dog attention – Hey, mom is not happy and I need to listen and watch what she wants me to do. IF this sound works – maybe coupled with her on a very short leash so Delilah doesn’t have room to move THEN IMMEDIATELY reward her.
And what Beth was saying about changing directions – it does look weird (feels weird doing it too but it does work) as does stopping when the bad behavior occurs and not starting again until the desired behavior takes place.
Speaking of desired behavior (= paycheck) bak to work 🙁
Mom won’t even give me a treat unless I look at HER. I’m not allowed to look at the treat or her pocket. I learned this by Mom putting the treat next to my nose and then not giving it till I look up at her face. It took a lot of “Leave it” practice in the house before we took it on the road.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
I have a few thoughts. I am by no means an expert on labs but am basically regurgitating bits of what I’ve read or observed.
You may need to start from square one – which means instead of trying to re-train her when you are out for a walk, juggling leashes and treats – try it in a quiet place inside the house. Away from Sampson and anyone else. Reward the calm behavior, ignore the lab craziness. Then gradually work with her with Sampson in the area (Delilah will probably see him as a competitor for the treats and react differently and more enthusiastically about the treat). Baby steps are in order here – let’s face it – she’s gotten to be lab-crazy for a while because hey, it works for her. She’s taking advantage of you – which is no slam against you at all. Labs can either be mellow or crazy. Most of them remind me of those relatives – you know – the crazy uncles or aunts that are always out of control at family gatherings; they make you laugh (or cry) with their over-zealousness.
Just hang in there and work with her a little at a time. Once she masters being calm in a controlled environment, you’ll be able to work in other areas with her; one at a time. Not like you haven’t trained the dogs before – you know what you are doing. 🙂 Just be calm, patient; don’t train when you or she are feeling too crazy. Maybe training after she has a good romp or something?
In the training class I took with Blueberry, there was a crazy lab in there. She was excited about EVERYTHING – especially treats. It was hilarious to watch – and the lab did improve with her manners, but it was a long, slow process that I have no doubt continues even now.
If it makes you feel any better, B gets over-excited about treats too – but since she is a mere 42 pounds – I don’t often get knocked down or around (although she has taken me to my knees a couple of times) and when she is over-excited – I put the treats away and live to walk without limping another day. 😉
Oh – for your fingers – maybe gloves? My golden-retriever mix was a finger-chomper. I gave up and actually just threw treats at him (I know, I was a crappy dog owner). My poor fingers couldn’t take the abuse anymore.
I’d switch the location of the treat bag so that it’s less obvious to her. Or, I’d refuse to give it to her until she settled down in a mannerly fashion.
As for the finger nipping, I make a fist with my hand so that they can’t force it out or nip me, and they don’t get it until they’re asking politely. I also open my hand like a magician, keeping my fingers all together when I present the treat so that they have to take it off the top of my hand.
Great question…have a similar issue with Jack. Going to try some of the suggestions.
I have decided Swyatt and Delilah are twins. We have the same issue. In fact yesterday in agility, we were trying to work on him popping into a stand and he was so busy trying to get the treat, he was practically doing somersaults 😛
Our trainer suggested the following and I worked on it yesterday with great success. She says eventually once he gets good at it, we can apply it in a more hectic/distracting setting.
I hold the treat in my fist in front of his face. Swy practically mauls my hand to get the treat. She said wait for him to pull back, open your fist and as soon as he resumes licking/nosing, shut your hand. Continue until he takes a few steps back and offers a default. Open your hand, if he doesn’t come up to your after 5 seconds, reward with the treat.
The first time, it took awhile before we made any progress. By the end of the class, he was licking at my hand for a few seconds and then taking a few steps back and sitting. I know it will be awhile before that is default behavior in other settings but its a good start for my crazy treat obsessed yellow lab!
Beth and Blueberry’s Human gave you some great ideas. The key will be working with her when it’s quiet indoors. Especially so you don’t get hurt.
But you walk her every day. So that solution, although ideal, means you will probably get run over a few more times.
Is there something else Delilah likes as a reward that doesn’t make her so crazy? With Honey, it’s a tug toy or squeaky.
If you can figure it out, you’ll have a good temporary replacement for the treats until you get the mauling behavior under control.
Oh Delilah! 😀 Maya is a smart girl and has actually surprised me by catching on to new tricks faster than Pierson. But some tricks are more difficult to teach her since she is so food crazy. Sorry, I don’t have any tips for you.
You were given great advice! I agree with the previous comments!
My go-to, lately, is a squirt bottle. Could you get a small one and loop the trigger in your belt loop? Squirt and no.