How to teach a dog to take food gently? - Page 1

19 month old wolfs down food which is fine with me. My issue is when I hold food for him to have, he doesn't do it gently. How do I teach him to calm down and take it gently?

I'm gonna follow this post. I have a Labrador that tries to take of your knuckles every time you give him a candy.

What I've tried to do is make a fist around the candy, and as soon as he calms down and licks the hand and takes it gently I release, it dosen't work all the time, but I blame it on lack of dedication on my part.
If he bites, I remove my hand.

What Escobar describes is close to what I recommend.  Food or treat in closed fist, palm down.  Once to dog is reasonably calm, rotate the palm upward and open your hand so the dog can take the food from the palm of your hand.

In my experience, snapping at food is most often a learned behavior caused by people holding the food with their fingertips then letting it go and pulling their hands back...the dog then snaps at the food to try to catch it as it falls and eventually, you don't get your hand out of the way fast enough.

I agree with the above two posts.  I have also been known to rap that folded hand HARD again the bridge of the nose on an extremely pushy dog.(one who puts his whole mouth over the entire hand)  Snapping or snatching is not permitted at all in this household.  I can't stand that behavior.

Yes right more I'm getting the snatching. I refuse to wear gloves as I feel he needs to take gently. I will try the methods described above. I know when I have befote and he calmed down, he will still snatch. I need to be more consistent in this training aspect.

What in incredibly timely thread to see here.  I literally just got back in the door from playing chuckit in our backyard and have several pinholes (some larger than others) in my thumb and other digits.  Not to mention the residual treat mush, and quite possibly poop from where the ball landed.

Kind of figured out the fist method of treat giving by the end.

Why on earth are puppy teeth so bloody sharp!

I have a number of dogs right now that have so much food drive that they'll really hurt your hand when using food...The thing you must do is to break down even the attempt of feeding your dog from your hand (and not getting your fingers taken off)...

I use a lot of food for teaching my dogs with...

First of all you can't withhold the food from them...You must teach them to eat say hot dogs from your hand...then after they can do this you can begin to withold the food a bit...After a period of time in doing this the dog will actually learn to eat more calmly...Sometimes it'll take a week sometimes it take much longer...
I've had my finger chewed up so much that I've actually put tape on my fingers to prevent getting them eaten...If this is still not working and you're still getting your hands/fingers eaten...then you have to go to wearing a glove...then do the same thing...Feed them continuously with say hot dogs...where you can sorta control the amount of food that's given at one time...
The key is to "survive" the beginning...until your dog understands what you want and how to get what they want with some sort of control...

Although I like use Whole hotdogs to do the work...You can also use smaller broken off pieces of hotdogs and do the same thing....

~Bob~

!) Give food in a flat hand, so the fingers don't get nipped. (Learned this when I was a wee tot feeding sugar to my aunt's huge draft horses! Holding the food in the hand, with the knuckles facing down is the way to do it, then turn hand over, with palm flat.

2) ALL my dogs learn 'wait' for a piece of food on the floor, and for their food bowl. I might start with this is your dog is really snappy, as no fingers are put at risk.

Once the dog has mastered taking food gently from the palm then you can progress to giving treats on the fly while working/heeling.

This is the method I have used over the years and it has worked with every dog I've owned.  In fact, just today my 5 yr. old  granddaughter was over  and gave all 6 dogs their treats.  Each dog took the treat from her hand as light as a feather.

Method:

I tuck a piece of food in my fist and turn my fist so the dog can lick the food in a little opening by my thumb.  If the dog snaps or bites for the food, I rap them lightly on their nose and tell them NO in a loud voice.  Then I say, "take it nice".  For most dogs it only takes a couple raps on the nose and then they get very gentle.  For a period of time after that, I always say " take it nice" before giving the treat.  If they relapse into biting or snapping then we begin the process again. 

I would like to say, this is something that can be taught to a puppy while in the breeder's care - before they go to their new family.  But if they haven't learned this lesson at the breeders, then I have found the above method works great.

I agree totally with brynjulf, a dog should not bite the hand that feeds them.

Cassandra

This is the first thing I teach to all my foster dogs and I do it very similar to Cassandra. I put the treat in my hand. Make it something very low value at first (maybe their kibble or something they will eat but they aren't crazy for). I cover almost the entire food/treat with my hand and let them lick it and smell it. If at any point they use teeth (which they almost always do) then I say "no" or "ah ah" and take away the treat. When they are clam and focused I bring my hand back. If they continue to lick my hand without using teeth than I will give them part of the treat as long as their teeth are only on the treat. If at any point teeth touch my hand I pull my hand away and give a "no/ah ah" correction. If they get to anxious at any point and I feel like they are going to bite my hand then I end the session and start over with something that isn't as high value for them. NEVER do I allow a dog take food from my hand if they have put their teeth on my hand. They will quickly learn how to get food from my hand. I have had a few bites (no blood) but it works.