Our babies, sigh. But yes you can stop the behaviour. Next time he does that, just give a stern no and snatch the treat away. If he continues, give a stern no and a tap on his nose with your finger. This works with snaping and nipping and it is what their mother's do when they do it to her (well maybe not the tap, but they do nip at them)
The words EASY AND GENTLE are listed in our DOGGIE BOOK of commands. When Lucy came into our home she was a grabber of treats and a couple of times her teeth connected with my fingures.......not a good thing. When it came her turn for treat I would proceed to give it to her and if she jump at me to get it I would pull back and say EASY......until she settled down she would not get her treat. It did not take long for her to learn the proper way to take a treat from my hand. We have a good routine they all get in a circle around the treat chair and wait their turn. Practice makes perfect.......
I teach the command "gentle" or "easy." Whatever you want to call it.
Let them see that you have a small treat in your hand. Use something fairly low value (piece of dog biscuit or cereal, etc.) to begin with. After showing the treat, curl your fingers so that the treat is covered up and your knuckles/fist are toward the dog. If the dog snaps or tries to grab at your hand to get the treat just wait until he settles. Then give him the treat with the "gentle" or "easy" command. It takes consistency but IMO it works well. Once he's taking low value treats politely then start working wi
I agree with Renee. We don't have the snapping when Missy takes a treat but she does play bite pretty hard sometimes (has broken the skin) and we do the yelp and sternly say 'no bite'.
When play biting resumes (which it always does) we say 'gentle' with lots of praise when she does a gentle play nibble vs. bite. This is working well and she does it much more gently now.
You could do the same with the treats and only give him the treat when he takes it gently.
Ok, next dog mom move when they act like that - grab him by the scruff of the neck and then get in his face nd say no in a low tone, somewhat angry voice (Pam told us that one). A couple of those and he should get the message. Also, make sure your tone is low when you say no and high when you praise him. Another method for stopping nipping (and maybe snapping is to give a high pitch no or yelp. Another mommy dog trick.