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Taking food off your hand/Snapping.


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babybluegirl

Hi there,

I'm not sure where to post, so I have in "behaviour/training" section.

Riley is so gentle it's unreal. He takes food off you (when you give him treats) so gentle you wouldn't know he's doing it!

Anyway, on a few occesions (about three separate times) I have noticed he snaps to get the food off you. I noticed it first in Puppy Training one week (About week 3-4). We were taught the activity "Riley come". So the idea taught was you have a treat in your hand in front of them, you walk backwards and call out your puppy's name and come, so, "Riley come". Ideally, they're meant to follow you because you have a treat at their eye level and will follow you because of the treat. Well we tried that with Riley and what we noticed is that he will follow you for a brief second, but then will snap and try and get the treat from your fingers!!! (We do not want to encourage snappy/snapping behaviour).

Then the other week, we went to a new Training place for the first time (not been back either) and we were taught "Heel". So this activity again was treat in one hand, then you circle the treat around and back to your side and Riley is meant to follow the treat around in a circle and lead back to your side and you say "heel". Again, when we tried this at home, we noticed as he's walking and following the treat, he would try and snap and get the treat! HELP!

Last night my husband took out Riley for his walk to the end of the road - approximately 100 yards (hopefully to toilet) and he was really stubborn and didn't really want to walk/move. My husband tried to entice him with a treat and apparently Riley went for the treat in a snapping way again and according to my husband nearly took his fingers too!

Is this a phase? Can we stop this snapping behaviour? How do we do this? Like I said, 99.5% of the time, Riley will take a treat off you really gently, I can't stress how calm/placid/chilled out this dog is (it worries me), but on a few occasions he's snapped at the treat and we want to curb this behaviour FAST!

Advice please.

Thanks,

babybluegirl

8:32am

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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)

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babybluegirl

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)

Thank you for your reply, let's hope this works and that we're fast enough to snatch the treat away should Riley not take it nicely like he normally does in the first place.

It's amazing, I say a stern NO, and he'll just do the same thing again like I've not said a thing! e.g. Ripping up newspaper that's on the floor in the dining room for his toileting. I can say no about 3-4 times and it makes no difference, he'll just continue as soon as I've finished saying "NO". I will have to try the tap on the nose as I say NO next time :(

babybluegirl

12:31pm

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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.

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babybluegirl

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.

Thanks for these little tricks of the trade :) I knew about the yelping/high pitch sound you make if they nip/bite you, but wasn't aware of the other one, by taking him be the scruff of the neck. I normally get hold of his face, stare at him close to me and say NO in an angry tone and stare at him for a second or two (and feel mean doing it).

babybluegirl

1:24pm

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Missysmom

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.

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Pawz4me

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 with something higher value like pieces of chicken.

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You've received some GREAT advice from Renee, (another) Vicki and Pawz4me!

All their suggestions should do the trick!

Vicki

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Sophie's Haven

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........good luck.

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