biting

S

snkoyle15

Forums Enthusiast
so for my next post :cool:.....
we are having problems with Gizmo nipping/biting us when taking treats from our fingers. its only been the last few months or something that it started. before then he was pretty gentle about it. i mean he could take a treat from my 2 year old daughter without hurting her. but now its like, once we get close enough to him, he snaps the treat out of our fingers and 95% of the time gets us too. and it hurts! we feel like the only way to treat him without getting hurt is to drop the treat on the floor instead.

So what can we do to get him to stop this?
 
What I do with Beau(because he just gets so excited) is that I place the treat in the palm of my hand.

There was also another way that one of the dog experts on animal planet showed. you may want to view the video. I don't know quite how to explain it but, they made the dog come up to the owners hand and the owner didn't release the treat until it was done correctly(didn't really explain I know) but, I just wanted to let you know that there are other ways
 
that would work sometimes, but not so much when we are say out on a walk and i need to treat him really fast. thats when i get my fingers nipped off.
 
Hold the treat in your hand with your fingers wrapped around the treat so that only the edge is visible and the dog has to lick it out. Do not let him have it until he is licking at it and repeat "gently"as you push it out with your thumb. If he tries to grab at it, take your hand away and then offer again repeating "gently". If he jumps at you for it, turn your body away from him then turn back, ask for a sit and then offer it again. Eventually he will get the message. Phoebe was show trained to jump up and get treats and was terrible for taking stuff gently but with perseverance she is less inclined to try to grab although she sometimes has to be reminded if there is strange dogs in the house.
 
what i do with Kayla ( she is blind) is i hold the treat by thumb and index finger and i hold it under her head, so she has to lower her head a little. that way the smell is below and not above her,
 
The way Tagg described how to teach it was how I saw it on the video, I just couldn't verbalize it very well
 
I wore a close fitting leather glove. And I taught him how to eat off a fork. And if he made my hand or fingers bleed, he went to the kennel and I played with my soft mouth Bobby.
 
I trained ours with the palm method, (actually the first phase to teaching them to balance it on the nose) Make them sit, and hold it in your cupped hand, right by their nose; make them wait until you give them a release to take it. If they try before you "let them" curl your hand over it.

Honey's release is either a verbal "Go ahead" or me flattening my hand out. It also had the added benefit of training her not to take treats from strangers who are just holding it out or dropping them on the floor.
 
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