Can someone give me advice please

Hi all,

I was just wondering if you can give me some advice regarding mouthing during training.

It's very rare that Saffy nips now, except when I am training her - sit, down, stand, leave etc. When I've given her a command and say the 'cue words' good girl, she lunges forward to grab the treat and bites my hands!! It's VERY painful and I've got lots of little cuts all over my hands!

But if I say 'ouch' she backs off and waits (mostly). Like I said, otherwise her nipping is under control or is quickly stopped with an ouch. So it's more a case of bad manners!

It's just the lunging forward to grab the treat! Im stuck between making her wait for the reward and rewarding her for the doing the command.

I've also been doing some work with her to try and teach her to take a treat nicely, but it seems to go out the window when we do more formal work.

Any advice appreciated

What you could try is holding the treat in your closed fist so that she can't get it until she's behaving calmly. You might get on or two nips, but she'll soon learn that grabbing doesn't get her anywhere.

Do as Caryll as said with offering the treat in a closed hand and say the words "nicely" as you open your palm slowly for her to get the treat.

Do you think it's ok to let her wait? Because my worry was she would forget why I praised her in the first place lol. She really only has a short attention span so I keep sessions short (5-10 mins 3 x day) but she learns very quickly.

I have been doing the closed fist when I've been teaching her to take nicely. I will try it everytime I reward her for the other stuff too.

ETA: I just had a thought, she doesn't seem to do it when we are learning new stuff. For example atm I'm teaching her to roll over when I say 'bang' and pretending my hand is a gun. She picked it up really quickly. So maybe the other stuff is just boring for her? Too easy?

We taught the closed fist thing as a separate 'trick' on its own so maybe get that mastered first. We only did it to teach Mia to wait but it obviously stays with her whenever she's rewarded for other things.

We'd show the treat in the palm, then close the fist and say 'wait'. Then we'd slowly open the hand but if she went to grab we'd close the fist immediately (you must be far enough away so you can always react quicker of course).

Food is the most important thing in the world to Mia so she's distraught if she misses out on anything. It didn't take long to get the message.

We can hold the biscuit right under her nose now but she'll wait until told before taking it.

Caryll wrote:What you could try is holding the treat in your closed fist so that she can't get it until she's behaving calmly. You might get on or two nips, but she'll soon learn that grabbing doesn't get her anywhere.

I take this excercise one step further and only give the treat when they actually look away. Then I open my hand immediately.

*Lynne* wrote:

Caryll wrote:What you could try is holding the treat in your closed fist so that she can't get it until she's behaving calmly. You might get on or two nips, but she'll soon learn that grabbing doesn't get her anywhere.

I take this excercise one step further and only give the treat when they actually look away. Then I open my hand immediately.

I do this too with 'leave'.....

I'm getting some good ideas here! So will mull it over a while

Thanks everyone

Do them seperately, as you say she might loose her atteention span so train her to take the treat as a seperate thing cause essentially it is. Then when she has that down try a few sits and see if she still remembers it, if not say NO and go back to fist training. and repeat

Hayley wrote:Do them seperately, as you say she might loose her atteention span so train her to take the treat as a seperate thing cause essentially it is. Then when she has that down try a few sits and see if she still remembers it, if not say NO and go back to fist training. and repeat

Thanks! that's what I was wondering. Do you think I should concentrate on fist training for a bit until we've cracked it and then move onto the other stuff again?