overly excited when feeding?

[(>^.^)> Turbo <(^.^<)]

I have a corgi puppy about 10-11 weeks old, and he gets SUPER excited when I'm about to feed him a treat. He nipps my whole hand trying to get to the treat, and has barked at me when he sees/knows the treat is in my hand. How should I get him to stop? I've been ignoring him when he barks at me and I wait until he's settled down to give him the treat, but once I do he goes back into super hyper lets-bite-the-hand-until-i-find-the-treat mode.

Help please??

[pmavrich]

Miller had a pirana mouth when we first got him. The trainers told us to hold the treat in the center of our palm like a cup. It is harder for them to nibble on fingers or grab skin that way.

We also were instructed to hold the treat until he settles, then slowly give him the treat. If he lunged or snapped at it, the treat was then put away. When he was gentle, he received the treat. We used the work easy as the command for the action.

Molsen was always gentle ... I think it was the lack of competition.

It took Miller a few tries to get it, after that it was smooth sailing.

[Michael Romanos]

I'd break the treat into several pieces and feed your Corgi one at a time provided he was in a sit position for upwards of 20 seconds on each occasion. So you are rewarding each time his sitting and waiting patiently. No sit, no wait, no treat. And definitely not to bite your hand off - though some dads/mums are not proficient in hand feeding their dogs and they tend to promote a fast reaction from their dog.

[MagnoliaFly]

Originally Posted by Michael Romanos

I'd break the treat into several pieces and feed your Corgi one at a time provided he was in a sit position for upwards of 20 seconds on each occasion. So you are rewarding each time his sitting and waiting patiently. No sit, no wait, no treat. And definitely not to bite your hand off - though some dads/mums are not proficient in hand feeding their dogs and they tend to promote a fast reaction from their dog.

20 seconds is an awfully long time for a 10 week old puppy to sit still.

Turbo, you need to teach your puppy "gentle".

Get a piece of soft cheese and a metal spoon. A small spoon will work well with a young puppy. Put the cheese on the big part of the bowl and let the dog take it. The dog will probably bite down on the spoon and realize thats hard, and not fun to bite down on at all. Do this a few times and move the treat towards the front of the spoon. Then start putting the spoon in your fingers and move your hand closer towards the "bowl" where the treat is.

Eventually the bowl should be in your fingers feeding the treat to the puppy. As you are able to move your hand down towards the spoon bowl and your fingers are going into the puppys mouth, pair the treat being eaten with the word "gentle". The dog learns to use its tongue to get the treat and not chomp on your hand.

A few website exerpts that use the spoon trick as well:

- Metal spoon. There are two variations on this method.
" The first is to put some food or a treat on the end of a metal spoon, and hold it up and slightly tilted downward, so the puppy has to reach up. If he just grabs, his teeth will hit the metal, and he won't like that at all. In time he'll learn to just open his mouth and let you drop the food into it. Keep moving the spoon closer to your fingers, so that eventually, he is opening his mouth and letting you put food into it without biting your fingers.
" The other spoon trick is to bend an old or cheap spoon handle over your thumb, keeping the bowl of it in the palm of your hand. Then extend your hand out to the puppy, and when he bites, he will bite the metal. Again, since he won't like that at all, the idea is that he will eventually learn not to bite your hand.


I still use gentle with my dog. She used to get really excited and nippy in training classes, wanting to get the cheese or other yummy treat I used for clicker training. I'd take the treat away if she started biting my fingers and tell her "gentle" and let her lick the treat out of my hand.

Eventually you can move onto "leave it" and "take it" and hold a treat out in your hand until the dog can take it at your command.

[Michael Romanos]

I did say UPWARDS of 20 seconds. Eight-10 seconds would be a good starting point.