Moneypenny Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 Asia came to my house on Christmas Eve, she was an owner surrender after 6+ years. She has settled in nicely with my other 2 girls. She plays well with others, loves to go for walks, sleeps all night, plays with toys, an all around really nice girl. But when I give her a treat, she goes for it with such gusto she takes my fingers with it I have had greyhounds for 17 years, I have never had one who acts this way with treats! She didn't do this when she first came here, she was rather reserved, working on getting acclimated to the household routine, etc. She has blossomed into a wonderful, outgoing girl, but she is so mesmerized by treats, I have taken to just tossing them to her to save my fingers I know this is not a good solution and would like to teach her to take them gently, but I am not quite sure how to go about it. She is not aggressive in anyway, just soooo food motivated she can't focus! She also eats her meals with the same gusto, like it's her last meal, she has learned that she has to wait until the other 2 girls are finished before she checks their bowls. She is a very responsive, eager to please girl, but I have become gunshy about handing her a treat and would like to remedy this. At this time she is a foster and I don't want her to go to a home where the family would have to wear work gloves to give her treats! Oh and she is 8 1/2 years old, but doesn't act a day over 5 Thanks for any advice! Quote Mom to Emmi (WM Lickety Split) & Asia (Devious Walker)Waiting at the Bridge: Shadow, Willow, Tony, Nina, Reggie, Sunny, Webb, Rosie, Rowdy, Ivy, Smoke & Raina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XTRAWLD Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 (edited) Oh my. For starters keep your fist closed around the treat until she calms down to take it. She simply cannot have it if she is excited, or standing or begging. When she's calm, and hopefully in a seated position, open your fist for her to take the treat. Feed BELOW her head, under the chin, not over her head so she can't grab finger tips. This works for Ryder, and I've had bleeding fingertips too. Not fun. Similar to feeding a horse...you want to feed with treat in palm and your fingers out of the way so she can't take them. You can understand how much it hurts to have a horse chomp on fingers too. She may just need to get acclimatized to taking treats before you move to the feeding from finger position. Edited February 9, 2012 by XTRAWLD Quote Proudly owned by:10 year old "Ryder" CR Redman Gotcha May 201012.5 year old Angel "Kasey" Goodbye Kasey Gotcha July 2005-Aug 1, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feisty49 Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 Maybe she can be trained to take treats carefully while you wear gloves and when she learns to do it nicely, take off the gloves. If you're protected, you'll have the time to inhibit her lunge and teeth so she learns acting that way is a big no-no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Wasserbuffel Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 My grey is the same way at times. Like XTRWLD, I use a balled fist to keep her from snatching until she's calmer. I taught her to wait until I say OK before she's allowed to take a treat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Fruitloop Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 If does she know any tricks? You could ask her to do more than one trick to earn the treat and then give it to her flat handed under her chin..or teach her to catch it. I find that now that Fruity knows a good number of tricks she will excitedly do a bunch of then to try to predict what I'm going to ask her to do. When I first got her, her brain would turn to mush and she would try to charge my treat pocket because all she could think about was TREAT,TREAT,NOW,NOW!! I'm sure I would have had bloody fingers too if she didn't have such worn down, nubby front teeth from her past life. String cheese will still give Fruity mush brain, so maybe try a really low value treat if you are going to teach her that she can't get the palmed goody until she ignores your hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moneypenny Posted February 9, 2012 Author Share Posted February 9, 2012 Oh my. For starters keep your fist closed around the treat until she calms down to take it. She simply cannot have it if she is excited, or standing or begging. When she's calm, and hopefully in a seated position, open your fist for her to take the treat. Feed BELOW her head, under the chin, not over her head so she can't grab finger tips. This works for Ryder, and I've had bleeding fingertips too. Not fun. Similar to feeding a horse...you want to feed with treat in palm and your fingers out of the way so she can't take them. You can understand how much it hurts to have a horse chomp on fingers too. She may just need to get acclimatized to taking treats before you move to the feeding from finger position. Just tried this method and it was a lot easier! I don't know why I was still holding the treat with my fingers....duh...a flat hand approach saves my fingers I will keep working this way, she doesn't really get excited with her body, she will look intently at me, but when she knows the treat is forthcoming, she just "chomps"! I kept the treat in my closed fist and she looked slightly confused, but waited, didn't grab at my fist, and when I offered it to her palm up, from under her chin, she did grab it, but my fingers weren't in the way! Thank you so much, we now have a jumping off point to start working on this. Quote Mom to Emmi (WM Lickety Split) & Asia (Devious Walker)Waiting at the Bridge: Shadow, Willow, Tony, Nina, Reggie, Sunny, Webb, Rosie, Rowdy, Ivy, Smoke & Raina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XTRAWLD Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 Yay. Good work. Glad it helped! Quote Proudly owned by:10 year old "Ryder" CR Redman Gotcha May 201012.5 year old Angel "Kasey" Goodbye Kasey Gotcha July 2005-Aug 1, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moneypenny Posted February 9, 2012 Author Share Posted February 9, 2012 If does she know any tricks? You could ask her to do more than one trick to earn the treat and then give it to her flat handed under her chin..or teach her to catch it. I find that now that Fruity knows a good number of tricks she will excitedly do a bunch of then to try to predict what I'm going to ask her to do. When I first got her, her brain would turn to mush and she would try to charge my treat pocket because all she could think about was TREAT,TREAT,NOW,NOW!! I'm sure I would have had bloody fingers too if she didn't have such worn down, nubby front teeth from her past life. String cheese will still give Fruity mush brain, so maybe try a really low value treat if you are going to teach her that she can't get the palmed goody until she ignores your hand. I don't think she knows any tricks, but she is very smart and sooooo food motivated, I think I will start working to teach her some. I have been tossing the treats to her to save my fingers and she actually is a pretty good catch But I wasn't really training her, just saving my fingers! Thank you for your input, I think we have a good place to start, I just don't know with her motivation what a "low value" treat would be......any thoughts as to what to try? Quote Mom to Emmi (WM Lickety Split) & Asia (Devious Walker)Waiting at the Bridge: Shadow, Willow, Tony, Nina, Reggie, Sunny, Webb, Rosie, Rowdy, Ivy, Smoke & Raina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeorgeofNE Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 Oh my. For starters keep your fist closed around the treat until she calms down to take it. She simply cannot have it if she is excited, or standing or begging. When she's calm, and hopefully in a seated position, open your fist for her to take the treat. Feed BELOW her head, under the chin, not over her head so she can't grab finger tips. This works for Ryder, and I've had bleeding fingertips too. Not fun. Similar to feeding a horse...you want to feed with treat in palm and your fingers out of the way so she can't take them. You can understand how much it hurts to have a horse chomp on fingers too. She may just need to get acclimatized to taking treats before you move to the feeding from finger position. Yes!! Exactly! Quote Susan, Hamish, Mister Bigglesworth and Nikita Stanislav. Missing Ming, George, and Buck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Wasserbuffel Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 (edited) I think we have a good place to start, I just don't know with her motivation what a "low value" treat would be......any thoughts as to what to try Kibble. Jayne's so food motivated that she would learn algebra for a single piece of kibble, but she isn't as prone to snatch that as she would be with a stinky treat. Raw meat puts her in full on Great White mode. Edited February 9, 2012 by Jayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jbbuzby Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 If you're still having trouble, it might be worth it to practice with blobs of peanut butter or yogurt as treats; something she MUST lick. Then you can graduate to a treat with a blob of peanut butter on it, etc. The only problem with this is that it is messy! So if using a fist is easier for you, I'd keep going with that . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Fruitloop Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 I think we have a good place to start, I just don't know with her motivation what a "low value" treat would be......any thoughts as to what to try Kibble. Jayne's so food motivated that she would learn algebra for a single piece of kibble, but she isn't as prone to snatch that as she would be with a stinky treat. Raw meat puts her in full on Great White mode. I second the kibble. That's what I use to teach Fruity anything new and it's just one little piece of kibble at a time, two or more in rapid succession if she's doing the trick perfectly. I tried broken up bland dog biscuits once but they were too dry and crumbly and she ended up coughing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverfish Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 Yes, we've always used the closed fist method. Haven't met a dog yet who'll bite a closed fist to get at the treat! If she's still too enthusiastic when she gets used to what you're doing now, keep your fist closed when you offer it to her, and make her work at getting inside it. Gradually loosen your fingers as long as all you feel is nose and tongue, close them up again at the first hint of teeth. If when you open your hand she still snatches (unlikely!), here's what to do. Have a succession of small treats to give her, one after the other. Let her see how many you have. Start off as described above, but any time you feel teeth, yelp like a pup, close your hand again and take the treats away. If you have given one or two treats successfully already, you can stop the training session right there, so that she learns that all the while she's taking them nicely, the treats keep coming. If you're still on the first, continue patiently until she's taken at least one properly. She will learn quickly! Quote The plural of anecdote is not dataBrambleberry Greyhounds My Etsy Shop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RooMcClanahan Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 Great question -- have been wondering the same thing -- and great, practical answers. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moneypenny Posted February 12, 2012 Author Share Posted February 12, 2012 Thank you all so much, we have made great progress over the last few days! I am working this weekend, but will be off Monday and plan to spend some more time working with her. You are all the best! Here is the cute little monster in question!! The muzzle wasn't to protect my fingers, but all my girls wear one when outside Quote Mom to Emmi (WM Lickety Split) & Asia (Devious Walker)Waiting at the Bridge: Shadow, Willow, Tony, Nina, Reggie, Sunny, Webb, Rosie, Rowdy, Ivy, Smoke & Raina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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