How do i get my dog to stop looking in my hand for treats?

Question

the dog is about 7 months old. my little brother doesn't give her many treats, because he's only six, and i dont' feel that he has the correct judgement of 'when' to give a treat. everyday i spend time with her teaching her to sit, stay, come, stand, hug and shake. only two or three a day though, i don't want to overload and confuse her.

however, when i start, and throughout, she gets up and checks my hands for treats. i keep them in my back left pocket, and do not show when i pull them out. she doesn't seem to know they come from my pockets yet anyway. i always prefer praise over treats, hugs and whatnot, and a treat every now and then, to teach that praise is good as well. i'm the only one that she doesn't have her tail between her legs when she's around me.

i've been trying to get her to stop searching my hands for treats just because we're having a little training session. anyway to make that a little easier? other than training classes, i'd rather she learns from me

Answer 1

This can be easier than you might think, and can be done with or without a clicker, although a clicker certainly helps.

There are a couple different things you can teach that will help reinforce the same basic lesson you want, which is that "you never ever get treats by trying to get treats, but you do get treats when you leave the treats alone". Some people even call this exercise "Doggie Zen".

* Hold treats in one closed fist, and if you use clicker, hold clicker in the other. (If you don't use clicker, you can also simply use a verbal marker like "yes!" but this does tend to take more repetitions.) Put your closed fist down somewhat in front of the dog and say "Off" or "Leave It". She will probably start trying to go for your hand. Be patient. The instant she stops and looks somewhere, anywhere but your hand, click or say Yes! and toss her a treat. (You can see where clicker works well in this scenario because you might be marking a super split second of behavior at the beginning, and clicking is 10 times faster than speaking) Keep repeating this -- if she tries to go for your hand, simply keep the fist closed. Don't pull it away (unless she's biting at it a little too vigoriously!) and don't say "No" or "Ah ah" or anything. Just wait. Then click/mark and toss a treat every time she glances away.

In my experience, the more excited a dog is about food, the faster they learn this behavior, simply because they're very motivated to figure out how to get the food.

What you want to work up to is you want to see your dog start to physically settle back and look up at you when you put out the closed fist of food. Once you hit this point, start opening your fist a bit -- just be ready to close it quickly if she gets sneaky! While you don't want to say "No!", you also don't want her to get away with snatching a treat! Once she's looking up at you with an open palm, start putting the treat down on the floor, and when she gets really good at it, toss the treat across the floor while saying "Leave It".

* The other method to practice ignoring the hand is to teach some kind of targeting behavior. I usually hold a bunch of treats in my right hand, and then hold my left hand out flat, but perpendicular to the floor. When my dog comes over to investigate, I click and treat with that same hand. They tend to come back to the left hand pretty quickly, and I repeat, again treating from the left hand. Once they start getting the drill, and you can see in their eyes the moment they "get it", I start treating from the right hand, where the treat stash is. They'll usually take a little bit of time at this point to start going for my right hand, but that, of course, is futile because that's not how you get treats. Once they start touching my left hand again, the treats start rolling in again. I usually start adding the word "Touch!" after the dog has figured out how to deliberately start pushing against my hand, as opposed to just randomly bumping up against it.

Both of these methods are great ways to teach the dog that the path to getting the food is to move away from the food, hence the reason it's sometimes called "Doggie Zen". They're also very practical exercises, especially "Leave It", which may prevent your dog from chowing down on something dangerous someday.

Sounds like you're doing a great job with her. Keep up the good work of making training fun for both of you!

Answer 2

clicker training works well, but then my pup (who I am also training right now) gets exited to see the clicker and has even tried eating it!! lol. They are smart, my dog know the cubbord where the treats are stored, when I have them in my hand and when they are in my pocket. It really hasnt seemed to affect his traing too much though. if he's "looking" for a treat, I have him work for it first (ie sit , come, ect." The best advice my trainer gave me was keep a bunch of bowls of treats around the house, where he can't see them, but easy for you to reach no matter where you are. Then, he won't know WHERE they are comming from. She said you want it so the treats seem like they come out of thin air. Mine still figures it out, even when I mix it up, but like I said he still catches on and listens well, so I'm not too worried about it. Good Luck with your dog!!

Answer 3

Try clickler training it reinforces behaviors that are good and do so quickly, there are many books on this subject and I would look in the library before you go out and buy a bunch, but it might help you to get her focus onto you.

Answer 4

First this is good thing when teaching attention healing, you want them to look at your hand. Try putting the food in your mouth. Spit it out when you reward. This way you teach the pup to look at your face. Good Luck

Answer 5

Have you ever tried hiding treats around the house and getting them to find the treats ...very exciting for them .I do it all the time

Answer 6

hold something else in your hand when she's around and then show it to her. do this often and then she'll get the idea that you're not always holding treats for her.