Good morning! Our Guide Dog puppy Riggs is 20 weeks old, and he has a hard mouth! Offering him a treat with anything but an open hand WILL hurt! I started several weeks ago trying to teach him not to snatch by offering him a closed fist and waiting for him to back off before opening my hand. This worked to a point - he waits till I open my hand, but he will still snatch if I don't do the fist-wait-open. Yesterday I checked out Victoria Stilwell on YouTube, as recommended by our clicker trainer, and there was a podcast/video on how to teach a dog to take gently. Incredibly, her advice and method seems to be working with Riggs! Here's the video link:
Thanks for the link. I am currently working on this with my Bucky and like you said he gets it to a point, then he loses control because...FOOD! Hahaha
Zaba is a terrible snatcher. I'm fine indoors when I'm concentrating, I feed him like you would a horse - but outdoors I throw his treats. I expect this is not allowed with your pups? (We aren't with our GD pups as they have to learn to ignore all food that's on the floor) .
