Removing Items from a Dog's Mouth
Adapted from the article, "Taking Food Away From Your
Dog," by Dr. Katherine A. Houpt, VMD and
Editor-in-Chief of DogWatch, a helpful newsletter from
the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.
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It's important to teach your dog to allow you to
remove food and other items from his mouth. By
teaching a dog a submissive behavior such as this, you
help establish yourself as leader in the relationship.
This practice helps stop destructive behavior and
also safeguards the dog, since dogs sometimes try to
eat hazardous things such as chicken bones.
Practicing the following exercise will greatly reduce
your chance of being bitten when you try to take a
coveted item away from the dog. The exercise is also
useful if you have a dog who has a tendency to guard
items, which is a highly undesirable behavior.
The steps:
* Give your dog something he is likely to spit out,
such as a wooden dowel.
* Next, offer him a tasty treat.
* As he spits out the dowel, say "Drop it!" (or
"Out!") and give the dog the treat.
* Repeat this 10 times a day.
* Gradually, give the dog more desirable items, which
you will ask him to drop. Randomize the reward, so he
doesn't get a treat each time he complies. This kind
of "variable reward schedule" makes the dog more
likely to respond by dropping what he is carrying,
even when you have no treat to give him.
In essence, you are trading a good piece of food for
an item that you don't want him to have.
* After showing him the food, give the "Drop it"
command. Add the "Come" command if the dog is running
around with the forbidden item in his mouth.
* When the dog obeys you, give the "Sit" command and
reward the dog with the tasty food treat.
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