Have you tried training your puppy after their meal but found they aren’t exactly focused on a full belly, or even falling asleep during the training session? When teaching new skills and manners, it’s important to incentivize them with a high-value reward, including kibble and treats. We recommend skipping the food bowl and using alternative feeding methods during training. In this blog, we will discuss hand feeding your puppy so you can turn mealtime into a fun training and enrichment opportunity.
Why Hand Feeding Helps With Puppy Training
Hand feeding is a great way to teach your puppy obedience commands because it takes advantage of their interest in food. Your puppy will pay close attention to you so that you can quickly reward your puppy for good behavior or redirect them when needed. You can use hand feeding to teach commands, including sit, down, come, and stay, as well as leash walking. Let’s discuss how to teach your puppy to sit through hand feeding.
How to Teach Your Puppy to Sit Through Hand Feeding
Hand-feeding can encourage your puppy to stay in the sit position. After guiding them into the sit position, you can feed them one piece of kibble at a time for as long as they stay sitting. When your puppy gets up, stop feeding them until they are sitting again. Over time, this will encourage them to autosit for attention, and discourages jumping.
Using Hand Feeding with Socialization Exercises
These commands are useful because they make it easier to take your puppy out around Tampa, which offers many opportunities for puppy socialization. For more information on puppy socialization, you can check out our blog on “Why Puppy Socialization Matters and Where to Start”.
Feeding your puppy during introductions with new people and pets helps them feel comfortable and confident. It also builds positive associations with others, reducing the likelihood of reactivity, resource guarding, or fearful behaviors from developing.
How to Include Children in Hand Feeding Exercises
You can use hand feeding exercises to build a positive relationship between your puppy and children. This is especially important during a puppy’s socialization period, when they should be exposed to people of all ages. For handling feeding exercises with children, you should start with your puppy being tethered, then have the child offer treats or kibble when they are well-behaved. Hand feeding with children teaches puppies to be gentle and helps them build confidence around kids. They shouldn’t be hand fed while play-biting or jumping, as this reinforces unwanted behaviors. The downside to handfeeding a puppy is that you will discover how much they slobber and drool, but that’s all part of the experience of having a puppy. For more information on our “Including Children in Puppy Care”.
We’re here to help
Do you have any questions on teaching obedience, manners or addressing behavioral problems. You can schedule a free consultation with our Pet Behavior Team to discuss your training goals and receive a personalized recommendation. We offer personalized training programs that are provided through one-one-one training sessions in your home and Tampa neighborhood. Our team also offers board and train programs and virtual training programs.
We use scientifically proven training methods in our programs, backed by over 20 years of hands-on experience. Beyond the Dog Tampa is led by our co-founders, Dr. Echterling-Savage, a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB) and Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), and Sean Savage, a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) and Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA).
