The DogSmith Relationship Exercise # 1 Hand Feeding

Goal: The goal in hand-feeding your dog is to strengthen your relationship.  Spending quiet, quality time together while you provide your dog’s most sought after resource is a very powerful bonding exercise.

Resources: Locate a quiet place where you can sit comfortably with enough room in front of you for your dog to sit and stand.

Training Steps

Take one piece of kibble at a time from the bowl. When your dog looks at you, slowly feed it  the piece of kibble. Continue doing this until you have given it 1/4 of its meal.

If your dog is in a ‘sit’ then lure it into a ‘down’  and continue to hand-feed it until it only has 1/2 its food left.

Next, have your dog ‘stand’ and continue to hand-feed in a ‘stand’ position. Continue feeding it in a ‘stand’ position until you  have 1/4 of the dog’s food left.

and take your time feeding it the last pieces of  kibble.

Tips:

If your dog is  overly excited or ‘mouthy’ refer to the ‘take it’ & ‘leave it’ skill  training card. Repeat the hand-feeding for 7 days.