I've had problems with Max snatching the treat from my hand when doing OB. Sometimes he will try to snatch it before doing what I've asked, mostly I'm fast enough to get it out of the way. I've started putting everything away and stopping the session when he does this. But always when I go to give him the treat - for doing what I asked - he will snatch it instead of just taking it. And his teeth are sharp on my fingers so it kind of hurts when he grabs it.

Can I teach him that he will only get the treat if he calmy waits for me to give it to him? I was thinking I could have him sit or something and click for it and then have the treat closed in my hand for him until he's just waiting and not trying to eat through my hand to get to it.

Would that work or would I just confuse him because I've clicked to say 'yes you did good' but then not giving him the treat and kind of teasing him with it?

Is there some other way that I can teach him he can't snatch at the treat but wait for it to come to him?
By the way it's mostly with high value treats that he does this.

This is a two-parter.

For part one, how can he get at the treat unless you have it out on display as a lure or bribe?

HI Connie, I did think I might get asked about that, nothing gets past you guys.

The times when he tries to snatch it before doing anything is when I'm teaching something new. Recently I've been teaching him to go behind me and sit. So I've started by luring him into position, then click and treat. We're not at the point of adding a command to it yet so I still have to lure him. Is there a better way to teach something like that?

The other times he snatches is when it's in my hand and I'm reaching out to give it to him, instead of waiting for my hand to get there he snatches at it.

I feel your pain, I had a shark of a pup too! If you can stand some additional gnawing and chomping on your hand in the name of achieving your objective, I can tell you how I trained this.

Place a treat in your hand and make a fist. Offer him your closed fist. He will probably start to maul and gnaw to get to the treat. As soon as he stops to take a breath mark and open your hand, try to keep the treat on your palm and have it opened wide and flat as possible (less skin to get to and saves some pain) Repeat again and again and again and yes again. He will learn quickly backing off your hand is the key. Once he has reached this point is when you can work on gentling his grabbing.

Up the ante; offer the fist and when he backs off open your fist and if he lunges for it, quickly close your fist so he does not get a reward, again after several repetitions he will slow down to observe if you are going to close your hand, this will probably bring on a more restrained approach to take the treat. Mark and let him take it even if he is still getting your hand. You want to mark all improvements moving toward the goal of gently taking a treat.

From this point move to requiring a controlled taking of the treat by building on the restrained approach. Leave your hand open if he approaches gently but if he tries to snatch; close your hand. Again his approach will change and you can mark and reward. It is at this point when I add the command "Gentle".

Now this won't happen in one training session but over lots of mini training sessions practiced regularly. I would work on this one behavior for 5 minutes at least once a day during his adolescense. He improved quickly but would have mutton head relapses but I'd say he was 100pct trained in about a month. Kind of a long time but I still have all fingers intact so worth it

Thanks Sheila that sounds great, I'll start it tonight. I was wondering how I could initiate this kind of training. I didn't know if I could just do it or if I had to have some other reason for giving him the treat while teaching him to be nice.

I want to keep all my fingers intact too, but I just didn't want to be teasing and confusing him to do it. But the way you've described it, now I see it's just like teaching him a new trick, he just doesn't get the treat until he displays the behaviour I want.

It seems so simple now, I guess sometimes you just don't quite get some things until someone makes it simple, I was overthinking it big time.

I would add to Sheila's good advice to do this totally separate from training any other particular behaviour. Otherwise your trying to work on two things at a time. That just adds to the confusion of what your trying to teach.
When the dog understands this, and you do go back to luring, the movement of your hand may set you back a bit. Be patient and the dog will "get it".

I wanted to chime in here as well...
I also do this to stop the chomping. Basically, if they try to take my finger with the treat, I don't let go of teh treat, and will roll my fingers over the treat so they cannot get to it. When they lean back to look at my hand, sort of trying to work it out, and figure out "what gives" I open up my hand.
I also second teaching this separate from the sit - at least at first. They don't need to think that you are punishing for sitting or taking their reward for sitting - and you don't need to add frustration!

Rhonda,
My guess is you have pulled your hand away as he tries to get the treat. If you did it once, that's all it takes. When luring the dog into a position or behavior your giving the dog the same picture so naturally he's going to respond the same way.
Try actually pushing the treat into the dog (never pulling away). When you pull away from the dog (that's a technique for teaching a dog to bite) your creating the behavior. When you push the treat into the dog he's going to backoff a little because though he wants it, it's a tad uncomfortable. Do this until he gets the message. Remember, it's a lot harder to undo bad habits and then teach a good one so expect it to take a little work.

Michael, that's pretty much what I do to stop mouthing in older dogs.

With puppies, I tolerate a fair amount of mouthing on my hands, pants, etc. With my older dogs that are past teething age, their teeth don't belong on me. So, when an older dog puts his mouth on me, I just shove that particular body part as far back in his mouth as possible.

They tend to knock it off after one or two times of having a mouth full of hand that they can't seem to spit out.

That's exactly what I do to stop older dogs from taking my hand with the food. It takes one or two times for them to get the idea.