It’s no secret that puppies love food and attention, so what better way to bond with your puppy than hand feeding them treats? The benefits of hand feeding your puppy are useful for socialization, particularly for establishing positive associations with children. To start, let’s discuss the food economy.
The food economy
We refer to the idea of managing how and when a puppy gets food as their “food economy”. You should take advantage of their meals by using their kibble or high valued treats. You don’t want to feed your puppy a meal just before training, as they may be full, making them less motivated by food as a reward.
Every meal should be a training opportunity, where you can encourage desired behaviors and address any bad behaviors. You can use hand feeding to teach commands, including sit, stay, come, down, as well as leash walking. Let’s discuss how you can teach sit with hand feeding.
Teaching sit through hand feeding
You can use hand feeding to teach your puppy to stay in the sit position. You can guide them into the sit position, and then feed them one piece of kibble as long as they continue to sit. Stop feeding your puppy when they get up, and continue feeding them when they sit again. Regularly practicing this will encourage your puppy to autosit for attention and helps stop them from jumping on you.
Hand feeding as a bonding exercise with children
Having children hand feed your puppy is a great way to encourage a positive association with children. It will encourage them to be comfortable and gentle with each other. It is a simple way to involve your children in training your puppy.
You can offer your child some kibble, and have them feed your puppy one kibble at a time. You can use this to feed your puppy their meals, or give treats throughout the day. Would you like your children to be more involved in your puppy’s training? You should check out our blog on “How to include children in raising a puppy”.
Hand feeding your puppy for socialization
Hand feeding your puppy when meeting new people is a great way to build positive associations with others. Not just for familiar people, but also when meeting strangers. You want your puppy to grow up being comfortable with a variety of people with different appearances. Socializing your puppy also helps reduce the likelihood of problem behaviors, including reactivity, resource guarding, and fearful behavior, from developing. For more information on socialization, you can check out our video on “how to socialize a puppy” or our blog on “how to socialize a puppy”.
We are here to help
Would you like more information on puppy training? We recommend you check out our puppy training blog or our Tik Tok channel. You can also contact our Pet Behavior Team for a free consultation, where we can chat with you and provide a personalized recommendation that meets your needs.
We offer Board and Train and Virtual Training Programs nationally. With in person training programs at our Houston, Dallas, Tampa Bay, and Sarasota locations.
We use scientifically proven training methods, backed by over 20 years of hands-on experience. Beyond the Dog is led by our co-founders, Dr. Kristyn 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).
