Undesirable behaviour around treats

[Newdoggointhehouse]

Hi,

Experienced dog (springer) owners and just adopted a springer (18mnths). He’s not had the best start at all but is learning quick, wants to please and is intelligent. He has a lot of puppy behaviours and largely just needs to be shown the way to be a good boy more of the time.

He is very badly behaved / super hyper around treats, which is making it difficult to reward him. I think this stems from being crated all day and when he has nuisance barked out of boredom treats have been thrown at him in the cage to shut him up.

At the moment we’re mainly using his ball as reward (he is good with this) and teaching him the Wait command for treats, but it’s a bit of a slog waiting for him to calm down to earn the treat. He snatches, jumps up, tries to wrestle the treats away. We are turning away from him and holding the treats out of his reach, but it takes him a good 10 minutes to calm. He then has his treat well, but then it seems to spark another 10 minutes of hyper behaviour (even though treats are no longer there).

Any bright ideas anyone? Considering removing the treats as soon as the behaviour starts so he learns they get put away until he is calm, but not sure if this is the right approach.

He just sounds like an overgrown puppy who hasn't had any training.

What treats are you using? Have you tried something less high-value like his normal dry food at first, then upping the ante once he's learned how to be calm around that?

He definitely is an overgrown puppy. His last owners (we are his third) luckily realised they couldn’t cope and hired a walker 3 times a week for the last couple of months (his only walks). Because of this he is amazing out of the house - socialised with other dogs, excellent off lead, great recall, great fun , polite, wants to learn new tricks. I think he’s got the making of being a brilliant little guy.

I’ll try your suggestion. I’ve just switched his diet from the kibble he was on though as he’s not interested (apparently didn’t eat much at his last place - not sure if he saw treats as food?). He’s really, really underweight (10.4kg) so he’s now getting chicken and rice for a bit.

If he's only being fed chicken and rice, he's probably absolutely starving which won't be helping his excitement around treats. He needs a proper complete dog food - if he won't eat kibble alone then there's loads of ways of making it more appealing - adding wet toppers, feeding it through snuffle mats etc.

I only switched to chicken and rice yesterday - advised by vet. I’d tried toppers and a couple of other foods. But a snuffle mat is a good call.

He sounds really hungry dog food needed to fill him up.
You can buy salt free stock cubes and the chicken ones are very popular with dogs to pour over dry food. Feed him tinned food of whatever variety he will eat. Scrambled egg on top of food is always popular.
maybe feed him 5 times a day or more especially if he’s used to eating treats almost constantly. Then gradually increase the amount in each feed whilst increasing the gaps between feeds

Make sure he’s eating enough so he isn’t starving.

Do training sessions after meals when he’s sated but still has a little room for dessert 😃

Use lower value treats.

Don’t fall into the trap of snatching the food out of reach “NO! GENTLY! GENTLY!!” Etc… this just teaches the dog to snatch more quickly before you can take it away.

Deliver treats off the palm of your hand like you’re feeding a horse and push the treat INTO him - aim just below his chin towards his chest. If you’re going to give him a treat it needs to be clear he’s going to get it, not be teased with it. If he’s really snatchy you
might consider wearing gloves til he’s calmed down a bit.

Ah okay, if it's vet advised that's different.

Is he super excitable in other situations? I would maybe look at doing lots of calming/brain work with them to tire him out and to teach him that being calm gets him good things, whereas being excitable gets him nothing.

Feeding meals out of kongs/snuffle mats/lick mats.
"Settle" training on his mat or bed.
Hiding food around the garden or house for him to find rather than feeding it by hand for now.
Reward with things other than food if it works - there's no need to use food if it doesn't work for him (or you). I train lots of dogs at work with balls or praise as they're not particularly food motivated or have dietary restrictions.

But also don't forget he's still settling and finding his place - the 3/3/3 rule is useful.

I agree with what others have said, ensure he's not hungry.

I'm not a fan of it, but maybe clicker training might solve some treat issues around training, even if just used temporarily.

I had a very greedy boy once and found that teaching the leave comand & get it was a lifesaver! I'd start training this after his meal to ensure he's not hungry.
Maybe also teach him that not everything food is meant for him.

Different circumstances, but I taught my boy to leave any food that was dropped and he wasn't going to have it. So I could safely pick it up and throw into the bin. I could also throw bits of cheese or sausage at him and he'd leave them.. you can see my issues was with toddler and dog.

Gosh, I’d hazard a guess there’s not much nutrition in chicken and rice! Poor dog sounds hungry.

Our vet told us to feed that to our dog when he had an upset stomach but not intended for usual diet. Your dog is a teenager. Teens get starving and raid mother’s fridge right after a roast dinner and drink all the milk and eat cereal at midnight!

I’d feed him more filling and substantial food, add egg and fish, plenty of veg, mashed spud, cod liver oil etc. He might need “building up” after his poor start.

Im not saying I’m right but might be worth a try?

Initially dont give treats from your hand.

Just drop the treats onto the floor.

This will stop the jumping up behaviour and the mugging you behaviour.

You are building more frustrations whilst holding treats and making him wait whilst you turn around etc. Just a bit too uch for him to deal with at the minute.

Advantage of feeding from the ground is that physically when the head is lower the heart rates drops and more likely to get a calm response (eventually)

Just to say drop dont throw. You dont want to up the energy by adding in a chase. Just drop by your feet

Initially I would be rewarding just for eye contact and then move onto wait etc when he is calmer around the treats.

However he may be ready for a wait so just ask them when a mili sec of stillness calmly drop the treat

Are you able to up his meal intake? Ether more frequently or more calorific as it sounds like he’s super hungry! Poor boy being so underweight

I’d drop the treats onto the floor too instead of holding them above him, will help to stop the jumping and snatching. Then lots of games/training on impulse control and practicing wait. And really boring treats too to start!

My springer was/is a greedy little bugger - if it’s high value treats he can get hyper quite quickly so I have to be careful he doesn’t get too many…… He is better than he used to be but I never have to worry about disguising flea or worm tablets or anything as he’ll eat whatever I give him so that’s a positive at least 😂