How do you get him to chew?

[Valentine]

Well lately Valentine has been "grabby" with treats and goodies that we give him. Say we give him a slice of tripe...he will snatch it out of our hands and swallow it without chewing!! He does this with carrots too...baby carrots. Yesterday I gave a him a baby carrot...he sat and he just swallowed it!!
Should I worry or should I do something to make him chew first?

[dogsbydoug]

We've got an 'inhaler' here - I've found that offering several smaller pieces of something versus a larger one forces our guy to chew instead of swallowing whole.

[groupieindenial]

Dogs do not have flat molars like us humans or herbivores to "chew" food. They weren't designed to by nature. THey are carnivores, andd have scissor like teeth designed to tear flesh from carcass'.

[Valentine]

okay so i shouldn't worry then if he swallows a whole baby carrot? Shouldn't I at least make them smaller or something? My worry is that he gets too excited and GRABS them and swallows!! eeghh..hope he gets over that soon!

[groupieindenial]

Don't give baby carrots. Why are you giving carrots anyways??? THey don't digest them, so swallowing baby carrots whole are not a good idea.

[Valentine]

I am giving him carrots because he likes them and they are good for him. Zoey has no problem digesting them and he had no problem either. I only give them to the dogs maybe once a week and only two or three as a treat. I was only concerned because he acts starving..even though we feed him 3 times a day 1 1/2 of food at each meal. We had this problem with him since he was a small puppy. I know it's nothing medical cos we had him checked quite a bit and no worms or anything wrong with his stomach. The behaviorist who helped him overcome his food aggression told me to watch him closely when he eats and make sure he is not inhaling his kibble...sigh...he started doing i again...does the same with his treats..even normal treats like snausages...he wont even chew!!

[Canadianrotti]

I would be concerned with the "snatching" of the treats from your hand. Your dog MUST know to take food gently from your hand, and you can train this. If you put a small treat in your palm, and curl up your fist, will he chomp down on your entire hand, or try to dig for it? Teaching your dog to take treats gently is usually one of the first things that they teach in a puppy class.

Good luck

[Ayoka]

As for the snatching I would do different things about it in different situations...

Bear is generally avery soft mouthed dog. The corner store near where we used to live had treats for the dogs and all the staff there commenbted on how "nicely" bear took his treat and how grabby other dogs were...

Well he DOES get grabby when he's either starving OR VERY excited (agility class/Flyball)

We have worked on the leave it/off command (as Canadian Rottie suggested) and now he only needs to be reminded once that if he doesn't calm down and take treats gently this we generally use in obedience class where I am not coordinated enough handle a toy a clicker and a dog...BUT I have to say that in Flyball where we WANT him excited for his runbacks, I use a 3 foot tug toy for a reward so my fingers stay out of harm's way.

As for the chewing...dong's dont really chew a lot...unless it's bones...ever see your dog regurgitate his supper, it looks like perfectly formed, unchewed kibble (albeit slimey) I would make sure to give him treats that aren't so big that they'd get caught our training treats are usually the size of one of my fingernails.

[Valentine]

yeah he only snatches if hes really excited. like if we are doing new trick and we are all excited he gets super excited! so maybe I should just make them smaller. But other times he opens his mouth really slowly and takes it between his teeth and eats it.

[trish603a]

if he goes to snatch it make the correction and do not give him the treat. even when they are excited they should still have manners. when he sits or does what you want then give him the treat. i would be afraid of losing some fingers

[Ayoka]

Originally Posted by Valentine

yeah he only snatches if hes really excited. like if we are doing new trick and we are all excited he gets super excited! so maybe I should just make them smaller. But other times he opens his mouth really slowly and takes it between his teeth and eats it.

If you are excited then another thing that will calm him down is if you can slow down your body movement and speak in a low quiet voice....I learned a lot about this in out last agility class when Bear liked to "talk back" and nip at my feet when I made him redo an obstacle

[Ayoka]

Originally Posted by Valentine

yeah he only snatches if hes really excited. like if we are doing new trick and we are all excited he gets super excited! so maybe I should just make them smaller. But other times he opens his mouth really slowly and takes it between his teeth and eats it.

If you are excited then another thing that will calm him down is if you can slow down your body movement and speak in a low quiet voice....I learned a lot about this in out last agility class when Bear liked to "talk back" and nip at my feet when I made him redo an obstacle.