How to get our terrier to take treats and other items nicely from us without taking off a finger? Also sudden new behaviors with our other dog. Need advice

As for the terrier....I feed my boy dogs in their crates and just dump the kibble in.  This way, no one can get someone else's food, and the kibble spreads out so it takes a while for them to eat it.

For taking treats better, put the treat in your fits, show the dog it's there.  The dog will probably lick it, paw at it, maybe bite at it....wait until the dog stops trying to *take* it and rocks back, then open your fits and let the dog take the treat off your palm.  

 I suspect that some of this behavior may be coincidental with youover her now that they are both maturing. Most dogs work this issue out with a lot of bluster, but without injuring one another, especially if they are of differing age (which you don't have the benefit of in this case, I guess) and gender.  But, some dogs don't.  Often, humans interfere too much, and the fights continue.  I sincerely hope that the trainer is using positive methods and understands what is and is not normal in dogs that are reaching this juncture in life.   

As to taking treats gently, try this method: http://www.clickerlessons.com/gently.htm

 Poodle: male 2 years old this past august.  (Increasing health issues...he's never been healthy but he seems to have more and more health issues as time progresses, more and more behavior issues, most likely health related.  Always been very very hyper. Gets plenty of exercise, if  not too much.   Knows all commands and such but has a sudden problem (very sudden) when it comes to getting on with others (people and dogs, fine with us his owners, no issues.  But other people and our dog and other dogs).  Kicked out of group obedience class, now works with a private trainer. 

 Terrier: female 1 years old.  Very submissive, has always been very submissive toward our poodle too.  Very calm, lap dog.  Loves other dogs, and loves people of all ages, doesn't matter who they are.   If someone broke in she would probably lick them to death.  Overly friendly toward our poodle, and that has never been a problem but lately he hasn't been to fond of her friendliness and now she is avoiding him more and sometimes even hiding.   Couch potato. Graduated top of all her group obedience classes.

The two dogs are 5 months apart in age.   Our Terrier mix comes from a rescue situation.  She was in a foster home.  We adopted her when she was 12 weeks old.  Our poodle would have been around 8-9 months old at the time.       Our poodle came from what is basically a BYB (didn't know about bybs when we got him, have learned from that)

Just a little background.   If you want I can list some of our poodles health conditions but its kind of depressing, but if it helps

Health issues: (Some of these are conditions and some of these are things that are being looked into further)

Allergies (currently being treated for)

Breathing problems (may be related to something more)

Gastrointestinal Issues (Including Pancreatitis, where he did vomit blood several times)

Severe anxiety issues (currently being treated for)

 Extremely rapid heartrate

Tires easily, too easily

always panting and short of breath

Can't keep weight on.  (Constant battle)

(He has been through so much tested and pretty much lived the first two years of his life in and out of the doggy hospital, its sad really)

He has some other mild conditions that are managable but those are his big issues

feed soft squishy treats from a spoon or fork. The metal will slow them down most dogs DO NOT like metal clacking on their teeth and even service dogs have trouble being okay with this. picking up keys and dropped utensils etc. Attach a word like "softly" or whatever.

That's what I do when teaching pups to take bait here nicely.

 From what you posted, I would not be at all surprised to hear that your dog is having behavior problems, given the lengthy list of symptoms (BTW, has he been tested for heartworm?)  I also think that this is not just a training issue, it seems to be a health and behavioral issue.  Perhaps a consultation with a behaviorist who is also a vet would help.

yes we had the test done, it came out negative. He doesn't have heartworms.

Our current vet specializes in dog behavior as well as medicine.    (We also have a behaviorist we use)

I wanted to add: He has been in and out of the doggy hospital his whole life (2 years). We his owners are physically drained, mentally drained, and financially drained from his vet expenses. He has been sick since he was a puppy. It seems once we get one condition under control he develops another. Our dog to us is typically friendly, kind, loving, affectionate a really good dog inside these 4 walls. Except on his bad days. But get him out of these four walls and he acts terrible. And he used to love people, everyone but now he isn't friendly toward people he doesn't know and some that he does know.  It could be because his whole life he has been sick, and at the hospital and home resting and we get him out when we can but socialization hasn't been a big thing we've been able to do due to the fact he is always sick.    (For awhile he was in isolation, but I stopped that because he wasn't the kind of dog that could stay inside, his immune system wasn't very good and I want him to have a full life.  But the new vet said yes he has a poor immune system but no reason to isolate him.)

And I constantly have these 3 questions:

 Is this going to be the reality for the rest of his life? And what can we do to fix his behavior?

How do we know if this behavior is caused by pain and discomfort or something else?

with the new baby coming we are a little fearful of his bad days and ofcourse the finances are always on our mind.  (again his bills have hit us very very hard. ;)

When we first got him we were a month away from getting married, just out of school, and we had a nice savings.  (all that money went to him, now there is a lot of stress on us)  I know that sounds selfish but its hard not to be sometimes.   I mean we are trying to provide a good future for our child but we don't know how that is going to happen if we keep having this vet bills pile up

I will add at this point he is in the best health he has been in in a long time, but it seems the better he gets the worse his attitude gets  KWIM?

Abbeyroad86

now there is a lot of stress on us

I think that this is a huge part on your new dogs behavior (besides the fact one of them has anxiety issues which makes it worse). The new "baby stress" might be magnifying some of your dogs insecurities or even creating them

Abbeyroad86

he has only acted this way since I became pregnant

No need to say more. The baby arriving is a huge change in everybody's life (not to mention right after). The stress you are under right now if being "transmitted" to your doggies. I would say to stop for a moment and "smell the roses", relax for a moment and enjoy this pregnancy experience. I mean, this "technique" is free and you dont have anything to loose and a lot to win

Abbeyroad86

yes we had the test done, it came out negative. He doesn't have heartworms.

 

Our current vet specializes in dog behavior as well as medicine.    (We also have a behaviorist we use)

So, the vet hasn't given you any suggestions?  

The first thing to realize is that if a dog is grabby about food, he could just be grabby and impolite, or he could be a budding resource guarder.  A guarder is rarely safe with kids, and kids should never be in the company of any dog that guards when food (or whatever else the dog guards) is in the equation.  The impolite dog simply requires training.  One way to teach the dog to take treats nicely is to start with a low value treat (so, Cheerios not roast beef - you can work up to the beef).  Hold it in your fist and let the dog sniff, mouth your hand, nibble at it, etc.  Do nothing until the dog finally backs away from your hand.  At that moment, open your hand as you say "easy" and let the dog have the treat.  Repeat this many times until you finally see the dog backing away from the hand quickly in anticipation.  The next step is to put the food in your hand and say "easy" before you put your hand near the dog's nose - the dog should back off.  If he does, you know that he now understands that "easy" means not to touch your hand.  Gradually increase the value of the treats using the same procedure and at least you will be able to tell your dog what is expected in terms of taking treats from the hand.   Be aware that a dog that grabs food from your hand in the presence of another dog might be a tad more gentle if the other dog isn't around.  Many dogs that don't guard or act mouthy with humans normally will be more inclined to grab if they feel another dog is muscling in on their treats.

No suggestions with the terrier. She has never been a problem.  I mean this behavior we had out of her when she first came home at 12 weeks old but we nipped it in the bud then and there.    The behaviorist isn't for our Terrier, but for our poodle the one with the issues.   And the vet well we haven't been in with our Terrier in months (and i don't like his cesar milan methods, thats why we don't take his training advice)  She just starting the grabbing thing a few days ago.  After our poodle started bullying her.  And all the sudden she is grabbing the treat, before he can and watching as she scarfs down her food to make sure he isn't around, and she eats her food in under a minute, she just inhales it.     Our other dog is making her very nervous.   This is not something she does.   She acts like she did when we first brought her home from the shelter 2 years ago around her food and treats.   He has been seperated from here when there is food around and she has slowed down and calmed down.  (They never eat together but now he is crated when she eats)   The funny thing is our poodle has never tried to take treats or food from her.   But I guess she is nervous with him right now.  I would be too if someone tried to hump me every chance they got. 

She has gotten better over the last few days with taking the treats, our poodle just can't be around.   When he is, he tries to bully her away from the area so she grabs the treat really quick and runs.   We are still working on that and hope to get her back to being able to take the treats with him around.    But she is our pride and joy.   We have no complaints about her, except for her relapse the other day.   But she is improving quickly.

 Our poodle on the other hand is a constant battle and he is the one I worry about when the baby  comes (he is a very jealous dog and he has been my baby for 2 years, and I'll admit with him being ill I've cottled him so that has probably made things worse.  But keep in mind we were pretty sure we were going to lose him there for awhile and already preparing ourselves to have to bury him.    So everyday we have with him, every good day, and he has a lot more good days than bad.  We cherish.   Every vet visit we have that we get a good progress report, we don't feel like we have to hold our breath as much.

There are a few health things they are looking into on him, again its a process.   But they are ruling things out pretty quickly.   And the vet said all of this could still be linked to the gastro issues, but only time and tests will tell.   

The only thing the vet suggested on him about his behavior is, is was in pain for a long time, for about a year of his life.  Excruciating pain and no one knew it.   Except me and I kept taking him to the vet and they sent him home with an antibiotic and something else for a tummy virus.   Nobody would look into it further, but he kept losing weight.  And we went to several different vets, and they all said the same thing.   It wasn't until he was vomiting blood that anyone would pay attention.   We then got into a different vet and that vet treated him, but we weren't happy there.  The staff was very rude and acted like it was a chore to be at work.  And I didn't like that and I wasn't comfortable with the way the office staff treated us and the other patients so we went to this new vet and he has been wonderful.

He got his anxiety under control which got his tummy more under control.  (He said that gastro problems appear in a lot of very nervous dogs. and well he has been nervous, incredibly nervous since the day we brought him home, we asked his first vet about it.  They said "Don't worry he will grow out of it"   Bad advice. Its something we should have got into a trainer and worked on immediately but we didn't know that, he was our first dog together and our first dog as adults.  Now he is being treated with medication to calm him down.   Just a small sedative, not enough to knock him out or effect him too bad, just enough to calm his nerves.   And that goes hand in hand with his behavior training.  If we couldn't get him calm he was never going to be able to concentrate and learn.

I mean over all healthwise he is doing good for now.  But attitude wise, we have a long way to go.

 And our dogs are as different as night and day.   Our Terrier, we almost never have an issue out of her.   She is in my opinion the perfect dog.  Once we get this treat grabbing thing completely back to normal, there will be no complaints.   She is a very fast learner.    And this dog is healthier than a horse.

Our poodle however, I'm afraid will always have health problems.   And back to what i was saying about the vet.  He said that our poodle was in such excruciating pain for about a year of his life, that he may not know any other way to act now that he is feeling better.       And he said we need to reverse this behavior and its going to take time.

Again its exhausting but we are still pushing through.  I need some kind of game plan because right now we are just playing everything by ear it seems.

 It's not uncommon for a dog to start bullying a dog that has just reached social maturity (age 2-ish) or for the now socially mature dog to start bullying a pack mate.  So, the behavior you are seeing might be coincidental with that developmental stage, and not necessarily related to your pregnancy (although it could be). 

When people describe dogs as "jealous" my trainer brain thinks "possessive" and that really isn't a great characteristic for a dog that is to live with children, especially through the toddler stage when they want to grab things and might accidentally hurt a dog that is intolerant of pain or doesn't want his space around  the owner invaded.  If this dog is possessive of you and reacts badly when humans or another dog approach, take all your attention away from him and disappear into another room.  He will learn that if he wants you to hang around, he has to avoid being a jerk to others.