Taking food from your dog's mouth

ORIGINAL: TinaK

Hmm... interesting insights: "You should be able to get into your dogs' mouth not because 'I told you so', but because there is trust and a good relationship."

DROP IT doesn't work for me in every situation and in every context. If my dog has something he is not supposed to, I can usually look at him and see how much of a value it is for him in *that* context. He lets me shove my hand in his mouth and inspect his teeth, he lets me do that if he has a smoked buffalo bone in front of him, but he bit me when I tried to take a napkin from him. I should have known better. I need to train him better while returning the object the fuss was all about! I haven't done that! It's always been other rewards.

Sometimes, I can tell by his eyes and his posture that DROP IT is not going to work right now. If I act too obvious like I want to trade with him, he thinks it must be *real good* (if I want it), so he eats it even faster. I swear, Jack is learning me faster than I'm learning him I have to trade without looking too obvious like I am "trading"... I don't know how else to describe it. If I act interested - he wants it! What does it tell about our relationship? I don't know.

"Drop it" doesn't work just because you glare at the dog and say "drop it".  It works if you train the dog to understand what "drop it"  means. []  The "trade" exercise is easy - just substitute "drop it" for the word "trade".  If the dog gets something in exchange for his "prize" most of the time, he will nearly always want to exchange in the future.  Once he knows the word, sometimes he may get a cookie, sometimes a pat, sometimes a game of tug.  In all cases, you should be able to take the object safely.

I've taken lots of things out of my dogs' mouths. Also, when i give them pills i usually just stick my finger in their mouths and push it down their throats. I've never been worried about being bitten. Wyatt was a troubling young man who would eat anything, and when i'd tell him to drop it, he'd gobble it down. I can't tell you how many times i've reached into that guy's throat.

I really have not come across any situations where I would need to "take" something out of my dogs mouth to save his life.

I have.  My dog Winnie tried to swallow a piece of turkey neck without chewing and it got stuck.  She was choking to death.

If I had to struggle with her to get my hand in her mouth and fight her for that food she would have died.  As it was I simply grabbed her, pried open her mouth, shoved my hand back there and managed to extract the piece of neck.

My dogs know Give and Drop as well but being able to take something from them WITHOUT HESITATION is a must for me.

I'm a first-time dog owner and I'm one of those people who are afraid of getting bitten if I try to take something out of my dog's mouth. I know I shouldn't have anything to be afraid of, especially since my dog is pretty timid, but I admit that the fear is still there. I don't want to be afraid of taking something out of my dog's mouth, though, especially since I will have to do it in case of an emergency. Have any of you ever felt like this? How did you get over it?

ORIGINAL: lauric

I really have not come across any situations where I would need to "take" something out of my dogs mouth to save his life.

I have.  My dog Winnie tried to swallow a piece of turkey neck without chewing and it got stuck.  She was choking to death.

 
Further down in my post I questioned whether the amount of training the dog had actually made it easier for you to do this..... I'm doubtful.

Further down in my post I questioned whether the amount of training the dog had actually made it easier for you to do this..... I'm doubtful.

My own dogs are taught from the beginning (birth with one, 4-8 weeks of age with the rest) to allow me to take things from them.  Anything.  I don't go around grabbing things from them all the time or doing it just to "show them" who's boss.  I do it when necessary.

All my foster dogs were switched to raw right away, and several had food guarding issues.  And yet I taught them to allow me to remove items from their mouth - even food.

When a dog starts choking they DO panic and dtruggle - no matter what training they've had.  What I don't want to add to the situation is the dog thinking they have to guard the thing that's choking them.

And it's not just food.  Balls, toys, anything can get stuck.

Jake can keep anything I give to him, but if he takes something from the garbage, or something from the ground when I'm already yelling, "No! Leave it!" then he has to allow me to pull the object out. It's for his own safety, he thinks nothing of chomping down cooked chicken bones [8D]. I've trained him well, IMO, all you have to do is teach him that if he gives up this treasured item, he'll get something in return, even if it's a dinky little thing (trading a yummy rotten sausage for a slice of cheese, for example). Now he'll give up whatever he has, though he'll hesitate at first. But he'll ALWAYS give it up, and without biting too, lol (that's a bonus, haha).
 
But if I give the item to him, he can keep it, regardless of what it is. When he has a raw bone, I try to respect him, but the darn guy thinks I'm going to take it from him, so when I get close to him, he starts growling and rumbling. No aggression, though, he understands that when his face leaves the bone (to snap at me, for example), that leaves the bone unprotected, which means I, or someone else, could take it. He has trust issues, lol (caused by me and my family, though, so I don't blame him). But once a blue moon, I've had to take a bone away and he's allowed me to, though he did his best to act the most intimidating he's ever looked, lol, by growling and snarling and drooling and lunging (at the bone), but NO biting (fortunately in each case, I was simply checking to verify that it was a bone he had, one someone other than me had given to him, and he got the bone back immediately after giving it up to me)
 
I wonder if training a dog like this DOES screw up the dog laws (any dog in the pack, regardless of ranking, can defend his own property, as mentioned in the original post), but IMO, training it has more benefits. What happens if the dog wants to guzzle down rotten meat he found on the street? He'll want to defend it from you, but it's your job to protect him, so he has to be able to give it up so you can throw it away and prevent him from being poisoned. Just make sure you have yummy treats at all times, lol, because you never know when doggie is gonna get in trouble

I do it without hesitation. Murphy's used to it. He's on anti-seizure meds so I'm in there twice a day anyway. []
But as far as other things go- he's horrible about trying to eat stuff on our walks. So it's not uncommon for me to dive right in there and get it. One time he had a be-headed dead baby rabbit or baby squirrel in his mouth . [X(]

ORIGINAL: mondayblues

I'm a first-time dog owner and I'm one of those people who are afraid of getting bitten if I try to take something out of my dog's mouth. I know I shouldn't have anything to be afraid of, especially since my dog is pretty timid, but I admit that the fear is still there. I don't want to be afraid of taking something out of my dog's mouth, though, especially since I will have to do it in case of an emergency. Have any of you ever felt like this? How did you get over it?

 
I've found that once you get bitten a few times, the fear starts to go away. Over time you'll learn how your dog behaves and what makes it tick, and most importantly, how hard it bites, lol. When Jake's having a temper tantrum, he can look pretty darn intimidating, and even I'll get a slight twinge in my chest (because HOW and WHY is my baby behaving like this?!). But I've learned that if Jake bites me, it never breaks the skin, and very rarely has he ever actually AIMED to bite me. Most of the time he's lunged at the brush I'm holding or the scissors (whatever he sees as scary) and since my hand will be moving, he'll accidently get my thumb instead. Only a couple times has he broken skin, first time was when he tried to bite the spray of water from the hose (his favorite summer game) and accidently overshot the mark and got my thumb. He got the tiniest of spots right behind the nail, but it still decided to bleed. The 2nd time was my own stupid mistake: I was brushing Jake's tail while he was chewing a bone (at the time, he was still wary of being groomed, and especially being touched while a precious bone was in his presence). In this case, his head was at the back of the crate, so when he lunged for the brush, he had to really twist around, so naturally he overshot his mark and got the back of my forearm instead. No blood, but it was bruised pretty nastily and looked pretty chewed up for the longest time. It happened quite some time ago, but I still have a small shiny scar that I can't find unless I tilt my arm in the light. And this happened THROUGH a SHIRT sleeve, lol.
 
But don't let me worry you, Jake's a naturally nervous, sensitive dog by nature. Just treat your dog the best you can and if he bites you, it won't be in hate or whatever. Chances are, he'll be like Jake, and will only bite to protect himself (from the brush, for example). But this is just one dog, he knows I'm Alpha and his caregiver, and that I don't want to hurt him (and that if he hurts ME, it's a doggy sin or something, lol), but he's still opinionated and feels that he needs to get his feelings across. So if he nips or "nibbles" (on my shirt sleeve to tell me to please let go of his collar because he's starting to get scared, for example), he won't bite hard, just firm enough so I can feel something. And if he bites hard enough to give a welt or a mark, it was an accident, my arm or hand or whatever just happened to get in the way.
 
Also watch your dog's body language. Dogs will give off a lot of warning signs, especially the more timid dogs. First thing that changes in Jake is he seems to get a little more tense and "aware." Next is staring, he'll do his intensive Border Collie stare (at me, at the brush, or at nothing in particular). His ears may or may not be layed back (not pinned, just layed back). Then his lips will start trembling just a little, and then a little more, and then a little more until you can start to see some teeth. He'll keep giving submissive gestures, like licking his lips, trying to roll over on his back, ears being back, etc. If I continue to ignore him at this point, then he'll keep adding more and more steps until he finally does lunge (at the brush or whatever, remember). The only time he doesn't give the above signs is when I'm clipping nails: he simply stiffens up when I have his foot in my hand and the clippers in the other, then he allows me to touch his nail with the clippers, and then he lunges at the clippers when the tip of his nail goes flying off. I still have to work with him on his issues with the nail clippers, but we're getting there. He'll let me clip 2 nails before he starts taking offense at the clippers, lol. But basically, if your dog is timid, I wouldn't worry. Just focus on teaching him that you're Alpha and that you come in peace (lol) and the only time you have to worry about biting is the freak accidents, like if you accidently step on his tail or something (and even then, he'd probably just yelp and try to bolt away, lol)
 
If you're still worried, though, you should read up on Calming Signals. There are some books sold on the subject and they're actually pretty informative. You find yourself watching your dog all day, trying to figure out what he's saying to you, to your family, to other dogs. It also helps you learn a little more about your dog, on what makes him tick and what he's most sensitive about, and the two of you can get along better.
 
Some of the more obvious Calming Signals, FYI, are licking, yawning (not the long-tongue type, if the dog's tongue doesn't fall past the front teeth, it's most likely a calming signal meant to calm either you or himself; I've noticed this the most from Jake), ground sniffing, and "attention span" (like averting eyes, and turning away)
 
Here's a link I'm reading right now, and it's pretty informative too
[linkhttp://www.diamondsintheruff.com/calmingsignals.html]http://www.diamondsintheruff.com/calmingsignals.html[/link]
 
Sorry this is so long, but I find dog language so fascinating, especially since humans can respond in the dog's language too.