4 month male GS

Question
QUESTION: My 4 month old male GS has started to snap at me. Well behaved puppy otherwise.  Housebroken, has always slept through the night, travels well in car. Knows yard boundaries and loves to play ball.  Started positive reinforcement training with treats, and now he snaps at my hands whenever I come near him. I am trying to use open hand approach under his chin rather than approaching from any other direction and that seems to work.  He also tries to bite the leash when outside on walks.  He is a strong willed dog, but also confident.  Any suggestions

ANSWER: Biting the leash is normal puppy behavior. I'd just try and distract him from that and he should grow out of it. The snapping at your hands is a stage of development, and is probably also due to the treat training you have been doing. You need to teach him to be easy when taking treats, instead of being snappy. If he snaps at your hand wanting a treat, tell him NO in a firm tone of voice and do not give him the treat (even if he earned it). Close your fingers around the treat and do NOT let him have the treat until he stops mouthing, licking, pawing, etc. at your closed fist. When he 'gives up,' tell him good boy in a happy but calm tone of voice and open your hand. If he tries to snap again, repeat. He will soon figure out that snapping at your hands means no treat.

You can also use 'physical' correction for this, but if you're using positive reinforcement training, I don't know if that means you don't correct at all, or if you're just using treats to teach behaviors.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Kristin,  Thanks for your response.  I will try what you suggested. Have limited the treats for training and am substituting voice praise and a massage type petting that he responds to.  We are doing some physical correction with the leash, but limited.  We are mostly correcting him with our voice and posture.  What would you suggest for a physical correction for the snapping?  Thanks again.

Answer
You can either use a leash pop, if the puppy is on a leash when he snaps at you (which is no different than a leash pop for general disobedience of a known command), where you pop the leash towards whatever he's biting (ideally the leash would be attached to his collar underneath his chin for this, but as long as you are pulling in the direction of the puppy's nose, the position of the leash clip is not super important), or you can use your index and middle fingers, held straight and together as if they were taped to each other, to tap him underneath the chin. I have yet to see this technique fail, and, unlike other forms of correction using your hand, it does not result in a hand-shy dog. What you need to do is imagine a scale of 1-10, where level 1 is the 'softest' correction and level 10 is the 'hardest.' The first time you do this, you should do it at level 1. Then, each time you have to do it after that, you move up one level, then one more, etc. You do not start at level 1 each time, in other words. Basically, all you do is tap the puppy on the underside of the chin, after saying NO Bite, or whatever, when he nips at you. Then you immediately offer your hand or whatever part of your body he nipped at, for him to bite again! I know, that sounds crazy, but this is an important step - this is how he learns and figures out what the correction is for and how to avoid it in the future. When you offer your hand to him again, encourage him to bite it again, using your voice and saying things like, "You wanna bite? Go ahead, get it! You know you want to!" Most likely he'll chomp right down, at which point you tell him NO Bite again, and tap him under the chin with a level 2 correction. Repeat until he refuses to bite your hand when you offer it to him. That means he's figured out that biting earns him a correction, and he's made the right choice. So praise him and let him know he did good!

The next day, or even later on that day, he might have 'forgotten' this lesson, so you may have to repeat it again, but you should not have to tap him more than once or twice. You should begin at the level you left off at the last time. These taps do not have to be hard - you don't want to knock his block off! You just want them to be uncomfortable on an increasing scale. Everyone must do it, though, or else he'll figure out that he can get away with biting and nipping at everyone but you! **laugh**