Do you have an aggressive dog? Do your dogs become aggressive when you touch them, grab them, trim their nails, or bathe them properly? It is not really good parenting if your dog doesn’t allow you to do such things and it may lead to an accident. So to fix this problem we will teach you how to touch your dog’s body parts by doing this amazing Dog Handling Exercise.
Dog Handling Exercise is a must-do thing for every dog parent. Many of us try to grab our dogs in any way possible and love them like we do with our kids. Some dogs allow their owner to do so while others don’t. They simply react aggressively or sometimes they even bite. If you ever noticed your dog not letting touch their ear or paws.
Or maybe try to bite you while trimming their nails then it is clear that the dog didn’t learn that all these human moves are safe. So, today we will share with you some effective Dog Handling Exercises that will give you full control over your dog. So, let’s learn how to handle your dog better with these simple dog-handling training for puppies and dogs.
What is Dog Handling Exercise?
I have seen in many videos that people try to love their dogs while grabbing them on their faces or hugging them tightly and that ends with an aggressive reaction but it is not the dog’s fault. Do not expect them to act like a human when you leash them all the time and don’t teach them how humans actually behave.
I have also noticed that many pet parent never even communicate with their dog and still let their children play with them freely which is very risky. Dogs don’t know anything from the beginning. It is your duty to teach them and let them learn what kind of behavior is safe and acceptable.
So, this Dog handling training is to teach our dogs how humans may behave while they are curious, loving, or simply handling them as a pet. And during these times, your dog don’t have to get angry as all these moves are completely safe and for their own good.
Unlike this kind of untrained dog, some other dogs including mine never do anything like that. Do you wonder why? It is because these dogs accept their parents completely and allow them to touch or do anything they like and You can do this with your dog too. Today in this guide, we will give you some of the best training tricks and exercises for handling your dog so that you can love your dog without having any fear.
Note: It is always much better to do this training with your dogs while they are still a puppy. You can easily make them learn. But these dog handling exercises can also be done with an adult dog.
Benefits of Puppy Handling Exercise
There are a whole lot of things that will get easier when you train your dog or teach your dog what behavior is actually normal and acceptable.
- You can touch or grab your dog in any way possible.
- It will allow you to trim their hair, and nails, or give them a bath without any problem or resistance from your dog.
- After this training, your dog will learn about human behavior and will become closer to you.
- It will also make sure that even if a kid is playing with their face, ear or tail, your dog will not react poorly.
There are many other things that will simply become easier if you teach your dog these dog-handling exercises.
Dog Handling Exercise: Touch Your Dog Anywhere
So, you may have wondered that these are some hard-to-do and time-consuming training but it’s not. All you need to do is sit down on the floor with your dog and spend some time with him/her by doing some playful tasks which will let your dog accept you more and you will be able to touch your dog’s any body part.
In this below guide, we are going to list some dog handling exercises. Try doing these exactly as it is mentioned and you will see results in 7 days.
Note: All these Dog Handling Exercises should be done in every training session. Like when you are ready, simply sit with your dog and perform each one of these dog handling training for 5-10 minutes and move on to the next.
Play With Their Face
Simply sit down with your dog and ask them to sit with you. Now slowly touch the common area you touch like the head and neck. If they don’t react, say yes and give treat.
Now, slowly do the same with their whole face, like their chicks, neck, nose, under the chest, near the throat area, etc. Wherever you can reach, safely slowly touch them massage them very lightly, and treat them if they do not react poorly.
If your dog is already aggressive then touch them in a playful way and remember to not to be so dominating while touching them. Give them the space they need and do these exercises in a slow manner at first.
You have to be very gentle and perform every training by communicating with them, like doing some playful activities or giving treats at first. Remember not to give treats so much.
Massage their back and down part:
After you are done playing with their face, just ask them nicely to sit and start massaging their back and slowly continue to their belly area and tail. Your main goal is to let them learn that touching each other is very safe.
If your dog is reacting then do these one part after another. First massage only their back for a while and treat them then slowly.
Massage Belly
For the belly part, nicely treat them once and then make them lie down on their back. This is a completely submissive position and doing this should be easy with puppies but hard with aggressive untrained dogs.
So, if your dog is untrained and aggressive, be careful and treat them and let them know that this is fun by vocalizing and making fun noise, or maybe shaking some of their favorite toys.
While your dog is lying down, go down to the belly and try to tickle for 2 sec and laugh or make some funny reaction to them so that they know you are playing with them just like any dog or puppy does and after a successful session, say yes and treat them.
Move to their Legs and Feet
After some moment, leave the belly and move on to the legs. First start itching their leg lightly on their upper leg part and massage them a little bit, also slowly do down while massaging. If your dog is grawling, reacting, and pulling paws then you should leave it for a minute but make sure to continue the exercise with their other body parts like belly, back, or face.
Try again and again and try grabbing the leg with both hands at some point. Hold their upper leg then hold their lower leg and if they do not react at all, Say Yes happily and treat them.
After that, go down to their feet and nicely massage their under feet, spread their toes a little, pull them, and massage them. Do it very individually one after another by noticing their reaction. Now this carefulness is very much applicable for dogs that behave very aggressively, otherwise, you can just be comfortable and continue these dog handling exercises.
So, while grabbing their legs and massaging their paws, try squeezing their paws, playing with them, bringing them to your face, and blowing on their paws with your mouth. Just do all the fun activities and keep doing all of them until your dog feels no more excitement but bored. When they get kind of bored and let you do whatever you want, Say Yes and Treat them nicely.
Massage their Private Parts
Now that you are done with their face, back, belly, and paws, the next body part you should normalize touching is their private parts and tail. Just go down there and start touching them lightly. If your dog isn’t reacting, start massaging it and keep doing it for a while. After a successful session, say yes and treat them.
After all that, again make them lie down on their back, hold the back leg, and spread to have a good look at their private part and belly areas and see if they react. Do this again by being a little dominating, touching their genital parts, and moving them to have a good look in every corner. Normalize these touching by continuing it as an exercise. This will help you not only get more acceptance but also if they get any injuries or diseases, you can look at it nicely.
Grab the Collar and Hold still
Last but not least is to teach them to hold still. This one is useful for every situation whether your dog is not listening to you, or you may need to look at their face for any injuries, or it just behaves aggressively and you want it to hold still in front of the guest.
To do this Dog Handling exercise, just grab the collar tightly and pull up making their face upward and sit in a really nice position. Don’t let them lay down or move. Prevent them from doing anything but sitting by grabbing the collar tightly.
Now slowly take your face near your dog’s face and look at their eyes directly. If they behave normally, say yes and treat them. Also, get very close to their ear and look at it, take your hand to their mouth and touch their teeth, or try to open the mouth to have a good look at it.
First, try gently and then repeat the process until your dog stops reacting and gets in a comfortable position. When you are satisfied, Say Yes, and give a treat.
So, these are some Basic Dog Handling Exercises to do to teach your dog acceptance of their owner. You can learn more of these tricks here in this Video Guide
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Final Words: Dogs are however animals. Even though we think they are little babies, they are still not humans and can not figure out our love language on their own. They can only figure out their genetic love language, behavior, and signs but they are a really good learner. If you teach them well, they can learn and behave accordingly.
So, to play with your dog more comfortably, handle them well, and make sure your dog poses no threat to anyone touching them unknowingly or knowingly, do these dog Handling exercises with your dogs today and learn How to touch any body part of your dog.
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