How to teach a puppy to handle and touch

Sometimes puppies don’t respond well to touch. Meanwhile, it is necessary to accustom a pet to hands, because it is important for everyday manipulations like putting on a harness and wiping paws, and for hygiene procedures, and for hair care, and for treatment … How to accustom a puppy to hands and touching different parts of the body?

The principle of desensitization will come to your aid. An important rule: steps should be small, and encouragement should be large.

Rules for teaching a puppy to hands and touches

1. Selecting the correct stimulus value. It is important to find a point where the dog is already slightly tense, but not yet resisting. This is the beginning of the work.
2. Alternate this stimulus with a weaker one. Let’s say your dog tenses up when you touch his ear. This means that you either touch your ear, or touch neighboring areas that do not cause tension. After any touch, remove your hand and encourage. Then you leave rewards only for touching the ear. Achieve complete peace of mind of the dog.
3. Gradually increase the stimulus, adhering to the same pattern. For example, take your ear in your hand – let go, encourage. Just touch your ear – remove your hand, encourage. Then encourage only holding the ear in your hand. And then on the rise.

According to the same scheme, you accustom the dog to hygiene procedures (combing, cutting nails, etc.), veterinary manipulations (burying the eyes and ears, for example), examining the ears and eyes, and so on and so forth.

It is important not to rush and move on to the next step only after the dog perceives the previous stimulus quite calmly.

This technique is suitable not only for puppies, but also for adult dogs.