Building trust with your new puppy is one of the most important things you can do after you bring them home. One of the best ways to build a bond with your puppy is by hand-feeding them. Not only does it help them trust you, but it can also make training easier and foster a good temperament. There are many benefits to hand-feeding your puppy, helping them grow into well-mannered adult dogs. Below, we’ve explained the main reasons to build this bond with your puppy.
Builds Trust
Hand-feeding your puppy builds a stronger bond with you, telling your puppy that good things come directly from you. Your presence will be associated with calmness and food, creating a positive association so they’ll trust you quicker. It will also teach your puppy to pay attention to you and engage with you more, especially if they are nervous around people. Hand-feeding will help them trust you more and can help build a positive association with new people if you let your friends and family hand-feed them as well to build up their socialization skills.
Makes Training Easier
Hand feeding is great for practicing basic obedience skills. It turns regular kibble into training rewards for basic cues like sit and stay. With hand feeding, mealtime can double as training time. When food is involved, your puppy will pick things up quicker as they’ll focus on you more. This will help with dogs who are easily distracted as they start to understand that good things come from you. You’ll build respect with your puppy as you won’t have to bribe them with treats or harshly correct them when training. They’ll learn to understand that if they do the trick you want, they’ll get the reward.
Teaches Impulse Control
Gulping food can be dangerous for dogs, so you want to make sure they have healthy eating habits. Hand feeding tells fast eaters to be calmer and wait patiently for food instead of gulping it. If your puppy licks or paws at your hand while you try to feed them, it’s a sign that you need to work on impulse control. This teaches patience around food and controls meal pace so that they eat more slowly.
Closed-Hand Feeding
We’ve found that closed-hand feeding works well for impulsive puppies. Keep your hand closed with the food until your dog stops pawing at it. When they back away and calm down, open your hand to give them the food. This teaches them that when they have self-control, they’ll get to eat sooner.
Teaches Bite Inhibition
Puppy teeth can be sharp, and they don’t know the strength of their jaws, causing them to bite harder on your hands when you feed them. Teach “gentle” and “easy” commands to your puppy when feeding to help them learn bite inhibition. This is a critical skill for puppies to learn, as reactive or accidental snaps will cause less harm. As you practice hand feeding more, the puppy will eventually learn how to take the food from your hands gently. They’ll learn to have a soft mouth to control their jaw pressure for safer eating, playing, and socializing.
Prevents Resource Guarding
Resource guarding is when a dog protects a prized item or space and doesn’t let anyone else get into it, even their owners. If you try to get into their space, they can bark, growl, or snap at you. Hand feeding helps a resource guarder know that you are a safe person to be in their space. Dogs who trust their owners around food won’t resource guard as much. Hand feeding is the best way to feed a resource guard, as if you use a food bowl, the puppy can associate the reward of food with the bowl rather than with you. This can cause your puppy to resource guard their food bowl, making them aggressive when you go near it. Hand feeding reinforces the idea that you are the gateway to good things.
Find Puppies with Blissful Paws
Hand feeding has many benefits that strengthen the bond between puppy and owner. If you’re ready to grow your furry family, Blissful Paws is the place to be. Find available golden retrievers, golden doodles, and mini goldendoodle puppies looking for a loving home with us today. Check out some tips for caring for your new puppy on our puppy care page. When you’re ready to get started, contact us!
