Train a Golden Retriever to Stop Snatching Treats

Duke and Hubert did great when I first met them. They were a little bit invasive of my personal space but did not do much jumping and instead we’re very much examples of why so many people get Golden Retrievers.

Golden Retrievers are wonderful dogs who are very people-centric. This makes them easy to train but you have to be mindful about what kind of training you’re actually doing. Goldens respond best to positive dog training. This applies to stopping leash pulling, teaching a dog to take treats gently, jumping up or any other task. Fortunately for Duke and Hubert, that’s all I do.

As we discussed the dog’s behavior, I noticed that the guardians would pet them every time they invaded their space, pawed at them for attention or jumped up. The problem with this is that for dogs, any attention is validating and therefore rewarding. So anything a dog is doing when you give it attention, or right before you give it attention, is what the dog is going to do more of.

This applies to desired behaviors like sitting, coming, laying down and also undesired behaviors like invading your space, jumping, charging the door or pulling on the leash. But it also happens when we give negative attention like telling a dog “no!”

This is because dogs don’t make a distinction between positive attention and negative attention. So disagreeing when they bark at the window or pulling back when they pull on the leash will cause the dog to continue those behaviors.

To fix this problem, I started off with the number of dog behavior fundamentals. We introduced a marker word and then went over how to use it to motivate the dogs to offer desired behaviors.

I like to call this lesson celebrating and it’s something I cover with almost every one of my in-home dog behavior clients. Simply put, it’s rewarding your dogs when they decide to offer the behavior that you want, without you asking for it.

As we wrapped up the celebration section, I noticed that the guardians were using multiple words for the same actions and the dogs were not responding consistently. I took a couple minutes to go over how to properly introduce a new command cue in a way that the dogs understand. This is an easy way to train a Golden Retriever because it puts the action into context for the dog.

Next we went over an easy way to train a Golden Retriever to stop jumping up on people. Some of this involves simply disengaging and holding still when a dog jumps up, but the other side of it is rewarding the dog when it offers a sit or a down. AKA Celebrating with good timing.

I noticed that the dogs would sit in front of their humans for a second or two before they jumped. I pointed this out to the guardians and they started petting the dogs as soon as they sat. The more they did this, the more the dogs started to remain in this sitting position. After all, that behavior was getting them the attention that they wanted.

This was a great example of how it’s usually easy to train a Golden Retriever. However, you need to factor in the dogs environment too. In this case, having two Golden Retrievers. Anytime there is competition, it’s going to motivate the dogs. Often this works against your greater goal.

In this house, the competition had caused was Hubert to start snatching treats from people before his roommate Duke could get them. They guardians wanted me to show them how to teach a dog to take treats gently.

I pulled out some high-value treats and then handed my camera to one of the guardians so they could record me as I went over how to train a Golden Retriever to stop snatching treats out of your hand. If you want to teach a dog to take treats gently, you should check out the video below.

It didn’t take long for Hubert to understand that he needed to stay there and wait for me to put the treat into his mouth instead of trying to snatch it out of my hand.

You want to avoid big movements when you’re trying to train a Golden Retriever or any other type of dog because they are responsive to motion. By going in the other direction and slowing things down, Hubert was content to sit there passively and wait for the treat. Helping the dog learn that being patient is important anytime you want to teach a dog to take treats gently.

Of course it helped that we put Duke outside so he could not try to take the treat himself. He didnt mean to teach a dog to take treats gently

Eventually I want the guardians to use this technique with Duke inside, but on a leash.

If they start off with Duke at a great enough distance and he is on the leash, Hubert will feel comfortable enough to wait for the person to put the treat into his mouth.

A core principal when you’re going to train a Golden Retriever or any other breed of dog is to make sure that they are motivated to want to do what you ask. In this case, removing competition needs to be at the top of their list.

But because the dogs live together, it will be important to practice this behavior in a controlled situation to make it a long term fix. By having Duke on a leash and far away, they set Hubert up for success. Then they can gradually start decreasing the distance. Over time, Hubert will practice being passive and taking a treat with Duke in the room.

Next we were ready to address one of the other issues the guardians wanted help with, leash pulling.

Like most Dog owners, Duke and Hubert’s guardians enjoy taking them out for a walk. However they do not enjoy the dogs pulling on the leash.

If you want to train a Golden Retriever to stop pulling on the Leash, you need to take away their motivation to pull. Goldens are very torque-y pullers being lower to the ground and having such a solid base. This trait is one of the reasons Golden Retrievers make great mobility service dogs, but can also make them super pullers.

When Im training a Golden Retriever or any breed, I like to set them up for success. When it comes to training a dog to stop pulling on the leash, removing the motivation to pull is key. When a dog is outside, everything is interesting. In fact, the number one mistake people make when trying to teach a dog to walk with a loose leash is practicing outside.

When we are hired to train dogs to walk with a loose leash, we always start inside. This really sets the dog up for success because it’s already sniffed everything. There’s no motivation to pull. This gives you the opportunity to train a Golden Retriever or any other breed of dog on the skill without the distractions.

I shared a couple of tips but at this point the dogs were a little bit tired. I recommended that we get the dogs enrolled in our program to stop dogs from pulling on the leash where we can focus on that skill independently. Walking with a loose leash isnt hard with our program, but we prefer to focus on that exclusively to get the best and fastest results.

In the meantime I recommended that they let the dogs sniff as much as possible on the walk. Sniffing is similar to watching TV or reading a book for dogs. As humans we have a tendency to pull the dog away when it catches the scent of something that is interesting.

But anytime you pull on a dog leash, the dog has no choice but to pull back. I recommended that the guardians give the dog enough Leash and follow them as they follow their nose.

Letting a dog sniff as long as it’s safe to do so is satisfying for the dog and prevents the human from teaching the dog to pull against them.

After sharing a couple of other loose Leash walking tips, we wrapped things up. To make sure the guardians remembered all of the positive Golden Retriever training tips we covered in this in-home session, I pulled out my camera to record a roadmap to success summary video that you can watch below.