Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has any experience training their dog to balance a treat or multiple treats on their nose. We are working on any sort of tricks that require restraint/patience, and I thought that might be a good one to start working toward. So far with regards to those types of commands, he is pretty good at leave it, excellent at wait, improving on heal, and pretty good at stay. However, when I try to move my hand toward his nose he really turns his head away pretty sharply a lot of times. This is especially true if any food is in my hand, as I think he has learned "leave it" a little too well, to the point that he won't even look at the food until I say he can have it. This makes it difficult to figure out how I will be able to place any food on his nose. Of course I don't expect him to be able to do this right away, but does anyone have any tips on how I could start working on this?

You could start with trying to have him lay down and place them on his paws. You could also try balancing a non food item on his nose until he gets used to having you placing something there, and then swap it for the treat.

Sometimes he will let me put them on his paws, but a lot of times he tends to move and they fall off (though he doesn't eat them). This is even if I say stay, as he will hold the position he is in but he may move to scratch himself. As far as balancing non-food items on his nose, he moves his head when I move ANYTHING near him, so that doesn't really work.

curious about this as well. loki will let me stack anything on his paws but he jerks his head up on the snout. there are times he lets hit happen and i hold his head in place. i used a 1, 2, 3 -- release for basically anything training related so that works. but its a 50/50 type of thing. im positive its all in time, and they will get it eventually