Myth Busting: Messing with your puppy’s feet helps him get used to it.
MYTH
Randomly messing with your puppy’s feet, ears, mouth and tail will teach him to be okay with it.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way. Consider a human example:
You’re hanging out with your family, partner or roommate. All of a sudden, they reach over and pull your hair. “Ow! What did you do that for??” No explanation, but they do the same thing several times a day throughout the week. Before long, you take care to stay out of arm’s reach and if it looks like they’re reaching for you, you duck away. You may even take the offense and yell at or hit them before they touch you.
Randomly messing with your dog does not teach him to love handling. Instead, he’ll learn to either tolerate it (until his tolerance runs out), OR he’ll begin telling you, in no uncertain terms, to Knock. It. Off.
TRUTH
Teach your puppy or dog to love handling with a pattern of touch then treat. This teaches him that a touch predicts something yummy which makes the touch fun instead of a drag.
