How to Teach a chin rest
Teaching your dog a chin-rest behavior is useful for training shy, overly excited, or reactive dogs. It is also helpful building cooperation during medical procedures (vaccinations, medication administration, and eye and ear care), and grooming. Here's how to teach this behavior:
Training steps
- Present your hand, palm-up, underneath your dog’s chin. Click when your dog’s chin makes contact with your hand. Repeat, offering clicks/treats rapidly.
- Once your dog is touching his chin to your hand reliably, add duration. Ask your dog to hold chin contact for 1 second/click, 2 seconds/click, etc. Increase the duration progressively until your dog is able to hold his chin in your hand calmly.
- Begin adding distractions (for example, move your other hand around the dog’s field of vision) and click for holding still.
For more useful training tips, check out our blogs and our Dog Trainer Foundations course!
Happy Training!
EXPLORE OUR DOG TRAINER COURSES
Improve your knowledge of positive dog training,
build a stronger bond with your dog,
or advance your career in dog training;
we'll support you every step of the way.