All Hands on Deck!
The importance of how we are using our hands

Co-written by Shandie Roberts & Justin Alexander, CPDT-KA & Photographed Above

Hands should be a promiser of generosity, not enforcers of discipline. In our experience, it is best practice to reserve our hands for a set of interactions we affectionately refer to as 2 Ps and a T, which are:

Petting
Playing 
Treating 

We discourage using our hands to:

-Move our pet by the collar
-Push them off of our body, bed/couch, counter, or table  
-Catch their paws and set them on the ground. 
-Apply force to their shoulders or rear end to make them lay down or sit. 
-Cup our palm around their muzzle e.g. when they bark. 
-Administer any physical punishment.

Period.

If the use of our hands falls outside of these interactions, then it will most likely be for restraint or potentially less than exciting exercises. We could certainly group exercises for actions performed at the vet or grooming facility into this category, as well. In fact, we didn’t realize how useful the skill of being held down comfortably on their side is until we personally assisted with our own dog’s X-rays! The idea here is that our pet is given a prize for experiencing an unpleasant or undesirable sensation, or state of mind. We like to do this slowly, repetitively and over time.

Ensure your pet's veterinarian and/or groomer is aware of and on-board with your narrowly defined objectives. Other common applications include gently grabbing our pet's collar (emphasis on “gently”) or “dressing” our pet with equipment or clothing that has to, by design, come over their head. Such as a harness, cone or that cute sweater you've been eyeballing at your local pet supply store. 

It benefits us to remember that luring, bribing, or otherwise "tricking" our pet into offering behavior or entering a situation that makes them feel vulnerable with no obvious payoff holds the potential to “poison” the reinforcer (treat, toy, etc...) we're using to lure.

In the simplest of terms, we find that our pets (obviously) respond to us best when we have built functional, respectful and, above all, trusting relationships with them. The most efficient way of obtaining this type of relationship is by using our hands for only positive interactions. We like to keep our hands as "clean" as possible.