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Teach Your Dog to Enjoy Body Handling

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Body Handling Tips

How to Teach a Dog Body Handling
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Body handling is easily one of the most important behaviors to teach your puppy or adult dog. Dogs are not programmed to understand that humans looking into their ears, mouth and body is normal. Human handling frightens most dogs. Just like children, dogs need to be taught that body handling is rewarding.

Body Handling Goals

When touching or restraining your dog, you’re using the least amount of pressure possible. Basically, you’re not holding your dog’s head still. Rather, your dog is choosing to hold her head still while your hand rests on it. From another perspective, think about retraining zoo animals. There’s no way a human can restrain an elephant, but teaching an elephant to allow restraint is much easier than forcing him.

How to Teach Your Dog to Like Body Handling

You’ll need lots of super yummy treats, so don’t skimp here. Remember, dog training treats are your dog’s paycheck. You’ll also need some type of reward marker, so use a clicker or mark the behavior by saying “yes.”

Point and Click

In the beginning, click or say “yes,” as you’re reaching for your dog and then reward. Usually, when someone reaches toward his dog, this is a trigger that causes most dogs to shrink backwards away from pet owners. Start by pointing at your dog and, if she remains still, click and treat. Now, progress moving your pointed hand in small increments until you’re able to touch her side with your index finger. Once you’re able to touch her, click or say “yes” the moment your finger touches her. Then, draw your hand back and give her a treat.

Goal: Your dog remains still while you reach toward and touch her.

Touch Longer

Once your dog is comfortable with you reaching for her, meaning she will remain still and even walk toward you, it’s time to touch her longer. In the beginning, you quickly touched her and then immediately removed your hand away. Now, you’ll reach out and touch her, but hold the “touch” for a second. After five or six repetitions, end the practice session.

Goal: Reach out and touch your dog for 1-2 seconds.

Hand Touch

Now, you’ll reach out and touch your dog with your hand. As you place your open-palmed hand on your dog’s side, click or say “yes,” remove your hand, and give her a treat. After a few repetitions, end the practice session.

Goal: Reach out and touch your dog with your flat hand.

Restrain and Reward

Retraining means holding your hand against your dog, which prevents her from moving sideways. For some reason, we force our dogs to accept restraint, especially at the vet’s office or during nail trims. Trust me, it’s easier to teach a dog to enjoy restraint as a rewarding experience than force your dog to comply with it.

When teaching body restraint, move slowly and apply the least amount of pressure possible. Never force the issue. Soon, and with lots of practice, you can teach your dog to say “ah,” easily hold your dog’s leg for blood withdrawals, stand still while the vet examines her and so forth.

WATCH: Teach Your Dog to Enjoy Body Handling


It’s much easier to teach your dog to enjoy body handling than force her to comply–much easier.

Dog Handling: Teaching Your Dog to Say “Ah”

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Body Handling Exercises

Teaching Your Dog to Open His Mouth
Mouth exercises are important for good health and behavior. membio/Deposit Photos

Check your dog’s mouth and teeth a couple of times a week. You’re looking for plaque buildup or lodged foreign bodies. It’s important to teach dog body handling exercises early on so follow these quick tips on teaching your dog to say “ah”!

Using a clicker and yummy treats, remember to click and treat as you’re touching, lifting or opening. Practice for 1-2 minutes with breaks in between. Usually, steps 1-9 take 2 or 3 short sessions to teach. If at anytime, your dog refuses to open his mouth, go back to steps 1-5 for several training sessions.

  1. Using your index finger, touch the side of your dog’s muzzle. Keep clicker away from your dog’s ear. If that’s not possible, use a verbal marker “yes” instead.
  2. Lift the corner of your dog’s lip.
  3. Lift the other corner of his lip.
  4. Place your index finger in his mouth.
  5. Pull back his lips for a second.
  6. Place one hand across his muzzle (keeping your fingers away from his eyes and not applying any pressure).
  7. Place hand under his muzzle.
  8. Using both hands, open front of dog’s mouth. Click or say “yes” as you’re opening his mouth. Keep it short. Open, click, let go of mouth and treat.
  9. Open mouth for half a second.
  10. Extend duration (time) of mouth. Open slowly in small steps until your dog is comfortable for 2-3 seconds.
  11. Add a cue: Before moving your hands to open his mouth, say “Mouth.” Then, proceed to open and take a peek inside!

Mouth Work Means Less “Mouthing” for Puppies Too

Mouth work (touching and massaging gums and muscles of the mouth) works wonders for mouthing or nipping puppies too! Plus, give it a go for easily excited adolescent dogs (ranging between 6-18 months old). You’ll be shocked at the calming results.

How does it work? Using T Touch (Tellington Touch Training), you’re teaching body awareness using calming touch work, which promotes relaxation. Puppies and adolescent dogs have a tough time calming themselves so any opportunity to teach self soothing is highly beneficial.  

Points to remember:

  • Move slowly. Each tiny circle should take half a second to complete.
  • Use light pressure just enough to lightly move skin around. T Touch is different than massage. You’re not kneading muscles. You’re promoting relaxation and body awareness.
  • Teething puppies’ mouths are sore between 4-6 months. Instead try using T Touch around his neck and shoulders. Once all teeth have erupted, begin mouth work again.

Tellington TTouch Mouthwork for Dogs

Here’s a great video demonstrating T Touch for mouth work. Notice how slow and soft her hands move around the dog’s mouth?

Have you taught mouth work yet? If so, how did it go?

Dog Training Nation is a dog training blog for pet owners and dog lovers. We cover a range of topics from puppy socialization tips to dog aggression to dog health. It is our hope you share our content to make the world a better place for dogs.

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