Hard mouth with treats

My boss' dog at work has a verrrry soft mouth when taking treats and when rough-housing, but today when I decided to try to teach her a trick for the first time (spin) I discovered she has a nasty, painful grab that feels much like being bit by a hamster. Not pleasant!

How do you train a dog to take things nicely in a training session? Every other scenario she has a very delicate grab.

She is probably grabbing the treat because she's excited. What I do is when I see them going to grab for the treat, I jerk my hand away and say "take it nice!" or you can say "gentle" or whatever works for you. I don't let them have it until they take it nicely. That's how we taught Benji to take treats nicely, and he used to be a little land piranha!

To teach puppies to take treats gently, I will hold a very smelly, soft treat between my fingers and offer it to them. The instant their teeth make contact, shriek/"NO"/wail in pain and turn away for several seconds. Then try again. After a few repetitions, most dogs get the idea that they must pay attention to what is a treat and what is fingers, or they are not getting any goods.

I keep the excitement level down and move slowly. I hold the food inside my fingers and make my hand limp. Rather than be hesitant, I tend to push forward into the dog's mouth just a little bit. I want them to know where my hand is and be gentle before I release the food.

Warning: This may not work with all dogs, so please be careful!

first hold the treat the right way. grab the treat between your thumb & first two fingers. now curl the fingers in so the treat is "protected" by the knuckles. most dogs will automatically go easy by seeing where the treat is and nibble to get at it. use this position w/ the techniques already mentioned.