Chin rest

Your dog lays their chin in your palm and keeps it there — the calm position that turns eye drops, ear checks and the vet into cooperation instead of a wrestle.

🐾🐾 · ~7 days · 4 min/session

Step-by-step

1. Sit down at your dog’s level

   Sit on the floor or on a low chair and rest one hand palm-up on your thigh. Don’t call your dog and don’t show them anything — just wait for them to come over on their own. This position has to be their choice from the very first second, or nothing that follows works.

2. Slide the treat under your palm

   Hold a small treat between the fingers of your open hand so the nose comes in. As your dog sniffs, slide the treat slowly inwards and down so the head lowers and the chin settles onto your palm. Say “Yes” at the moment of contact and deliver the treat right there, without lifting your hand.

   💡 The palm stays still. Any upward move reads as a grab and the head pulls back.

3. Reward the weight, not the poke

   Early on many dogs poke or lick the hand — don’t mark that. Wait for the moment the chin truly relaxes and you feel the weight of the head in your palm. Reward only that, and after five or six reps the dog starts offering it on their own.

4. Hold one second, then five

   Once the chin is down, count in your head and feed one treat per second while the head stays there. Gradually thin it out: a treat every two seconds, then every three. End the rep yourself before the dog lifts their head — that keeps the position their own winning idea.

   💡 Three minutes is plenty for one session. This one is built with very short reps through the day, not with one long training block.

5. Add the word and lift your hand

   Once your dog drops the chin the moment they see the open palm, start saying “Chin” just before you offer it. Then move the hand off your thigh into mid-air, and later onto a rolled towel or a small cushion — so the position also works on the vet’s table. Reward each new height generously.

6. Connect it to a real check

   With the chin in your palm, hold one ear for a second, reward and let go. Next time look at an eye, then run your fingers along the neck — one new step per session. If the dog lifts their head, that is their “stop”: end the touch at once and try again later with something shorter.

   💡 Honour the lifted head every single time. That is what makes the position a conversation — the dog learns they have a say and starts coming back on their own.

Common mistakes

• Pulling the head onto the palm with your other hand — the position becomes something done to the dog and they start dodging it.
• Rewarding the nose poke — you end up with a dog that jabs your hand instead of resting the chin.
• Carrying on with a check after the dog has already lifted their head — trust is lost in seconds and rebuilt over weeks.
• Trying it for the first time in the vet’s consulting room — a new place plus a new behaviour is too much at once.

Problems & solutions

My dog just sniffs my palm and walks off.

The treat is too far in, or the hand is too high. Keep the palm low, at the chin’s natural height, and reward even a light touch. Train when your dog is a little hungry and nothing more interesting is going on in the room.

They put the chin down but lift it straight back up.

Your reward is late. Deliver the treat within the first half-second, while the head is still down, and feed it right at the palm so there’s no reason to lift. Only once ten reps run smoothly should you add another second.

It works at home, but at the vet my dog forgets everything.

The behaviour isn’t generalised yet. Do thirty-second reps in the yard, in the car and outside the clinic door, and ask your vet to let you use it during the exam. Arrive ten minutes early so there’s time for two calm reps in the waiting room.

Reward ideas

Small soft treats fed right at the palm so the head stays low. Add a quiet, calm voice — excited praise lifts the head and breaks the position.