dog behavior training

Different owners take different approaches to the classic situation of dogs begging for food. Some owners allow it, others don’t, but I suspect that the majority of owners have found it a problem at some point.

It is understandable but bad practice to allow your dog to beg for food while you are eating, with a few aspects of it listed here:

• By not allowing it from the beginning the problem would be avoided but anyone reading this has probably missed that opportunity - your dog’s behavior includes begging for food and you want to do something about it. Using treats as a reward is not going to work!
• The scent of food is a driver of your dog’s natural behavior; human’s food is not necessarily the right balance for a good dog diet in any case.
• You need to be the alpha, the established leader, in your dog’s natural “pack” mentality. This applies to all aspects of training and particularly here. Food is a key area in alpha behavior - the leader eats first and gets the best bits. So a part of any solution is to only feed your dog its normal food, after you have eaten, ideally with a break between your eating and hers, and in a separate area from where you usually eat.
• You must be absolutely consistent in your behavior about food with your dog. She only eats when you allow it. Making her sit before you present her with any food is a good reinforcing part of the training process.

Standard commands such as “sit” might work but not usually at the beginning and will also have to be reinforced, at least initially, with other measures, in a roughly ascending order of seriousness:

• Making sure she sits away from the table as a minimum
• Train her to go to her own area
• Put the dog on a leash and tie it to something distant from where you are eating
• Put her in another room while you eat

With persistence, consistency on your part and some time and patience, these measures should break the bad habit.