03/28/2024
āSettle on a matā is hands down the most important and versatile skill Iāve trained!
Dog Training Thought of the Day: Begging and Food Manners
"If you never feed a dog from the table, they'll never beg for your food."
Maybe you've heard this statement before. And maybe this philosophy worked for you! Certainly, dogs are often adept at understanding when desirable things like People Food are unavailable to them. But as I've discovered with my rambunctious young puppy, sometimes dogs are simply persistent!
So, what can we do when we have a dog who will try to climb on the table EVERY time they smell food, even if they've never been successful at acquiring said food? The counter surfers, the dogs who climb into your lap when you're eating, or the ones who will try to sn**ch food right off your fork?
There are two stages to changing this behavior. First, management. This means making sure counters are cleared of food (or removing your dog's access to places food is stored), and putting your dog in their crate or a different room when you are trying to eat. Management doesn't change behavior on its own, but it does prevent the undesirable behaviors from occurring while you work through a training plan!
Second, we need to teach the dog appropriate ways to access food. This means rewarding acceptable behaviors whenever food is present. If dogs smell bacon cooking, of course they will want a sample! But it might not always be appropriate for your dog to eat everything you do. So while our rewards might not be exactly what we are eating, we do need to reward desirable behaviors around food WITH food.
Here are some examples of behaviors you can train to encourage your dog to develop better habits around food:
šNose down behavior. Set good smelling food on the counter or table, out of reach of the dog, and scatter some dog-appropriate treats on the ground. Then let your dog into the room and encourage then to sniff around the floor for treats. Practice until your dog has a habit of checking out the floor first whenever they enter the room. Then, stage only your good smelling food on the table/counter, without pre-placed treats. When your dog comes into the room and checks out the floor first instead of the counter, reward then by tossing treats on the ground. This exercise teaches the dog that elevated food is inaccessible, but they can more easily find food elsewhere!
šGive the dog a place to be. Mat training is a great way to accomplish this goal, which is essentially to teach the dog where you want them to be when food is present. For example, when I'm cooking my dogs are trained to lay on mats in the kitchen. I occasionally reward them when they're laying on their mat, and they never get food when they're not on their mats. This makes it very clear to them how to access food while I'm cooking. Another example teaching them to lay under your chair or table - a great step toward taking your dog to dog-friendly restaurants!
ā³ļøMake a routine. If we are predictable in our habits, our dogs have an easier time understanding the rules. Dogs learn that Step 1 predicts Step 2. For example, if you cook dinner, then give your dog a nice long-lasting treat in their crate, and you do this every time, your dog will learn that Step 1-Cooking leads to Step 2-Enjoyable crate time. You might even find that your dog starts waiting in their crate for their treat whenever you cook dinner!
[Image Description: A close up of a plate full of bacon, French toast, and a sunny side up egg on a table. A Welsh Springer Spaniel puppy's head is seen popping up from the top right, with her nose dangerously close to the breakfast plate.]
