Have you ever been in a situation where you were sitting down to eat your meal only for your dog to sit right next to you and fix his/her eyes on your food? That is most likely because your dog is begging for you to share with him/her whatever food you happen to be eating during a meal. It is certainly not unusual for dogs to act like that when they see that people are eating something.
Given just how lovely the dogs are as pets, it is easy for their owners to feel a sense of guilt when they don’t give their dogs the food they asked for. With that in mind, I am going to show you how to stop your dog from begging for food so that way, you can focus on eating your food from beginning to end without even having to worry about giving your begging dog something that you are eating. Here are three methods for how you can do so.
How To Stop Your Dog From Begging For Food With These Three Methods
1. Give Your Dog The Cold Shoulder
What you will want to do here is to give your dog what is called the cold shoulder. What I mean by that is for you to simply ignore your dog while you are eating.
So, if you are eating your food and your dog comes right up to you, you will want to avoid doing anything to engage your dog such as petting him/her, rubbing his/her head, or causally talking to him/her.
That is because if you engage your dog while you are eating, you are in effect telling him/her that sitting right there while you are eating will get your attention and he/she will just persist in begging you for food.
You will also want to avoid even making any eye contact with your dog, especially if you are eating on your couch and he/she is sitting right there with you.
If your dog starts to loudly whine as you are eating, then it may be time for you to take your dog to another room and shut the door until after you are done eating.
If you are living at home as a family, you will need to make sure that everyone in the family knows what to do so that they can coordinate the response to your dog’s food begging. That is because a lack of consistency among members of your family can undercut the effectiveness of this method.
2. Send Your Dog To His Dog Bed
For this method, I am going to show you how to command your dog to go to his/her dog bed. If you don’t already have a dog bed, then you will want to purchase one for your dog first. I would recommend that you get a dog bed that is thick and comfortable for your dog.
The PetFusion Ultimate Dog Bed is by far the best one I have seen out there. You will also want to have some yummy treats, like the Canine Carry Outs Dog Treats, on hand for rewarding your dog.
Once you are all ready to go, start out by showing your dog a treat so that he/she knows you have it. Then lure your dog until you two are right by the dog bed.
Once the two of you are there, say the word “bed” and then hold the treat right above the dog bed in order to lure your dog onto it. If your dog is all the way on his dog bed, immediately reward him/her with the treat.
Continue to repeat this a few more times. After a few successful training sessions, you will want to start slowly increase the distance that you and your dog are from the dog bed.
Continue to lure your dog to his dog bed if you need to, until he/she starts to associate the word “bed” with going there. You will also want to slowly increase the time that your dog stays on his/her dog bed before you reward him/her with the treat.
Ultimately, your goal is to send your dog to the dog bed with only the bed command if he/she bothers you about your food – even if the dog bed is in another room.
3. The Time Out Room
What you will be doing first for this method is to create a time out room. A time out room is designed to make it so boring for your dog that he/she won’t even want to go there.
To create a time out room, simply empty the room of anything that your dog will enjoy, like toys or treats. Once that is taken care of, go ahead and start eating something. As you do that, be on the lookout for clear signs that your dog is begging you for food.
If it is clear that your dog is starting to beg you for your food, take him/her to the time out room. Make sure that you do that promptly as so to ensure that your dog will associate his/her begging behavior with being sent to the time out room.
Once your dog is in the time out room, shut the door and leave him/her there for at least a few minutes. Once the time is up, you can let your dog back out.
If your dog comes back to you and begs you about your food, just repeat the time out process until the begging stops.
If you are living at home as a family, make sure that everyone knows about the time out method so that they can response to the food begging behavior in a coordinated manner. Otherwise, your dog will become confused and it will take longer for the behavior to stop.
There You Have It For How To Stop Your Dog From Begging For Food
These are the methods for you to go about how to stop your dog from begging for food. Don’t get me wrong, it’s ok for you to feel bad about not sharing a food or meal with your furry loved one.
But, I see a couple problems with you sharing your food with your dog. First, depending on what food you are eating, it may not be good for dogs to eat.
Secondly, if your dog eats more food than he/she normally gets in a day, it can lead to a more frequent or unpredictable need for him/her to eliminate his/her waste. So, it would be helpful if your dog doesn’t even beg for the food.
What are your thoughts? Does your dog ever beg you for your food whenever you are eating? Feel free to leave a comment below.