What to do with puppy while we're eating??

[BetsyB]

hmmmm...okay, maybe then we'll just try doing it next time without tying her to the table. Do you think that will help? I know (in my head at least) that it just takes time and patience. Right now she doesn't really play by herself or occupy herself except for running around the house, but we'll see how it goes. As for teaching her "go to your spot" how would you teach that? We have Baylee in obedience class and she's doing really good and can do "lay" (down) no problem, but she won't stay yet - especially when we're doing something that she wants to be a part of! Ahhhh......puppyhood is exhausting!!

I think it will definitely be easier for her to relax and lay down without being tied up. To start with Go to your spot, you choose the spot you want her to stay in and have her lay down there. It's important that you work on teaching stay, as she will have to learn to stay for 30 minutes, or however long it may take you to have a meal. Treat her for laying there nicely and then go to the table yourself. If/when she gets up, and she will a LOT at first, calmly walk her back over to her spot and get her to lay down again. It will take a lot of patience, and walking back and forth on your part from the table to her spot, but have faith that she will get it. She is very young to be staying for a whole meal atthis point, so maybe for now you just want to encourage her to try it for a few minutes at a time. I know putting her in a crate will be much easier, but that way she isn't learning anything. You can't crate her everytime someone has a morsel of food. Much more effective to teach her what you want her to do than crating or tying her up so she can't bother you... JMO

 

[bayleebrndl]

BetsyB - Thank you, thank you, thank you!! As well as everyone else! I completely agree! I think the crating is a great idea and would definitely work, however I really want her to learn what she needs to do, instead of just keeping her out of our way! And exactly - I don't want to crate her everytime that someone has food out because ugh, what a pain! So, I think we will start trying this. I am more patient than my husband when it comes to things like this so maybe supper time will be my time to work with her and train her to go to her spot. I think the reason we started tying her to the table was mainly to keep her within eye sight - especially since who knows when she'll go potty on our floor. But she has been awesome at housebreaking so I'm not worried about that anymore. I think these are great ideas!

 

[rosiejeff]

We've had our puppy since she was 8 weeks old. For the first month or so, everytime we were sitting down for a meal, we would put her on the tie out steak outside....just to make it easy and give us some peace of mind. Well, for a couple of reasons, we no longer are doing that. The biggest reason is that we do not want to have to do this forever! Plus, we live in Wisconsin and it is now getting quite chilly so it is no longer a good idea. What are some ideas to help with this? Ideally we want her to just lay at our feet while we're eating. For the past month or so, we've put her on the leash and tied the leash to the table. It works okay because at least we know where she is, but she does still fuss and whine. We even put a bone or rawhide down for her, but she can only stand it for a couple of minutes. How do we teach her to stay by us while we eat, but not be jumping up on us either???

At dinner time Rocky smells all the food and follows me around the kitchen. I guess that's his way of saying, anything for me? LOL Normally I give him a treat that keeps him busy for a few minutes. Like the long peanut butter twist or the little desserts for doggies. Once his snack is gone, he just goes to lay down. He knows this is it, no more. So far this is working great for us. Maybe you can try it?
Good luck!
Rosie and Rocky

 

[lucasmum]

I've had this problem with Luca and we used to crate him while we ate but this obviously doesn't solve the problem so, instead of teaching him at supper, I started during the day, on my own at lunch, having a sandwich or whatever and teaching him that he is not allowed to pester while someone is eating. He now ignores me when I eat and gets a reward after. I usually eat lunch sitting at the computer, so we are now progressing to supper (at the table) and it seems to be working. Good luck.

 

[simmons]

hmmmm...okay, maybe then we'll just try doing it next time without tying her to the table. Do you think that will help? I know (in my head at least) that it just takes time and patience. Right now she doesn't really play by herself or occupy herself except for running around the house, but we'll see how it goes. As for teaching her "go to your spot" how would you teach that? We have Baylee in obedience class and she's doing really good and can do "lay" (down) no problem, but she won't stay yet - especially when we're doing something that she wants to be a part of! Ahhhh......puppyhood is exhausting!!

We are actually learning this in our class!!! Our trainer got a towel and laid it down. Put your dog in a sit-stay position a few feet away from the towel. Walk over and put a treat on the towel..walk over to your dog (who should be on a leash) and bring him to the towel and say place (something of that nature) Your dog should eat the treat, prasie. Have them lay down and treat..praise again.

This will take a while for them to learn, just practice a few minutes everyday outside of dinnertime. I think this is a neat thing for my dogs to learn so I have started practicing with them. You can also use thier dog bed or just a certain spot. I would put something down just so they get the hint that place means with this particular "item."

It's a good tool for the dogs to learn...if someone rings the doorbell or if you have a vistitor. Just stay persistent and patient

 

[K8IE]

Cooper also goes to his spot (his bed in the LR) while we eat. We just started walking him over and putting him in the bed and telling him to stay. If he got up during our meal, we would walk him back and tell him stay. Now he knows when we sit down to eat, that is where he belongs. It took many times of taking him back to his spot, but he caught on.

 

[IACPT]

Do you crate train? You should put her in her crate when you eat. We crate trained ours. They use to go in there to sleep, eat, or when we eat or when were not home. You have to keep in mind though the crate is not a type of punishment though so don't put them in there when their bad. Its their home, their safe haven.

I totally agree with this one. I am also a firm believer in crate training, especially when they are young. If done properly, the crate becomes their "safe haven". Leave the crate door open when they are out, and you will see that they will go in on their own when they feel they need some "time out". We too work all day, and Sissy does spend a lot of time in her crate, but when we get home, I let her out to play for about an hour, (while I'm cooking supper), then when we are ready to sit down to eat I put her in her crate to eat her own dinner. After a short nap I let her out to play for the rest of the evening.

Training him/her to go to his/her "spot" is an excellent idea as well. The only thing is that most puppies don't really retain a lot of information until they are about 4 months old, so the crate training is a good "fix" until you can really get into basic obedience training.