It’s really hard to resist this look, especially when it’s sent in my direction the entire time I am eating the PRECIOUS few calories I am allowed to enjoy each day.
Anyone else have tableside beggars? What do you do to discourage this behavior?
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The Happy Wag blog is a resource for pet parents in the Roanoke Valley, a local community forum of news and information about pets. Newsroom manager and columnist Nona Nelson's family includes four pets: retired racing greyhounds Coral and Melissa Moo, pit bull mix Stormy, and former stray cat Thai.
There is nothing you can do, except this one action – NEVER feed your dog while you’re sitting at the dinner table. Not ONE time. NEVER. If you do it just ONE time, then for the rest of the dog’s life, it is imprinted in its’ mind that there is the distinct chance you will feed it again. That includes anyone siting at your table. Lots of people think it is cute to feed a dog ‘just this once’. All you’re doing is teaching the dog it is proper to beg for food while you’re sitting at the table, and to beg from every person at that table. For the rest of the dog’s life.
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I’m not trying to sound harsh, but the choice is plain. If you think there’s a chance that you might some day tire of the dog staring you down for every meal the rest of its’ life, do not feed it from the table. If you’re okay with that, then feed it all you desire. There is no middle ground.
Put Stormy in a down-stay in the kitchen just behind the carpet line.
I have a cat, Chloe, who begs, even though she probably won’t eat a tidbit if I gave her one. She just like to hang on the edge of the table (or my arm) and watch us eat. My solution to her problem, and the same one I used when I still was a dog owner, was to feed them just before we all sat down. That way they are eating the same time you are.
Molly is a terrible beggar! Unfortunately, she is on a special diet that includes NO table food. She tries and cries, but most of the time a firm “No” will stop the noise. I still have to eat with her staring at me!
I have to agree with Crooked Road. When we got our dog two years ago, we made the decision from the start to never feed him people food. He gets dog biscuits and the occasional rawhide bone, but the only people food he ever gets is the kind he gets by accident, like when I drop something and don’t pick it up fast enough or when he Hoovers the carpet after we eat in front of the TV.
Sometimes I will drop something by accident and pretend I don’t notice and let him get it, but I figure if I never do it purposefully, he won’t be trained to think he gets people food. He does not beg at all when we eat.
We based this decision largely on experiences at another home where the dog bays at the dinner table the whole time you’re eating because it knows as soon as you finish, the owner is going to give it a plate of people food.
It’s highly annoying. They’ve even said the next dog they get, they’re doing it differently.
There are various methods to stop the dog from begging at the table, Lindsey. Maybe your friends could contact a local dog trainer to get some help.
I agree with Crooked Road. It’s very important to NEVER give in. Also, I have had quick results with two lab mixes we have had over the years. In addition to saying “no”, I maintain eye contact with the offending begger until they look away–and often leave. I use my firm, serious face–which they don’t usually see. I wouldn’t recommend staring down other dogs, but only your own pet that you’re comfortable with.
quickest/easiest is to have a spray bottle on the table…spay the critter each time it begs, while not looking at it…works on cats/dogs/pot bellied pigs…
I just put Cali outside when we eat to avoid it completely. The cat on the otherhand is a different story because she is indoor only. Usually if you ignore her she gives up and goes away. Sometimes I will give her a piece of something off of my plate I know for a fact she won’t like. That turns her off completely and she leaves.
All of this is very good advice. Usually our dogs know when we say “Go lay down”, we mean it and they desist from the sweet-faced begging. But sometimes, and usually those times seem to involve pizza, they are persistant.
Totally our fault for letting them know how wonderful pizza crust (or as we call it, “pizza bones”) really tastes.
Beverly, our friends would probably try to correct that behavior in their dog, but it has one foot in the grave (maybe two, actually) so I guess they figure they might as well let it live out the rest of its life being spoiled