Pets Locked Out While Eating a Meal

[mydrivingisterrible]

Just interested really. When I was a child we had a dog and he was allowed everywhere except while we were eating. My mother had a very negative image of having an animal in the room (usually kitchen) while we were sitting down to dinner as the dog would clearly be interested in the human nosh (people feeding a dog scraps from the table would be enough to turn her stomach). So, for the duration of the meal he was locked out.

All these years later and I have to admit I'm every bit the same as my mother. I've got a cat and she's a real charmer, but moment dinner is ready she's on the other side of a locked door so we can eat in peace.

YABU - don't look animals out
YANBU - lock animals out

Animals belong outside anyway, eliminating this dilemma.

our cat is completely disinterested in us eating so never been a problem. We keep the dog out when the kids are eating as he does look mournfully at them but has never actually tried to take something of a plate. He’s in the room when we eat later but is trained to go lie on the armchair and not disturb us. We have never fed him anything off our plates or any “human food”.

My dogs know they won't get anything while we're eating, I mostly forget they're even in the room as they don't take an interest in food until they hear their bowls being moved around.

I just hope you don't have any pets, what's the pojnt if you don't want to share your space with them?

Working animals, livestock & horses fair enough, but a hamster outside wouldn't last long in the UK.

@justaboutdonenow

We have a dog and 2 cats. We love them but they belong outside.

Our animals are all allowed in the room while we eat - they don't bother us so I can't see the issue with it.

If they were badly trained then that would be different.

Our 13yo cat has recently started putting her paw on us to ask for food. We shut her out whilst we’re eating now.

I fully get the idea of not wanting a dog begging for scraps. But the way dogs are, if they are locked out during meals it probably makes them all the more exited about what's going on in there. If they were released, they would go absolutely mad and swipe the whole roast off the table!
I feel it's better to train them so they don't bother you while you eat.

As for cats, I have never experienced a cat harassing me for food off my plate. My cats do jump on the table in the kitchen but never while we are eating or preparing food. A well fed cat will have no interest in scraps from the table I would have thought.

We trained our puppy from 4 months to lie down on his “place” mat, close enough for him to feel near us but further enough away for no begging.

We then moved him to behind a baby gate as he got bigger.

I actually don’t mind dogs sitting/lying down at the table if they’re well behaved. But ours is a big breed and notorious for their love of food so despite being well trained I don’t think I’d ever 100% trust him not to snatch something if he saw an opportunity 😂

We had labradors, so yes there's no way they were allowed in the dining room

My dog stays in the same room and doesn't bother us while we're eating. She gets up from her bed when we're tidying up though, in the hope of any leftovers being tipped into her bowl.

Our dog would whine the place down if we tried to shut him in a separate room to us, but we have a strict rule about never ever feeding him from the table so he doesn’t bother us while we eat, despite being a greedy little bugger!

My cat sits on the table next to me while I eat. I’ve always trained my cats not to go on the table, and this one was no exception. But now she’s old and frail she’s decided she has to be close to me all the time and this includes next to my face at meal times.

I let her get away with it. She’s not interested in the food, she just wants to be close to me and involved. She doesn’t bother anyone else, just sits there, neatly and quietly.

If we have guests I’ll either remove her, or if they’re cat friendly and I know they won’t judge, I just say I’m sorry, I know this is terrible.

I love that you've made adjustments for her being old & frail to make her happy.

So many people seem to find their elderly pets a burden, but their time with us is precious & limited, we should treasue them while we can.

Do you spend any time with them? Or just love them from afar?

Your cat does not walk into a crate on demand 😂😂😂

You must mean a dog

I don't lock them out as there's no need to, they don't beg for food. All in the training (for dogs - no idea about cats).

We had one dog, a rescue, that had to be locked out as she’d ripfood out of your hands.

our current dog we trained as a puppy not to beg ….during lockdown, as soon as friends and family visited we realised it wasn’t the puppy tha5 needed train8ng. She now begs but it’s a very discrete nose nudging your leg and just to visitors, not us. We send her to her bed if she’s irritating people.

the, old man cat, never showed any interest in people food, and would walk away if offered it. He’s now picked up begging from the puppy, and he’s not subtle, he gets locked out. Again he begs from visitors not us.

My dog lays under the table, hoping a tasty titbit might be dropped.
As soon as we move, he runs into the kitchen, grabs his metal bowl in his jaw and starts banging it on the floor until we put something in it for him.

We always had labradors. We just trained them and had strict rules about never feeding them at the table. Exceptions were in a pub, they might get a chip or two at the end of a meal but only after we'd finished, not before.

When we were eating they'd lie down under the table or by the door and did not disturb us or pester. Once we'd finished they'd get quite excited if we told them to go to their bowls (any scraps went into their bowls in the boot room, again we never fed from the table when at home).

We never shut any of our dogs out when we were eating.

Why not? Labradors can very easily be trained to lay down quietly while you eat.

I have three cats and I mostly lock them out.

They are all very interested in human food and I got fed up to trying to defend my dinner against all three of them.

When our cats were kittens we had to lock them out as they knew no boundaries and it was impossible to eat in peace! Now they are fine. No problems with our dogs ever.

We had to lock the kittens out when they were tiny, as they literally hurled themselves at the table/us and it got a bit boring fishing them off your plate.

But now they are almost 1 they don’t need locking out and don’t interfere with meals, they even sleep on a dining chair sometimes whilst we eat. It took a lot of “No” and putting them down and repeat 999 times but we got there.

My cats don’t beg for food so it’s not such an issue, they’ll come and have a look at my food but if I tell them no then they’re off to do other things.

When I got with my DP I found it so strange that he ate all his meals very fast, stood up in his kitchen. It was only when I started eating with him and I’d sat at his kitchen table with his two dogs in front of me watching my every move that I realised that he had (without realising) adapted to this by eating so quickly stood up!

So yes, dogs definitely need to be shut out.