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

My three dogs stay in the room when I cook/eat. They just curl up on the floor and sleep. Training them to ignore food other than when they're fed/training/being rewarded takes minimal effort tbh.

I don't know about cats though...

Wow I thought my dogs were hard work but reading some of the comments on here make me appreciate how well trained they are! One dog we've had from a puppy and the other is a rescue. Both have been trained to lie in their beds whilst we're eating - whether we have guests round or not. They usually get a little bit of leftover meat or fish when we have finished and are cleaning up and they know if they move from their beds then they don't get anything.

We have two cats, one is no problem at all, the other...let's just say he hears the word NO a lot 😀

He has to be shut out, he'd drive everyone mad. He is well fed and most certainly not hungry, he is just food obsessed. I love the idea of 'well trained cats' though, where do these mythical beasts live?

We have one cat. I don't let her in the kitchen when I'm cooking or we're eating. Same if we have guests. Otherwise she has the run of the house.

None of my animals (dog or cat) beg for food as I won't tolerate it. They are very firmly sent away if they try. I also don't allow people to feed them from the table as that is what creates the expectation of food and begging. They are never fed from a person plate, even after meals so have no expectation that person meals = pet gets fed.

There are two exceptions - cheese and BBQ chook. Both have a tax that needs to be paid upon opening 😃

I don’t get what you think is at all negative about this. Pets, visitors, and even children should be kept outside of certain rooms at certain times and it’s not cruel or unfair. If you’re having sex, sat on the toilet doing a poo, or having a heart to heart, do you have all the doors open with dogs wandering about? It’s fine

I've got two dogs who aren't food motivated at all and don't care what we're eating so they stay in the other room by default.

Then there's the borzoi. She's terrible. She counter surfs with her snoot and she's tall enough to hoover up crumbs and scraps from the counter if you don't watch her. She'll stand and stare into your soul whenever you're eating. She's a menace, so she generally gets shut in the other room during mealtimes.

I have, as my username suggests, a hungry beagle. He’s still young so in the process of being trained not to come looking for food when we’re eating. It’s proving somewhat challenging so far! He has never been fed from the table, but he still hopes something may be dropped!
Our last dog wasn’t bothered, he just lay on his bed while we ate.

Yup. None of our six dogs have ever been fed from the table so it's not an issue.

Personal preference i guess, I don't think it's cruel to lock them out. We have a dog and a cat, the dog has to be in his bed or at least lying down (in the same room) when we eat, we have a strict no feeding him from the table rule with the kids. The cat never bothers us when we eat but if she did try and jump on the table or anything I would shut the door on her

I love animals but they are animals and should be shut out if they are going to be a problem at mealtimes. I despize dogs and cats stealing food off plates, kitchen sides etc, we let them in to clear up crumbs off the floor after mealtimes. My mum is terrible though and used to let the cat eat off her plate when she was round, it was minging 🤮

When we got our dog, we did this as we thought it was the done thing. But over time we realised how pointless is it was as our dog is not that food obsessed and has good manners.

We don’t bother now, when we’re at the dining table we give our dog a treat on his bed. Where he pretty much stays. He might come over but we don’t mind as he does not go for our food/beg.

Absolutely YANBU.

Never shut my dogs away but I’ve never had a scrounging dog.
I see no problem with shutting animals out or not shutting them out.
Do what suits you .

We’ve never fed our dog from the table. He usually follows us in to the kitchen or dining room and lays down for a snooze. He is a bit of a shadow and likes to be where you are but never pesters.

If there are leftovers, he has them in his bowl after we have eaten.

One of my DD's, dog, a frenchy seems to save up her worst farts for when we are eating, so away from us she goes. My other DD's dog had a abusive/starved start and we haven't been able to train her out of scavenging. She has permanent dry food out to prevent anxiety. So she has to go away, or she is a trip/burn risk. My youngest has a cat, who, when curtailed in anyway will toilet in the most inconvenient places, usually shoes. A behaviour therapist would try to say it's anxiety, but he's just a twat, so isn't let in.

I have a very greedy and food orientated pooch.

We usually send him to his bed in the utility room while we eat at the table, otherwise he will lay down and stare at every mouthful we eat. No noise or whimpering, and no jumping, just watching.

That's our fault though, we spoil and feed him too much. On Sundays he gets his own mini Sunday dinner, and we move his food bowl from the utility to eat next to us at the table.

When we have guests over we shut him out though, but they usually end up asking for him to come in! 😅

Depends on the dog. When I was growing up, our dogs were fairly well trained not to pester us for food at the table, so it wasn't necessary to lock them out. Also they were small terrier types, so even if they'd been prone to begging, they simply weren't big enough to get anywhere near the food. They might have nosed around your chair a bit, but a stern 'Go AWAY' generally did the trick.

By contrast, my sister has two very tall dogs, both rescues, and one of them was starved in her previous home, so is obsessed with food. Her nose is basically at table height and she just can't control her impulse to beg/pester/steal, so my sister's dogs both get shut out of the room during meals.

None of us have ever fed dogs from the table. They did occasionally get suitable scraps (eg meat and veg from a Sunday roast) but that was in their own bowls after we'd eaten.

When we have people over for food we always put our two cats in another room.

Personal preference, I think. My dogs have all been trained to stay away while we're eating, so it's not necessary. 🤷‍♀️

We have 2 labs. Absolute food hounds. But when we send them to bed, they stay there, possibly drooling, but there they stay.
They also never get into the dining room, so if we have guests in there, they just go to their beds in the kitchen.
Its training and reinforcement, and ensuring that visitors do not break the rules and feed them either, which is the hardest bit.

My cat isn't interested in human food so he's welcome to stay in the room while we eat.