How do I manage a VERY foodie puppy?

[littlepeas]

We have a 19 week old golden retriever - he is gorgeous and overall we are thrilled with him, but mealtimes are very frustrating. He is completely obsessed with food. We are feeding him Millie's Wolfheart (the middle amount of the range for his age/weight) and then he has various training treats (mainly cheese). I always feed him at the same time we are eating, but he wolfs it down in seconds and then comes to bother us………he constantly jumps up at the table, trying to pinch stuff off plates! He understands 'off', but he just ignores any training commands in these circumstances - if I put him in the garden he barks and barks (not fair on neighbours), same if he goes into his crate (we eat in the kitchen, which is also where his crate is). I have had minor success with giving him a chew, which he will run off into the garden with, but this only works sometimes and he hasn't actually learned anything about not annoying us while we are eating.

Also, at puppy training, he is so overwhelmed by the presence of so many treats that he is just a complete nightmare the whole time - pulling on the lead, jumping up, just general craziness - he IS learning very quickly and well, because he wants the treats, but I have no real control over him while we are there. He is much more calm when we practice at home, so at least that's something!

He has just repeatedly jumped up at me while I sat eating my lunch - I turned myself away from him and ignored him, but then he started barking at me instead!! Yesterday my ds left his cereal bowl on the kitchen table while we left the room for a few minutes, and when we came back the dog had climbed onto the table and was lapping up the leftover milk!

Does anyone have any ideas? Or at least, please tell me he will grow out of it?

What we did with our pup was to teach him how to settle on his mat during mealtimes

First of all we got him happy settling on his mat, then added the distraction of mealtimes

Before he was reliably settling we'd pop him in his crate with a kong or chew - we'd cover his crate as well so it was all cosy and den-like and he was perfectly happy

Look online for tips on how to encourage settling

Oh and to stop counter-surfing just make sure there's never anything on the counters/table for him to help himself to- dogs are opportunists and will do what works. If there's never any point in jumping up he'll stop - but even if jumping up only works 10% of the time it'll always be worth a try

At training classes we had to hide treats away and then he'd focus better

He's a Goldie so I'm afraid they remain pretty foodie for life :D BUT that doesn't mean he can't learn some manners

At dinner times I'd recommend getting him used to settling in his crate or a mat with a kong - you can put his dinner in them and it'll take him a bit longer to eat it, or have a look at the various puzzle feeders you can get. If you want to challenge him you can always create a food treasure hunt for him in the garden too. It might be worth getting the book "Control Unleashed" or the puppy version which is all about teaching them how to self settle with only positive reenforcement

In terms of jumping up and begging, you need to make sure he can't get anything off the sides or table as the poster above said or you end up rewarding the behaviour. If he's really foodie then you'll probably find clicker training him gets the fastest results because it encourages them to think about how they earnt the last treat rather than treats appearing and them not really realising how - it might be worth a few 1-2-1 classes with him before you graduate to a class of more than one puppy, you want to set him up to always do well so baby steps.

Have you tried a kong wobbler or bob-a-lot We gave these to our puppy with his dinner in and it kept him occupied. Added bonus was that it took at least half a hour to finish his dinner rather than 30 seconds flat from the bowl!

Some really great advice here - thank you. He has shown remarkably little interest in his kongs, but I have filled one up with some wet food I have for him (which he adores) and put it in the freezer and will try that in his crate while we are eating tonight. He is quite bright and has learnt everything taught so far very quickly - no doubt down to his enormous food motivation - but when it comes to us eating around the table it completely goes to pot, I am guessing because the lure of the food on the table overwhelms everything else? I am using a clicker with him - should I be incorporating this into mealtimes (click when he puts paws on the floor?), but then I don't want to reward him with food from the table at all, as I feel this may make things worse. He even knows to sit near my youngest, as this is where he can hoover up the most 'droppings'.

What about upping his food allowance to the highest amount for his age/weight - he may just be hungry....

Kong was reasonably successful! We had a few short bursts of barking, but it was much better!

I am pretty sure he isn't hungry bagel, just food obsessed, which I think is fairly typical of the breed - his behaviour is different when he is genuinely hungry (following me around whining, rather than just becoming chirpy at the sight of any food). I am not keen to up his kibble too much further, as he also gets lots of treats for training, but I could try a few extra grams and see if it makes any difference.

For now I wouldn't have him in the same area as you eating - set him up to do well :) I'd also be tempted to teach him "Leave it" as you can incorperate this into teaching food manners too - once he knows leave it, work on having some boring kibble on the table and super tasty food with you - leave it for the food on the table and huge reward from you/somewhere else - if you want him to completely disassociate the food from you eat, you can buy something that would work .. one is called manners minder but I can't think of the name of the almost identical cheaper one