How to train a dog to “go to bed” at meal times

[SmirkoffOnTheRocks]

My dog can be a pain at mealtimes; he tries to sniff at meals, jumps up and heaven forbid you have smoked cheese .... he will bark and bark.

I really want to crack down on this nonsense now. I hear of other dogs just knowing to go to bed at meal times .

How does this work?

I think in dog training advice and support (Facebook) they recommend that as puppies you don’t leave them alone at meal times but adults take turns playing with pup while others eat. Then during training sessions you eat a snack at the table and fling them a treat every now and then while they stay in basket. Then once they have learnt to stay in basket during times that humans are eating you can all eat together again while they sit in basket.
Although I do wonder how to phase out flinging them a treat

Why phase out the flinging a treat? No harm for them to be rewarded for sitting quietly whilst you eat. What you can do is increase the time between the treats.

Some dogs will get so bored they will fall asleep waiting for the treats, or you could feed your dog their meal in a kong whilst you are eating and then no treat flinging.

The dogs generally learn to be patience and wait longer for the treats BUT do remember that just because they are giving you the behaviour you want do not ignore the dogs, reward them for being brilliant . You will then have a really well trained and happy dog.

OP is your dog loves smoked chees that is fab use it in tiny pieces to reward him when he is on his bed.

You could use a mat next to your chair when you are eating to say flinging food miles across you house if you prefer.

As umbrella says start the training when you are not eating so less distractions

We say "go to bed" and she goes to bed. She may or may not stay there 😂. No idea how we got her to do it, it's just what we expect of her.
She wouldn't dare to jump up at the table, but would saunter past a plate left on the foot stool and swipe something if it looked tasty

We never ever feed the dog at the table. He doesn’t bother bitching at me until I take the plates into the kitchen!

I’ve just spent 10 minutes with him and some smoked cheese , teaching him go to bed. He picked it up really quickly

I’m feeling totally overwhelmed by training and what we need to work on. His training has been a bit neglected over lockdown whilst we’ve been working and home schooling etc.

Do you think if I make a plan and I do it every day for 6 weeks, I’ll see an improvement?

Absolutely, they pick it up really quickly if you're consistent. I never feed the dog during dinner but give her a treat after so she lies in her bed but as soon as we get up from the table she jumps up as she knows food is coming.

Yes absolutely it will not take 6 weeks.

A few minutes everyday and it will be sorted in a few days.

I don't have a dog but can you not just shut them out of the room?

Firstly I would like to congratulate you on being a Mummy to a fur baby. I think that you have done well with training your dog to the basket with the smoked cheese. However. As dogs are a pack animal. You are the leader of the pack and could eat first. The dog could be fed after you. Personally I would refrain from throwing treats from the table as you could be encouraging unhelpful behaviour.
I hope this helps.

I have never had a dog before I got Ddog. She is a basset hound and notoriously stubborn and difficult to train as a breed. It took probably until she was 2.5 before I would fully trust her not to have accidents in the house.. (i know, i know).. BUT, the one thing I am super proud of is I can send her to bed whilst we are eating. I can take her to the pub and eat and she will never beg at a table, with guests, at parties, anywhere really.

However, it took me a lot of patience and persistence to do it. When she was very young I made her sit on her bed whilst we ate. When she got up, I put my food down, and made her go back to her bed. Every time. Even if it took me 2 hours to eat my dinner I would put my food down (well, knife and fork) on to the plate, direct her back to bed, make her stay and go an eat another mouthful. It took about 3 weeks I reckon? I was very very consistent and did it with every meal. I am very proud of the fact that I can have 10 people over for lunch, food everywhere, on the sides and dining table etc and just simply ask Ddog to get into bed and off she goes and sleeps until I tell her otherwise. She is not greatly trained in other areas but this is one thing I am very proud of! :-)

Put them on a cage. Our dog used to go to its cage when we set the table, didn't need to shut the door after a while, just knew that's where it was supposed to go when we ate, also went when door bell rang and when we put the kettle on for last cuppa of day.

Some great advice here thank you . I’m very grateful as I am definitely at the stage where I’m wondering if we’ve made a huge mistake in getting a dog

Mainly because we have a doggy daycare lined up for when we go back to the office in a few weeks and they’ve said they’re having second thoughts because he is too excitable and jumpy.

That’s not to say we will give up on him, I think he will be easily fixed. I’m just exasperated with some of his behaviours .

I know it seems a bit trite but have you seen the dog program featuring Graeme Hall? I know that some dogs are bouncy and excitable but I think a lot of our behaviours hype that up and rev them up. It is really interesting psychology. You say your dog barks and barks, do you raise your voice or get higher pitched to calm him down? I think long, slow, persistent and familiar message is the key.. In other words, don't do one thing one day and then when it doesn't work try something different the next. Whilst my breed is not excitable they are notoriously stubborn and a hard to train scent hound. Nothing biddable about them really, and I found the only way to train was to be completely consistent in the same "ask" every day. No raised voices, no reprimand, no cages, just continuous reinforcement as to what I wanted her to do. It worked. Whilst it "may" have been a fluke I don't think it was as she is not a biddable kind of dog by nature.

You also have to make sure that no-one, ever, ever, feeds him at the table - because that will undo all your good work. The whole family has to be united on this . I'd also crack down on DCs wandering around with food/snacks for a while.

The rule for the whole house has to be 'humans eat at the table, dogs go to bed when that's happening' and it has to be consistent.

Work on your tone of voice. Mine really know when I mean something. But you have to teach them the “bed” command to start with. With smoked cheese, by the sound of it. My Weimaraner is very stubborn (but probably not in the same league as the basset mentioned previously!) so I have to be very consistent. Tedious but necessary.

You basically need to train ‘calm’ and ‘settle’. You reward them heavily for doing nothing

This is a good explainer (if a bit enthusiastic!) and you can train it all with persistence and some ‘games’.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=KaojPmzris0

@Cosmos45 I haven’t seen it but I’ll take a look. Yes I do sometimes raise my voice but I have found he takes no notice of me sometimes whereas my husbands deep drawl he respects! So I think I need to change my tone.

@HoldontoOneMoreDay do I make him go to bed at breakfast, lunch and dinner? Or just our family meal at dinner? We all eat at different times most days .

@weaselwords good point about consistency; we do sometimes give up before we’ve even given a chance to try it because we think it’s not working.

@NoSquirrels I’ll take a look at that, my boy is hyped up and I’m in awe of the settle command

In the beginning, every time. How is he supposed to know the difference between breakfast and dinner, he's just a dog so you have to be super consistent - human about to sit and eat, dog goes to bed. You can ease up a bit once he's learned it properly I suppose, but I think this is often the problem with training (including myself in this now) - we muck about and change it around 'just this once' then we get confused because the dog doesn't behave in consistent ways.

yes , good point ! I will start at breakfast time tomorrow .

To illustrate consistency, my dog is nearly 14. I’ve had her since she was 3. She will still muck about and not sit down for treats unless I insist. Now that’s a stubborn dog.
It makes me feel sort for my boy dog as his bum snaps to the floor at the hint of a treat as he’s a good boy. Some dogs are just hard work!

Sorry not sort. I proofread as well!

I made the mistake of allowing the dog to wander about at meals and now at 3 years old she will sit and look at anyone eating with sad ‘I’m so hungry’ eyes and the grandchildren were sneaking her bits of food......

She knew a lie down command so I bought a new bed, put it in a corner in the kitchen and taught ‘bed’ by effusive rewards. She will go to her bed now on command and lie on it.

She does sometimes look very sad and miserable when I make her go but one can’t have it all, and it does show an older dog can build on existing tricks....