Training dog to go to bed at meal times. Am I doing this right?

[EverestsEdge]

Ddog has a good understanding of “go to bed” and “stay” but at meal times he stalks the children for any titbits they may drop out of their uncoordinated mouths!

It’s not much of an issue but I’m trying to prepare him for boarding (other thread) and I need to instill some manners in to him

I’ve started to send him to his bed when the plates come out; he gets a high value treat when all four paws are in bed.

I then use “stay” and go back to him at increasing intervals to reward him with the high value treat. Once the meal is finished, I tell him “all done” and don’t treat him so he comes out of his bed.

Does this sound right ? When should I expect results?

The goal is for him to go independently to his bed when the plates come out ready for meal times (with a prompt). Is this realistic?

How old is your dog? We have a puppy and give ours a stuffed kong or a chew whilst we are eating which keeps him busy whilst we eat. He also had his tea before us so that he’s not hungry, but I know some people don’t like to do that. Tricky if you have little ones who drop food though.

He’s two . My DC are young so admittedly we haven’t been consistent from puppyhood with him hoovering up any dropped food.

We did try the stuffed kong or chew when he was younger but he would eat it very quickly and they come to our table.

What you're doing sounds about right to me. This is what we do with our dog, also. He's at the point now where he knows to be on his mat when there's food around, but usually needs reminding multiple times. If we use treats he stays in place pretty much the whole time. Giving him a chew during our dinner is hit or miss - sometimes it occupies him, sometimes he wants to run around with the chew, haha.

We've been training ours to go to his mat for 10 months - ever since we adopted him at 8 months old. I don't know if he'll ever be able to just stay on his mat without treats, but that's the goal!

Just keep going! My sister's dog is 2 years old and is all over the sofa, kids' plates, dining table, etc., when there's food around! So at least you're actually working on it!

We had a surprising degree of success with our otherwise quite badly behaved puppy with a similar approach but we don't command him to go to his bed we just wait for him to do it and then reward

What we did is studiously ignore him prowling about the table; no petting, no eye contact, no one speaks to him, back turned if he gets close so no reward at all for that behaviour and he never ever gets fed from the table. After not very long he gives up and goes to lie down and then when he is calmly lying down he gets praise and treats.

We did it that way because if we command him to go and lie down he does it but he gets quite excited waiting to get rewarded for it as it's a game to him and although he does lie down he is in high alert mode waiting to get rewarded and for the next command rather than lying down patiently.

After not much time he gets it now and he spontaneously goes to lie down when we sit down to eat at the table although he doesn't yet do it if we eat elsewhere.

I also think he is clever enough to have realised that the chances of getting food when we are there guarding it is minimal and that his main chance is afterwards if leftovers are unguarded on the table or the kitchen counter. He is certainly not above a bit of counter surfing but he knows it works better if our backs are turned

I think what you are doing is great. We tried but our dog hates the crate. Far, far too nosy.

We are a family of sofa-based eaters tho, not table. Ours is pretty good at not stealing or pawing when we eat, providing she has been fed prior. The guff about feeding the dog after you is dominance-based which has been debunked now. Much better to train a full dog than a hangry dog.

What you are doing is right but...

a) how long it might take will very much depend on him - his age, history of learning, general tendancy to learn and how long he's had to practice the 'wrong' behaviour and be rewarded for it. And depnd on you - how rock solid consistent you are with the new regime; even one relax of the new 'rules' will help entrench the old behaviour and undermine the new. In fact, you could argue it's worse to allow the old behaviour every now and again vs every time - because that particular pattern of experience is likely to make the old behaviour even more persistent.

b) just becaue he learns this at home is no guarantee he will do it at a board house or with someone else at your house. Dogs are very good at only learning something applies to a very specific version of a situation and not applying that to other, similar situations. If you want to increase the chances of this, you need to apply the same kind of training in different scenarios (e.g. visiting friends or family)

Sorry! Didn't mean all that to sound so defeatist!

That said: having him know to go to his bed and stay there when told, is never a bad thing to learn

I feed our dogs first then shut them out the dining room!

Ha ha! That'll do it

Sounds like you are doing the right thing. We give ours a chew when we eat, have done since we was 10 weeks old and now as we carry plates from the kitchen to the table she legs it to her mat and sirs expectantly.

I will say though she hasn't quite generalised this, although in other houses once she gets her chew she generally settles, but once it's gone she'll wander. She'll also approach other people at the table although will ignore us.