How to Train Your Dog to Not Beg
Introduction
Having a dog brings with it a world of joy. You have someone to cuddle with while you watch your favorite show and you finally have a member of the family who can’t argue back. But while having a dog is relaxing, for the most part, it isn’t so relaxing when they constantly pester and beg you for food whenever you sit down to tuck into a tasty meal. You just want some peace and quiet to enjoy every mouthful of that delicious snack, without the feeling of guilt you get when you look down at your endearing dog.
It’s all fun and games to start with, but you gave in too much at the beginning and now you can’t eat anything without sharing it with your canine friend. But enough is enough, you don’t want to share anymore and you don’t want guests being pestered for food by your dog either.
Defining Tasks
Fortunately, training your dog not to beg is relatively straightforward. It will involve obedience training so you can send your dog out of the room when you’re eating. It will also involve patience and some willpower not to give in to your doggie pal, no matter how cute they look. That means you will have to toe the party line with the rest of the family; it needs to be a group effort.
With a puppy, successful training can take just a couple of weeks, but with older dogs who have been begging for years, a few extra weeks may be needed to fully break the habit. But don’t be put off by the time it takes, it is more than worth it to have a well-behaved dog, who leaves you to relax with your food and doesn’t pester you or guests when you’re feasting.
Getting Started
Before you get to work with your dog, you will need a number of things. Get hold of some doggie treats or break their favorite food into small chunks. You will also need a quiet room, free from distractions.
Then get a leash and, perhaps most importantly of all, find all your resilience, a begging dog could charm the pants off even the iciest of souls.
Once you have all those things, set aside 10 minutes a day for the next few weeks and you’re ready to tackle your begging dog once and for all.
The Cold Shoulder Method
The Go to Bed Method
The Time Out Method
Written by Amy Caldwell
Published: 09/20/2017, edited: 01/08/2021
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Success Stories and Training Questions
Training Questions and Answers
Gemma
She constantly jumping on me by and when I do get her to sit I reward her with petting her but the minute I stop she jumps up in my face
943 Dog owners recommended
Hello Paula, Check out the Step Toward method I have linked below. https://wagwalking.com/training/train-australian-shepherds-to-not-jump Out - which means leave the area: https://www.petful.com/behaviors/how-to-teach-a-dog-the-out-command/ Leave It method: https://wagwalking.com/training/train-a-shih-tzu-puppy-to-not-bite Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden
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Overly excited . Forget size and manners when anyone comes in contact with her besides myseelf
239 Dog owners recommended
Hello! Here are some tips to help your overly excited dog. 1. Don’t Encourage Excited Behavior The worst thing you can do is to pay attention to an overly excited dog. He’ll just connect being excited with being rewarded. Instead, you should ignore him when he starts acting up. This means no stroking or patting, no talking, and no eye contact. If your dog attempts to jump up on you, immediately push him away and turn your back on him. 2. Encourage Calm Behavior Encouraging your dog to calm down is the flip side of the first tip. When your dog becomes calm and submissive, reward him with affection, lots of “good boys” or “good girls,” and possibly a treat. Ignoring excited behavior and rewarding calm behavior will send a message to your dog that calmer is better. 3. Wear Your Dog Out (and Possibly Yourself!) It’s easier to keep your dog calm if he doesn’t have sufficient energy to become overly excited in the first place. So make sure your dog gets plenty of exercise. Just letting him out in the yard to do his business and run around won’t do. Your dog needs long walks to literally walk off his excess energy. 4. Provide Outlets Keeping your dog’s mind active with play can also help to reduce excess energy. Games like searching for a hidden treat, playing fetch, or running through an obstacle course are all excellent ways to stimulate your dog’s mind and drain his energy. However, you must set some limitations. This means that if your dog gets overly excited, the game ends. The dog needs to learn that if he gets too crazy, playtime goes away. 5. Keep Yourself Calm Most importantly, your dog won’t be calm if you aren’t. So, think about how you are able to correct your dog’s behavior. Can you calm your dog with just a few quiet words, or do you find yourself shouting “no, no” over and over in exasperation? If you recognize yourself in the shouting category, then you’re exacerbating your dog’s excitement. The only time you should correct a dog with a short loud sound is to get his attention if he’s about to do something dangerous like running into traffic. Be Patient Some overly excited dogs have natural high-energy levels. If your dog is like this, it can take some time before you start to see improvements in his behavior. The important thing is to remain consistent in your methods and not to give up.
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How to keep my dog off the couches.
239 Dog owners recommended
Hi there! Thank you for all of the details. This type of behavior training takes a lot of repetition over the course of a few weeks. Every time your dog jumps on the couch, you give the command "off" and direct your dog off of the couch. Give a treat for calm, seated behavior. You can also put a command to a spot you would like her to go to. Like "go to bed" or something of that sort. Redirect her to her spot and give her a treat. You are going to do this on repeat for a while! But she WILL get it. Thank you for writing in!
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My Buddy lunges at all children and attempts to bite them. When placed one on one with them he settles down. But continues behavior every time a child or stranger enters the house. Often times he growls and will not settle down.and has to be restrained. How can I stop this behavior?
104 Dog owners recommended
Thank you for the question about Buddy. This issue has to be addressed by a behavioral trainer before it gets out of hand and Buddy bites someone hard enough to cause an injury. The fact that he lunges at guests as well is an issue that means he may be overly protective. In the meantime, maybe keep him away from kids - they may not know how to act around Buddy and set him off even more. Ask your vet for a recommendation. You will want a trainer who has experience with positive training and discipline with kindness yet firmness (being too tough may bring out more aggressive tendencies in Buddy). How well does Buddy know his obedience commands? I suggest taking him back through his obedience levels to reinforce his sit, down, stay, off, leave it, and come commands. Having these commands ingrained will go a long way to making him behave. The classes will also help to socialize him. While waiting to meet the behavioral trainer, you can look through https://wagwalking.com/training/not-bite-5 and https://wagwalking.com/training/be-calm-around-strangers. All the best to you and Buddy!
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Bertie barks and digs the ground around the hedgehog that comes into the garden. We don't know when it is there because it's usually hidden in the undergrowth. Bert will try to nudge it and bite it. But the problem is when we pick him up to remove him from the hedgehog, he bites, snarls and usually breaks the skin. Because it is always dark and we live in the countryside we can't stop the hedgehog getting in. Bertie has even escaped a few times through a dense privet hedge to get into the neighbours garden, who feeds the hedgehog. Normally he is a loving dog, but has always suffered from anxiety and fear from when he was a puppy, this behaviour was exhibited when we collected him from the breeder. What can we do because it's a nocturnal problem and not straight forward to prevent the hedgehog coming into the garden.
943 Dog owners recommended
Hello Wendy, I suggest teaching an e-collar come (so that you can consistently enforce the command without grabbing him), commands like "Leave It" and "Out" - which means leave the area. When you are present, using e-collar training, give clear commands that you have already taught him at that point - like Come, Out, and Leave It...Save Come for when absolutely necessary and use the other two more since this will be a bit of a negative association. Check out James Penrith from Take the Lead Dog Training on Youtube and his videos on livestock chasing and come...your scenario is a bit different but the work that James does with teaching dogs to respond to command using the e-collar in the presence of other animals using working level (the lowest level that specific dog responds to) stimulation on an e-collar, is very similar to what you want to do here. You can also teach pup an automatic avoidance of the hedgehog - similar to how James works with live stock chasing dogs when no one is around. He uses low level stim, long leashes, obedience commands, and lots of repetition to teach the initial lesson about leaving the animal alone, when he is there to enforce the command and teach, then he also uses a high stimulation level when the dog goes after the livestock while he hides and the dog doesn't think he is present to enforce the command - letting the dog associate the punishment with his own actions and not the trainer. It's important to lay the initial foundation of the dog learning to listen to the person and learn that they are not supposed to chase/dig, so that when pup is corrected later when the person doesn't appear to be there, the dog associates the correction with their action and doesn't just become afraid of the livestock. I would also contact some type of trapper or pest control too to see if they could live trap the hedgehog and remove it completely if there are not many of them. Removing it completely would not only solve your issue, it would also be easier for pup than trying to avoid the hedgehog after training. Be sure to look into who is qualified and licensed to catch hedgehogs and if that is allowed in your state. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden
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