How to Train Your Dog to Not Jump on the Table
Introduction
Living with a dog has many advantages for yourself, your family and your precious canine. Dogs provide companionship, entertainment and an endless source of love and devotion. Multiple studies have even shown that people that live with dogs are happier and healthier. In short, dogs are awesome additions to our daily lives. That is…when they behave.
Few things are more annoying or embarrassing than when your dog jumps up on the table during dinner. Whether in front of guests, family or just by yourself, Fido jumping up on the table is disruptive. The good news, however, is that its relatively simple to teach your dog not to jump on the table and there are multiple methods to fit your training style, doggy household preferences, and individual pet’s personality.
Defining Tasks
It’s a bit of a misnomer to say that you’ll be training your dog not to do something, including jumping up on the table or counter. Instead, you are training your dog to perform a behavior on command or when a particular situation occurs. Dogs do not understand the word “no” or any command that asks them to stop doing something. Dogs can and will, however, perform tasks their owner requests when trained correctly in the first places. As with all training, it’s important to keep sessions short and to not move on to the next step until your dog has thoroughly mastered the previous stages of the exercise. This will set your dog up for long term success and will have you becoming a master pup trainer in no time.
Getting Started
Before beginning to train your dog to not jump on the table, you’ll need to gather a few essentials. Locate a spot in the house where you can place a bed, crate or dog mat that will be your dog’s “place.” This will be somewhere your dog returns to on command when they need to rest, relax or generally be out from underfoot. You will also need a selection of tasty treats and a treat pouch that provides easy access for training. You should have several different “values” of treats to keep your dog interested and guessing. Try things like small pieces of kibble, cookies, small cubes of cheese and cut up pieces of hot dog or steak. Once you’ve compiled your tools to dog training success, it’s time to try out one or more of our methods below!
The Down-Stay Method
The Place Method
The Off Method
Success Stories and Training Questions
Training Questions and Answers
Bentley
Good evening,
I have a 4 month old sprocker puppy called Bentley. Every time we eat dinner at the table he jumps on our lap, the other chairs, even the table at one point! We always use ‘down’ but he will completely ignore us. We’ve tried for weeks to get ‘down’ and as soon as he’s on the ground he gets a treat but he continues to jump up! We’ve crated him whilst eating and he barks, cries and moans and becomes unbearable - plus we live in terraced housing! He doesn’t do as he’s told and always does his own thing, didn’t know what else we can do? We’ve tried eating at the same time but he’s often left his food to seek ours! It’s becoming embarrassing that we can’t control him and his constant jumping up!
Thank you, Chloe
621 Dog owners recommended
Hello Chloe, First, I suggest teaching Place, Out, and Down-Stay. Quiet, Leave It, and other such commands will also be helpful. Once pup clearly understands the meaning of the command, I suggest either having pup stay in their crate (I will touch on the barking), or tether pup to something secure nearby and have them stay on Place while you eat. Teach the Quiet command, linked below. When pup is quiet, calmly go over to pup and place a treat on the bed, then return to eating. When pup barks (after you told them quiet when you crated or put them on place, then calmly go over to them, tell them "Ah Ah", and spray a small puff of air from a pet convincer at their side - don't spray in the face, stay calm, and only use unscented air - Citronella is too harsh and lingers too long!. After correcting calmly, return to eating, and reward pup if they stay quiet for the next 5-10 minutes. Gradually work up to pup having to stay quiet for the entire meal and giving one reward for calmness at the end of the meal. You can give pup a chew toy on place as well - stuffed with dog food or by itself. Work on this in phases. Once pup can stay calm during the meal, then you can practice Place without the back tie leash - but expect to enforce pup staying there a lot during the meal by having to return them to it. You will want to work on Place and Out and similar commands at times other than meals to begin with, before using those to enforce rules at meal times also - starting with easier expectations first, then gradually working up to the harder things (like the distraction of food) as pup improves. 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 Quiet method: https://wagwalking.com/training/train-a-shih-tzu-puppy-to-not-bark Place command: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O75dyWITP1s Down-Stay: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/train-your-labrador-to-lie-down-and-stay/ Crate manners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn5HTiryZN8 Crate introduction - if needed: https://wagwalking.com/training/like-a-crate Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden
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