# Dinner table manners



## jp (Nov 24, 2009)

What does your dog do while you are eating? We had developed a pretty good routine of Penny lying on a pillow near the table while we ate until we released her afterward. However she is not respecting the down stay command here anymore now that our toddler has become a messy eater with lots of food ending up on the floor, which is irresistible. We could deal with her just cleaning up the floor, but she has learned that she can jump up and steal food right off the child's plate when we are not looking. She knows better if we are right there. Between treats for staying on her pillow and a squirt bottle for when she jumps up on the table or counter she knows exactly what she is supposed to do and not do. And she knows exactly what she can get away with if I walk away from the table to get something from the kitchen. Does anyone have any good routines for mealtimes? We might be able to gate her off from the dining room, although it is a fairly open floor plan and she would likely be destructive in another room if stuck in there.


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## Crazy Kian (Aug 10, 2009)

If he is really giving us a hard time we will give him a hollow bone and put a few pieces of cheese in it. The cheese is in there just out of his tongue's reach, it keeps him busy while we are eating and it lets us enjoy meal time. ;D


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## Islander (May 2, 2009)

Ziva usually get fed right as we're getting ready to eat.. so that keeps her busy for a bit.... then the other thing that probably helps us is that we eat at our bar - so we're higher up than a normal table top height. However, if she does stand up and put her paws on the edge of the bar she is told OFF which she understands and usually obeys.... I normally have some sort of a chewie for her after she eats to keep her busy.... also the words
LEAVE IT are utilized if we happen to be munching goodies on the sofa where she can get up close and personal! Normally she respects our space. I do like to give her something to concentrate on if we're snacking or evening having a meal just so she feels she is participating in our eating
'ritual'. It's not an easy fix... just deciding on something and being consistant.


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## doglover (Aug 4, 2009)

I genrally just kennel Clyde with his dinner and we all eat at the same time. If one of the kids is eating a little something and he starts sniffing around the table. I just set the squirt bottle near the child and he stays away...he knows they will not hesitate to squirt him and he HATES the squirt bottle.


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## Big Rick (Apr 14, 2009)

We eat our dinner in our recliners with trays on our laps so we can watch the TV. Our two lie on the floor or on the chair between us without bothering us at all. When we get close to finishing, Dexter will start whining a bit because he's waiting impatiently for us to go into the kitchen. They usually get any of the left over veggies and he can't wait.

It's funny that Clyde hates the water bottle. When Dexter was a puppy he barked all the time. We used a spray bottle to spray him every time he barked but it didn't work. He loved getting sprayed. When I'm outside watering plants he bites at the spray from the hose until he's soaking wet. (I help some!).


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## Mischa (Feb 17, 2010)

The day we brought Mischa home, Dennis made a huge plate of snacks and set it down on the coffee table. It took a millisecond for Mischa's pupils to dilate and turn completely black and she jumped up and tried to steal some munchies off his plate. 

Now, we make sure that if we do have anything on the coffee table to make sure it is out of her reach (so right in the center lol). She's only 13 weeks now so I'm dreading this when she gets bigger. 

But all in all, she's pretty good. She'll whine, or sometimes paw at us to give her some but we ignore her and she goes to sit on her massive pikachu doll that doubles as a cushion and chews on her bully stick in defeat.


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## jp (Nov 24, 2009)

Penny hates the water bottle too, so it is always on the table facing out like a cannon at a fort. But she is also smart enough to know that I have to be holding it for it to work. She is fine when my wife or I are near by, at least responding to "off", but she doesn't have the control or respect when we step away. Even cooking can be challenging as she waits for a back to be turned. I wish we could do the eating at the same time routine, but she just never has been an eat-right-away dog. That's actually part of the problem, she knows she likes our food better, so she won't eat her own until she has scavenged enough.


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## Pineapple Princess (Nov 20, 2009)

Oh, how we miss the days of eating a slow and leisurely dinner. 

Hobie first stares a hole through us, and then resorts to drastic measures when we don't offer to share. She runs under the table and finds a way to squirm between our knees, then snakes her way up our laps and pops her head up from beneath the table top to extend her tongue out and taste whatever is for dinner.

We've tried the water bottles but Miss Hobie is a clever redhead and has managed to bite the tips off of three so far.... she just dismantles them enough so they don't spray.

Sometimes we crate her to get some peace.


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## sarahaf (Aug 17, 2009)

I must say we've been really lazy about these issues with Rosie. We started off right, but not all in the household can agree to be tough with her, so she has been raised to be pretty insufferable. We do have to crate her fairly often to get some peace.


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## Lincoln (May 12, 2010)

What if you keep a dog on a dog food only diet? Would that not help?


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## jp (Nov 24, 2009)

Oh she is on a dog food only diet. But that doesn't mean she doesn't know that people food tastes better after successful stealing attempts. Although she has never been one to scarf down her food and I do think she is worse behaved when she is hungry. 

Unfortunately we are having kennel issues right now (another topic) so we are unable to leave her in it while we are home.


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