Hershey is our 6 month old chocolate boy. He's mostly outgrown the dreaded crocopup phase. My biggest issue is dinner time, the most stressful time of the day. No matter where he is he is barking and underfoot or barking and whining louder in his crate. Feeding him while I'm cooking only gives a brief respite then back to barking. I've tried kongs they only last so long, same with bones and chews. I'm just desperate to have a peaceful quiet meal with the family. He has a walk before dinner thinking it will settle him down and tire him out a little, it doesn't really work. I've had others walk him while I'm cooking, which only solves half the battle, it's just dinner time we have to put up with the high pitched let me out and share your food with me bark. He's fine in his crate as long as he doesn't see anyone or hear anyone up and moving around. He goes in his crate and is quiet all until he really has to go in the morning unless some one comes down for a drink or snack in the kitchen in the middle of the night. Mornings can be tricky to as he still has a bit of a shoe and sock fetish, must nibble or bite those if he can catch someone putting them on, usually my poor son, he loves his pant legs too, so he usually goes in the crate for a few mins of barking while my son gets his shoes on and runs out the door to escape the noise of the dog and get in the less noisy school bus???
He's barking for attention. This can be cured, but it will take dedication and hard work from all of you. The first thing to know is what 'attention' means. It means looking at the dog, speaking to the dog, touching the dog, shouting at the dog - anything at all will do in the dog's eyes. So NOT giving attention means no eye contact, no changing your mind and being sure to be quick and ready to reward good behaviour. Here is an excellent article - http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-barking/ At the moment I'm training Mollie 'sock time'. When I'm togging up to go out I say 'sock time' and sit her by me giving her treats for sitting calmly without grabbing my socks or shoes - this will take about a month before she's reliably waiting nicely.
Labradors are really, really smart. When reading these posts I sometimes wonder how many of these problems got started while the dog was still a pup. Really tough to not give a puppy a bit of a treat from the table. And boy do they learn quick! We both have had lots of experience with dogs over the years. So with Murphy we knew better than to indulge him as a pup. About once a week I like to go get two sausage and egg mcmuffins over at McD's. I bring them home to eat. I always cut off a small portion for Murphy to let it cool off a bit. Murphy knows full well when a sausgage and egg mcmuffin comes in the door. That nose of his misses nothing. But he stays where he is until he knows I am done eating. Then he heads over to his bed and sits at attention. He gets his treat. During dinner, he just lays around and does not bother anyone. It pays to get started off on the right foot! BTW, I think Labradors are one of the most difficult dogs not to cave into. Those eyes and that face are really compelling. He makes me do all sorts of things I was not planning on at the moment. Like sit on the floor and play tug of war with his airline blanket.
Have you thought of doing 'mat' training during meal times? lots of members have trained this. My two have a blanket each by the kitchen door so when I am preparing meals they lay on them and occasionally treats are given to them for staying put. When I was first training this lots of treats were given to them but not so much now. They lay on their blankets whilst we are eating too and just settle down mostly . Maybe Hershey just wants to be with you at mealtimes, but I agree about not giving anything to him from your plate as this will just become a pain. Might be worth thinking about but like everything you have to be consistent with the training but it's worth it
Hershey doesn't get any table scraps, occasionally I will mix in some home made bits of left overs in his food in the morning, but never at the table always in his dish mixed with his food. I've tried to avoid to avoid giving him treats while we eat, just his dinner, I thought it might confuse him and cause him to beg while we were eating. I guess maybe I should rethink that.
This training confuses me a little, As we are trying to train Rolo to lie on a mat whilst we eat, How do i treat him without him thinking its from my plate? I use kibble but obviously my hand is coming from the table...
Well, have a bit of a think about what you want to train him. If you're happy with him sitting on the mat next to you and staring at you, then what you're doing is fine. If you want him to settle farther away, then you'll probably find you need to get up and walk over to him, or else use a remote trainer. If you want him to truly settle and not stare at you while you eat, you need to capture that. You may find using a lead is your best option for that.
I wouldn't worry to much about what he's thinking, just what he's doing. Our main approach is to completely ignore the dogs at meal times - they soon get the message that human meal times are boring.
We originaly trained a settle, which did involve food coming from the table ie:kibble. Once Vanilla got that she would settle somewhere around out feet or by the window and kind of fall a sleep. We then started to train a 'Bed/Blanket' cue seperatly. Now we tell her to go to either, depending where we are. At the end of the meal she gets a big treat. Too us about 3weeks to get the blanket/bed to work, as we moved it to different locations once she knew what we wanted. We always ignore her at the dinner table and she does not get anything from a plate/table. This might be worth a try.
Stanleys just always stayed in the kitchen behind the baby gate while we eat. He just goes off to his bed and waits until we're finished now.
Ah sometimes the answer is just brought to you. I was working so very unsuccessfully on the down command when Hershey decided that a water bottle was just way more fun than training. So I figured it wasn't the best time to work with him and tossed the last couple pieces of kibble in the bottle. He spent the next 15 mins working on getting those pieces out of the bottle!!!! YES! it's a noisy solution but so much better than barking.
He spent at least 20 minutes trying to get about 10 pieces out this morning. I figure if I add a portion of his dinner to a bottle it should keep him busy while I am cooking and enjoying a meal I hope, and when my son is getting ready for school in the morning. No matter what I seem to put in the Kong, he's done with it in about 10 mins, the water bottle seemed to have a little more staying power. He has bottles scattered around the place as is, if he gets bored with the one he has he helps himself to a new one from the recycle bin. He crushes them down nicely making nice pockets for the food to settle into. Busy pups make for a more relaxed household. We're noisy enough not to mind a busy engaged pup. I have bought all sorts of toys for him, but he just has a thing for plastic bottles (lids removed for safety).
Hi Debbie, ours loves those plastic bottles too! We have found Murphy some "thicker" ones. We play with them outside. The tennis ball flinger works pretty good for flipping them up in the air. He loves the game so much that he will point to where ever we last put them. Gives him a lot of exercise.
