We got our black lab pup at 7 weeks old, and he has been crazy excited about food since we got him. He is now 12 weeks old. He would scarf it down then would get the hiccups so we got him a puzzle feeder and that has helped tremendously on slowing down his eating. HOWEVER, when it comes time to feed, he gets so excited about getting his food (runs in front of me, jumps on me, whimpers & whines, barks etc). Since we got him, we make him sit and stay after we put the food bowl down to try to teach him some manners, but he still is just going crazy and doesn't really listen to the commands because his full attention is on the food bowl. We thought he would start to outgrow this behavior as the breeder fed his whole litter from one bowl, but now he has his own bowl and the other 2 dogs don't bother him at all during feeding. He is not food aggressive; just a crazy food lover! Any advice on how to teach him not to be so food crazy?
Our nearly 12 week pup was just the same, so excited leaping all over the place in a frenzy of food excitement. Our trainer at puppy classes told me to teach him to wait using a clicker as a release. We tell buddy to sit , wait. Pick up the bowl start to move it if still sitting click and treat keep going making the move a little further to the ground each time but watching carefully as soon as his bum left the ground out the bowl down and say oh dear and start over again. The first time took over 20 attempts to get near the floor but I was surprised how quickly that reduced to about 4 tries and then last night I got it all the way to the floor And removed my hand before I clicked and he moved and that’s been just under a week to get there. He still eats it in a split second once there but isn’t getting the hiccups now !
Agree with Buddy. But you don't need a clicker. Saying "Yes" instead of clicking will suffice. There is experimental evidence that clicking or saying a mark word such as Yes are equally effective.
Yalom was like this. He was so excited about food. We did the same as others mention above, and now at 7 months he will wait before you say 'take it' before eating anything put in front of him.
Chewie is the same. You can put a filled kong down in front of him and he will wait for permission to take it. It is so satisfying to see. I think all of the advice above is really good. We also really worked hard (and are still working!) on the "leave it" cue and that seems to have really helped with self control around food.
I'm not sure I follow. In regards to food Leave it usually means I don't want you to eat that at all. In fact, if you listen to me I will give you a treat, but it will not come from what you were looking at or sniffing. I would teach stay. Don't get up and eat your meal yet. Stay where you are. I realise actions can be used with any word. My principal point is that it helps the dog if we handlers substantially differentiate actions and cues.
I trained Willow at 8 weeks to sit and leave a treat (dry food) on the floor in front of her before moving onto the food in her bowl. I made it a game for a few days until the treat was left until I said "go on then" If she went for the food I would pick the bowl up say sit and wait and only then when she didn't go for the food she got it. It's all about being consistent even now she tries it on.
Our trainer taught "leave it" until I tell you to "take it." I agree that it can be a bit confusing when you want them to leave something altogether (this only occurred to us after puppy school/manners class) but Chewie seems to understand that he is waiting for some of *his food* once he leaves something. We also use "drop" for objects he already has- with *ahem* intermittent success.
I use 'leave" until I say "OK" - this is really useful. For "leave", 99.9% of the time "leave" means you will get it eventually. This makes my dog happy to "leave" anything I say. Because he will probably get it. It the 0.1% where the thing is really not a good thing to have he will leave it, and get something else in return. if most of your "leave"s means the dog DOESN'T get the thing, then he's going to learn to take it and run. I don't do this with my dogs' dinners. They do "wait" until I say OK, but they are ALWAYS going to get their dinner, so I use "wait" not "leave".
Funnily enough, with his kongs and certain treats Chewie now waits of his own accord until we say he can have them. I do always make sure that he gets something when he "leaves it" and so far he is not a runner. He often drops the thing comically quickly when he realizes he might get some food...
I don't want to make another thread but I have this issue. My pup picks up stones I tell her to drop and if she sees a treat is coming she will spit out the stone then go right back and try to pick the stone up again I hold the lead tight so she can't get at the stone. Is she going for stones to get a treat crafty madam. They turn the issue round to suit them.
Meg used to do this with shoes....literally I was showered with them. It was quite funny at the start. She slowly did it less and less. Now she just carries them about
I reccomend having her wait for her food. what i did( my puppy was very similar) was i wouldnt let her eat it until she left it alone for a second. then i would say go, and let her have it. now she wont eat it until i tell her go.
Lincoln does this too. He is super excited about meal time. He runs around the living room and jumps over furniture. I just let him go for it. He has a right to be excited. We have a gate to our kitchen and he knows to sit and wait calmly at the gate when he sees his food dish. He's a good boy.
