I was looking for some advise. I run an in home daycare and obviously I keep our puppy separated from them however we do have to go into the kitchen and since my husband and I work from home a lot of the times he is not in his crate at lunch or snack time. He is doing better with not jumping up on to them when they walk through (still needs work at times) the main issue I'm having is he keeps jumping up onto one of their chairs to see what's up there. I keep working with him to sit but it's really hard when you have 6 kids needing stuff and trying to keep the dog off the table. If I put him in his crate he just barks because he knows the kids are in there eating (No he doesn't get any table scraps, on purpose), but he know also our older lab is over here although he just lays by the door, he isn't surfing for food. There is no where to tether him to allow him in the room but keep him away from the table any suggestion? Plus I feel like if I keep him in the crate at this time he wont ever learn how to behave in there. thanks
If you have a dog bed or basket in your kitchen, it is fairly easy to teach a dog to sit in it whenever anyone sits up to the table for a meal. Whenever you serve food on the table make sure you put a pot of tiny dog treats or kibble on the table too. The idea is to give your puppy a treat when he is sitting nicely in his bed. And to give him more treats at intervals during the meal provided he stays there. It works really well with older kids too as they can take turns to 'catch' the puppy in the act of being good and throw a treat to him. To start with, obviously, he's just going to hang around the table because he doesn't know what your grand plan is! So you need to start with a simple goal and then move your goalposts nearer and nearer to the bed by degrees. Begin with treating the puppy for just looking at his bed, or just taking a step or two back from the table. Then for taking a step or two towards the bed, then for putting a paw in it, and so on. We do this with all our puppies and the dogs quickly learn to leap into their baskets at the first sign of dinner being served. Once your dog is well practiced at getting into bed when dinner is on the table, you can stretch out the gap between treats just giving an occasional one during the meal and a few at the end. In your situation it might be easier to practice with just the family to begin with. Using a crate or baby gate to keep him away from the table when you have a lot of children in the kitchen until he has grasped the concept that being in bed means a treat or three.
