(and Still Feed Him From Your Plate)
Most dog training sites have simple steps for training a dog to quit begging; they recommend that you remove the dog from the situation (e.g., crate) and ignore the dog. Of course this works with Weimaraners too, but I’ll tell you a secret. You can have it both ways.
I confess. I LIKE feeding my Weims from my plate after I’m done with my meal. And yes, they do beg. But they also lay down and stop it on command.
This is how you train it:
- Start by putting a comfortable dog bed down near where you usually eat. You don’t have to do this, but it helps in the beginning.
- Eat your meal as usual.
- When your Weimaraner comes to beg with those “I’m so starving” eyes, ignore him. By ignore I mean, no eye contact; he is invisible and you are blind! Don’t make this hard on yourself – I assure you, he’s lying to you, he’s not starving.
- If he knows a “place” command so that you can tell him to lay on his bed, do so. If he doesn’t know this, it’s OK, just wait for him to go lie down somewhere. (It doesn’t have to be on his bed, it can be anywhere, and actually, he doesn’t have to lie down, he just needs to quit staring at you.)
- Throw him a piece of food from your plate when he quits staring. This part is very important! You don’t want to treat your Weim when he’s looking at you as he will start to try to stare the food out of you (i.e., intense begging) even from afar.
- You can give him a “jackpot” reward if he’s managed to stay calm and contained for the entire meal by letting him lick your plate when you are done.
- Repeat. Practice makes perfect!
- When your Weim gets good at this game, you should be able to call him to you to give him a piece of food while you are eating or even reach under the table and give him a treat without getting him to start begging again.
This behavior will get generalized. For those times I am sitting on the couch and eating with my Weims on the couch next to me, they are conditioned to keep from staring.
It’s actually pretty funny to see them struggling with this when I have something really good; they’ll turn their heads away and then try to look out of the corner of their eye without staring. (“I’m not looking, I’m not looking!”)
Photo courtesy and © Barrett Weimaraners.
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I used to, but the Weim I have now drools all down his chest if he thinks there’s even the remotest chance he’ll get something. Instead of feeding from the table, I encourage him to lie quietly next to the table and not beg. If he does that, he gets any scraps and to lick the plate when I take my plate into the kitchen.
I not only feed Stanley from the table, but he also gets his own smaller plate and eats with a fork. Stanley is a drooler as well, something I’ve never had before. I’m going to try this, but I may be too late! LOL
Dante (my old guy, passed this last May) would eat off a fork or spoon, and would lick an ice-cream cone neatly enough that I would sometimes share with him (totally grossing out any onlookers).
Cameron (my only dog, now) takes his daily allergy pills via a bit of canned cat food on a fork. He’s not figured out how to eat from a spoon and forget about eating ice cream neatly. He’s such a heathen!
Both dogs would/will look longingly at a people-snack left on the coffee table, but neither would steal it unless I was foolish enough to leave the room for more than five minutes.
I have done this with my Weims for years. Summer has a memory foam bath mat in the corner next to the table. She will go there and wait when she sees me reach for the silverware drawer. She also knows that if she’s not lying down on her rug, she doesn’t get anything. Oh, she’ll get up and walk around the table, looking longingly at our plates, but if we ignore her, she’ll head back to her mat and lay down, pretending to go to sleep. All the while waiting for her ‘treat’.
Love this approach. We keep a short baby gate up so humans can eat in peace when the grandchildren are here. The dogs consider them fair game and will actually snatch food out of their hands. The rest of us they respect.