Meal nighmares

[*MaryG*]

  pepper is 11months and is starting to make meals a nightmare.
It starts when I am preparing the meal when he follows me around the kitchen and tries jumping up to look at the surface. I have tried making him sit outside the kitchen but he won't stay and keeps coming in.
 At meal times he used to sit nicely in his crate(in the same room) and eat a treat. Now he wants to bring the treat out of the crate and woofs etc. till I give in and let him out. 
After the meal the last two nights he has taken a running jump and got onto the table to lick any remains he can find!  HELP!

[seaangler]

With are little Gemma(who is 13 weeks)was doing the same....When the wife was in the kitchen preparing all the dogs there food...The other two are trained to sit and weight...We have a baby gate up now and every time gemma comes running to the baby gate we make her sit stay hold the hand up and praise and reward....She now comes running to the gate and sits and weight's...Later we will remove the gate.....

As you can see the baby gate..The white mound is my golden(cream) retriever

http://i546.photobucket.com/albums/hh409/seaangler/Gemma052.jpg

[dawn]

I have similar problems with Henry(8 months), I look forward to reading some replies.

At the moment, when Henry jumps up in the kitchen, we tell him to sit and praise/treat the sit.

When I'm sat at the table eating, I try to give Henry a kong, but when he has finished this he is jumping up at the table too.

He's very persistent and its driving me mad!  We have a baby gate which helps too.

[seaangler]

I have similar problems with Henry(8 months), I look forward to reading some replies.

At the moment, when Henry jumps up in the kitchen, we tell him to sit and praise/treat the sit.

When I'm sat at the table eating, I try to give Henry a kong, but when he has finished this he is jumping up at the table too.

He's very persistent and its driving me mad!  We have a baby gate which helps too.

You have to be persistent and keep it up....

[HeatherandBenjy]

If I were you, I'd be putting up a baby gate at your kitchen door to keep Pepper out of your kitchen.

Alternatively its a question of being persistent and keep removing him to where you want him to stay while you're preparing the food. Consistency is the key here!

Consistency is also the key to having him in his crate while you're eating. If he "woofs til I give in and let him out" all you're teaching him is that its worth him barking because ultimately it will get him out of the crate. If he's to stay in the crate while you're eating, then he stays in the crate no matter how much noise he makes.

It may help to give him a filled kong to help keep him occupied while you are eating.

As for the jumping on the table, I would be saying a firm no when you see him starting to jump and removing him immediately if he does manage to get on to the table. You may find it helps to have him on a house training line for this.

Hope this helps

[*MaryG*]

We can't really use a stairgate as we have two entrances to the kitchen and already have one on the stairs!
I think the consistency message is right..I am much better during the day than the evenings!Although I am sorry for you dawn, it is nice to know someone else is going through the same thing. I must go back to the filled kong I think and choose one place for him to go when I am preparing the meal. Thanks for the help.

[HeatherandBenjy]

If it makes you feel any better, there's an imaginary line in our kitchen which the dogs cannot cross while we're cooking (the ends of their beds). They all know this, but during the course of the evening they inch forward ever so slowly until you realise that they're right in the way again!

Good luck with Pepper!

[fizzyntiffy]

I ignore my two when I'm cooking, and they're been trampled on a few times  so tend to keep their distance now.

Sasha was a horror for levitating onto the table so persistant 'off' and never leaving food on it eventually worked, she doesn't do it now, I think because there was no reward for getting up there iykwim.

Tiffany, who's not as agile as Sasha, takes advantage of any chair left out and can often be found either sitting or lying on the table, or rummaging through my handbag 

You need eyes in the back of your head