Begging for Food

[lisa175]

I am having a bit of trouble with Jimbo begging for food.  When me and my partner sit down together at the table for a meal, he isn't interested, he goes off playing with toys or chews his rawhide.  But when I am eating alone, he will sit at my side wanting me to give him food.  He has even started barking at me!  He's getting a little demanding!  I am not sure whether its because my partner is seen as the leader through Jimbos eyes and he knows not to mess around with him and with me, he can just can do want he wants.  He doesn't win, I don't give him any of my food.  Anybody got any ideas what I can do. 

[LouiseAS]

I find our dogs all behave differently with me and my OH but not sure about them seeing us as "leaders" we don't tend to follow that theory.

Have you tried feeding Jimbo at the same time as you when you're on your own I do this with ours and it seems to work.  Alternatively, have you tried shutting him in another room to give you space to eat in peace?

One of our Cockers is very demanding and you just have to use lots of reward based training to get them used to routines etc.

[Annette]

You say you sit at the table when you eat with your partner, do you sit at the table when you eat alone too? Just a thought

[Elmo]

Elmo gets sent to his bed during our meal times. I started doing this when he was a puppy with the clicker and food reward. To begin with its a pain as you have to keep putting down your onw dinner to reward him but its works. Now i jsut send hiim to his bed and he (mostly always) stays there til i say its ok to move. Sounds harsh but i cant stand mooching muts It keeps them away from the table where scraps may fall too thus resisting temptation. Elmo has never ever begged for food as he has never been close enough to or gotten any table scraps

[MrsMac]

Have you ever fed him a scrap from your plate?  One of the big no-nos here is to feed Melody anything from our plates whether we're sitting at the table or not.  She never mooches from me but she does sometimes with the kids.

She never used to mooch but my sister looked after our kids for a couple of nights and gave Melody every last scrap from everyones plates and since then she (Melly) started hassling us at the table  

Also if there are leftovers for her I put them into a separate container and they go into her bowl when she's not looking, hopefully that helps her dissassociate our plates with her getting something