Puppy Excited At His Dinner Time

[Magstar]

Oscar, my 15 week old GR puppy, gets extremely excited when it comes to his dinner time. He starts bouncing around like crazy and jumping up. My main concern about this is that it is not good for his joints! I also want to encourage a settled behaviour.

He usually does a very good "drop". But as soon as I have his bowl he doesn't listen anymore. I was hoping that if I could get him to "drop" then it would help him focus and settle. No luck! He wouldn't even do it with the use of a lure.

He will sit and wait when I put the bowl down in front of him (he has been made to do that since day 1, so I think it is habit now). The problem is when I am getting his dinner ready in the kitchen and then taking it to the laundry to give to him. I also tried to get him to drop and wait for his food, instead of just a sit, but he just wouldn't do that either. Am I expecting too much of him?

How do I get him to stop jumping around like a maniac if he won't listen to me?

I hope this makes sense to people. I tend to ramble...

[persephone]

he is only a baby -

may I suggest you try this TRIANGLE of TEMPTATION This will help him learn to look to you before he gets his 'treasures' .

I would also suggest making up his food when he's asleep or out of sight. Why get him all anticipatory if it can be avoided ? ;) Break up the routine- make up his meal the night before- when he is away from the kitchen ...then use the ToT for feeding

Edited July 9, 2010 by persephone

[Jacquiboss&scoop]

HI Magstar

Would suggest you try the triangle of temptation posted at the top of the training thread , it also creates a basis for other training , if you hit issues with it just post to the thread and steve will help you out

[Genabee]

I have a very similar problem with Genevieve. She goes mental!!!

I have taken to stopping still every time she moves from where she is sitting.... it certainly drags out the process, but she works out that if I stop, I won't start moving again until she sits and waits.

I might try the triangle of temptation myself!

[W Sibs]

ToT is the way to go

[Magstar]

Looks interesting. I will definately give it a go! Thanks for that

[aussielover]

TOT is amazing! I don't even have to use a lead now and Mindy will not touch the food, not even look at it, her eyes are glued on my face,until I say ok, it is adorable.

I still use the tie back though so she associates being tied up with a reward.

[mrs tornsocks]

Swear by TOT. We employed it with Archie from a young pup and he does not touch his food until he gets the 'yes' command. Plenty of drool while he waits but he is completely focussed on me, and calm as well.

[Marley'z Mum]

would TOT work inside? Coz after reading it, it looks like it is done outside, but my pup gets fed in the laundry

[spottychick]

I used the TOT on my adopted dog and he is brilliant now - I started outside but now I can get him to do it inside too. The amazing thing is that my girl Pepper has just picked it up from watching me train Tango so now she waits and looks at me etc without ever having been specifically trained to do it. LOL She's such a suck

That thread you've been directed to has lots of discussion including stuff about training inside.

[aussielover]

would TOT work inside? Coz after reading it, it looks like it is done outside, but my pup gets fed in the laundry

Yes, we do it inside as mindy gets fed in her crate. you just need to be able to tie up to somewhere though.

[corvus]

Erik had an odd problem... He started out doing lovely quiet sits while we prepared his meals, then one day he suddenly decided he was wild about meals and when he knew they were coming he just COULD NOT contain himself. Much hysterical barking. In the end we would prepare his meal and leave it on the benchtop until he was calm and then get him to do a down or sit and feed him. It worked very well. The first couple of days it took him an hour to settle down, but then it was all smooth sailing and we haven't had a problem since. Erik doesn't eat until he's told he can. OH tries to trick him and goes into another room, leaving him drooling over his bowl, or says things that sound like his release to try to trick him into releasing prematurely. It's pretty funny to watch him go to leap forward to eat and then freeze because he's just realised he heard "good log" rather than "good dog". That was dead easy to teach. Just taught him a leave it with doggy zen and applied the same method to meals. We phased out the leave it cue and now he just waits for the release. Kivi does too. They pick it up damn fast.

I should probably mention that the behaviour when the meal is delievered and the behaviour during preparation are two different things. Even when Erik was at his worst he still did a quiet sit for his meals. It was the preparation phase that was difficult.

[Jaxx'sBuddy]

would TOT work inside? Coz after reading it, it looks like it is done outside, but my pup gets fed in the laundry

i use it inside