Where is your dog during mealtime?

[Moe]

I'm still trying to navigate all the ins and outs of owning a dog. I'm not sure what to do with her at mealtime. I'd rather that she is not in the kitchen while we are eating but she just cries when she it not in the same room with us. She is 15 weeks old. She doesn't eat much and usually isn't too interested in her food. She eats about 5pm and we eat a bit later. So far she has been sitting under my chair while we eat. We don't feed her from the table so she doesn't beg. Right now she is really tiny so she can't reach the table but I'm worried that as she gets bigger she will be able to see what she is missing.

Where are your doodles while you are eating? If they are not in the room with you how did you get them to stay somewhere else?

[Daisy'sMom]

Daisy is allowed anywhere during mealtime, mainly because we never give her people food, therefore she doesn't beg and doesn't know what she's missing out on She's 2 years old and about 40 lbs and she's fine in our kitchen, but we also have a big kitchen and it's very open and open to our family room. But, by her choice, 95% of the time she is lying on the carpet in our family room right by where it turns into our kitchen area, so she's a good 6-7 feet away from the table and she sleeps while we eat. We feed her her own dinner while we're preparing our food. So usually when we sit down to eat she's outside, then she comes in and lays down as I described and snoozes. If she ever paces around the table we just have to snap our fingers at her and tell her to go lay down and she does.

She has zero interest in our eating breakfast and lunch, which we don't eat those meals as a family during the week anyway, it's mainly dinner I was referring to.

[browndog]

Our girl usually just sleeps under the table while we eat dinner or breakfast. She has never been fed from the table so it doesn't occur to her to beg. She makes a good footrest!

[Jasper'sMomma]

Jasper is like daisy. No interest in our dinners...and he's not allowed in the kitchen so he waits at the edge of the carpet where it meets the tile...he is just over 10 months and he has not pushed the boundaries - in this respect at least!!!

[chocodog]

Nash sleeps under the table. Occasionally he'll sniff at someone, but he gets told to "leave it" and lays back down. He's more concerned with being near us than getting fed, so we let him stay.

[Moe]

Interesting to know what everyone does. Good to hear that dogs that don't get fed from the table don't beg. I won't sweat it when she sleeps under my chair.

[Ace's Place]

Ace was a little bit of a pain at mealtimes truth be told. But we started taking turns gently leading him to the edge of the kitchen (sit/stay), he would return...repeat.

Eventually now at 1 year he doesn't bother. Sleeps on the kitchen floor against a wall during dinner. I think its just age....and yes its rare he has table food (maybe a little scrambled egg at breakfast...)

[Nikkiey]

Juneau can be a pain at dinner time. He can walk comfortably under our kitchen table, but because he has a fluffy curly tail, his tail usually ends up on top of the table or in our food. We never had a problem with him before that, he would usually just want to hang out under the table or right next to someone, but now we're looking into booting him out of the dinning area while we're eating. The only downfall to this is that the door for him to go outside is in the dinning area. Now we know the chances of him having to go out while we are eating are slim to none (based on the past) but I'm not too sure how I feel about it yet.

My plan B (and probably turing into plan A) is to move one of his beds into the corner by the door and everytime we're eating he has to go there and stay there.

[Hays]

We used to have our crate in the kitchen and hayley would go in her crate when we ate...after she ate. But now we have sinced moved the crate into the living room and that's where she is when we eat in the kitchen. Ultimately, your pup is young but should get used to not being with you all the time. If you have them used to the crate, and that's where they go when you're gone, try out the crate...give them a little treat each time they enter the crate...the whimpering eventually stops. If they are out with you all the time, I would recommend trying to get them used to being in the crate sometimes when you are home...so they don't constantly have to be with you. And you can have a break to eat in peace....unless you think as the pup gets bigger, they won't be a bother at the table.

[eloise]

A lot depends on the nature of the dog. We have a toy fox terrorist that is incorrigible but pretty mild mannered. She is so small that standing on her hind legs she stands 14” so we ignore her. Eloise started begging because the little dog was. Her nose is just at table height. I started making her sit/down beside my chair. I took about 6 or 7 times for her to figure it out, now she automatically lays down next to my chair at meal times. The compromise is that when I get up from the table it’s treat time for good behavior.

[brunodoodle]

bruno is on his bed, but he use to beg but I dont know what happened he just stays on his bed and play with duck. Funny, he wont even come if i call him to come..its like finish eating then call me.