Tag Archives: begging

Pick your dog-training battles

His crate is so comfy that Teddy chooses it to relax.

His crate is so comfy that Teddy chooses it to relax.

I freely admit I’m a crazy dog lady. I may not have a lot of dogs (only two), but when you sum up my life (own a dog-supply shop, belong to a dog training club, take dog training classes twice a week), it’s pretty much all about the dogs.

A couple of weeks ago one of the best agility dog trainers in the world (Susan Garrett – Say Yes! dog training) held a webinar that we eagerly awaited. As it turns out, like most best-laid plans, there were technical difficulties and we couldn’t see it live. We did watch the recorded version the next day and got a lot out of it – even after all these years of training.

The best part, for me, was defining the three ways we deal with puppy “naughtiness,” or bad behavior. We either manage it (control the situation so it can’t happen), redirect it (replacing the shoe in your puppy’s mouth with a chew toy), or fix it.

The behaviors that bother us the most are the ones we deal with. There’s an old saying in dog training that “Every dog is trained to its owner’s level of comfort.” If it’s important to you – you deal with it.

One of the behaviors we’ve chosen to manage, rather than “fix,” is begging at the dinner table. Over the years we’ve just chosen not to deal with it. We also can’t/won’t tolerate begging dogs. So we’ve chosen to feed all of our dogs, in their crates, at the same time we eat. Our dogs are in the dining room with us, enjoying their meals as we have ours. When they’re done (in about three seconds flat), they know they’re not going anywhere until we’ve finished our meal – so they relax and take naps while we eat.

It’s made having guests over for dinner a very simple thing. Is it a bit of a cop-out? Maybe. But I think dog training is a lot like raising children – you have to pick your battles. Do you want your teenager to dye her hair blue? Maybe not – but it’s less permanent than that tattoo she was begging for….