Paws Off My Pizza! (Or How To Stop A Dog From Begging At The Table)

A dog that ‘begs’ for food may whine, or poke his humans while they are eating. But many dogs are ‘silent beggars’.

They just sit there, gazing at your pizza, then back at you, then back at your pizza again. As if they could ‘wish’ the food from your plate.

Some begging dogs are also droolers.

If you have ever had a meal at a friends house while a dog sits next to you, eyes locked on your plate, a big string of drool dangling from the side of his mouth, you’ll know how off-putting it can be.

Why do dogs beg?

It may seem obvious, but dogs do what works for them.

If your dog is repeatedly begging at the table, it is because that behavior has been rewarding for them at some point in the past.

This usually happens for one of two reasons

• Some family member is or has been deliberately feeding the dog from the table
• Some family member is accidentally feeding the dog from the table.

The former occurs when adults or children, openly or surreptitiously feed the dog.  Passing food from their plate, possibly slipping food under the table to the dog.

The latter is very common in families with very young children, who consistently spill, drop or throw food on the floor whilst they are eating.

If your own dog begs at the table, you may be wondering how to stop them

Stop begging!

Saying ‘no’ or ‘stop that’ to the culprit tends to have little effect on begging dogs.

They may slink away for a while, only to creep back when you are not paying attention.  Getting angry doesn’t help much either.  Most dogs will risk a fair degree of wrath in exchange for a morsel of ‘forbidden’ food.

In any case, from the dog’s point of view “Don’t do that”, is actually a very vague kind of instruction.  If they are not supposed to ‘do this’ what are they supposed to do? We’ll have a look at that in a moment.  But first, we need to stop rewarding the begging.

Stop feeding!

Your first course of action must be to prevent the dog being reinforced (accidentally or purposefully) for the behavior you want them to stop.

In other words, you need to make sure no-one slips your dog food from the table, and that they cannot get at spilled food during the course of the meal.

The easiest way to achieve this in the short term may be to exclude the dog from the room.  An alternative is shut them in a crate in the same room.  This is often the best option for a puppy.  

Don’t forget that puppies who are never fed from the table, will never learn to beg.

Once you have the family on your side, the next step should be to set about training the dog. 

If you have a baby or toddler, you may need to wait until they are past the food throwing stage to start this training. The training will not work as well if the dog is still sometimes being reinforced with food under the table, no matter where it comes from.  

Do this instead!

Nowadays, dog trainers know that focusing on what you want the dog to do, rather than what you don’t want the dog to do, is many times more effective.

This works well for the dog too, because dogs like to know where they stand and what is expected of them.

To train your dog not to beg at mealtimes means teaching them an alternative ‘mealtime’ behavior

So, ask yourself  “What do I want my dog to do while I am eating?”

What do you want the dog to do?

The best option is usually for them to sit or lie in a designated place, well away from the table.

You can use your dog’s bed, basket, or a mat of some kind.  

It needs to be a visually recognizable place so that it is clear to the dog when they are in it, and when they are not.

Close to you

What you are going to do now, is reinforce the dog for being in that place. You are creating a kind of ‘feeding station’. And creating a lot of motivation for the dog to be there. 

That means throwing food into the bed or basket. Which also means moving the bed or basket near enough to the table, or wherever else you are eating, for you to do this. 

Once the dog has learned to get in there when you sit down to eat, you can gradually move your ‘feeding station’ further away. 

The treat pot

You’ll need a pot of tiny treats on your table, or in a treat bag where you can reach them. You’ll need quite a lot of them to begin with. 

For some dogs, you may find kibble is motivating enough to get them heading for their bed. For others, you may need something more valuable to the dog. Such as tiny pieces of cheese or chicken.

Getting started

I’ll assume you are using a dog bed for this exercise. 

Throw a few treats into your dog’s bed before you sit down for a meal. Once you have sat down to eat, you’ll throw a treat to the dog whenever they are in the bed. 

Now this may not happen straight away. Your dog might lean in and eat any treats you have dropped there, but not actually get right into the bed. That’s okay, you’re going to ‘shape’ the behavior you want.  

Let’s get shaping

Shaping is a process of continually moving the goalposts.  You feed a dog repeatedly for a simple act that they can easily achieve, then you stop feeding and wait for them to do something even better. 

The ‘repeated’ part is important here. Because when a dog has experienced repeated reinforcement for a simple act and that reinforcement stops, they will try to find a way to make it start again by doing other things.  Such as moving closer to the bed or putting a paw into it.

In this case shaping involves initially feeding the dog for being close to the bed, then for placing a paw in the bed, then two paws, and so on. Until you only reinforce the dog when all four paws are in the bed.

More than one person can play this game, provided they have the ability to throw with a reasonable degree of accuracy. 

The dog’s in the bed!

Once the dog gets right in the bed you are really making progress. Now you need to reinforce this behavior very thoroughly.  Start by giving a treat every few seconds. You want this experience to be something a bit special for your dog. So that they really want to repeat it. 

You especially want to avoid the ‘yo-yo’ effect where you wait too long between treats, the dog gets out of the bed, and then gets back into it again for another treat. In and out. Over and over. 

You want the dog to get into the bed and stay in the bed. And you’ll quickly figure out just how often you need to feed to get this effect. It may be every few seconds to begin with. 

Feeding less often

Obviously you don’t want to spend every mealtime practicing your throwing technique and feeding your dog. 

However, the best way to sabotage your efforts is to reduce the frequency of feeding too quickly. So take this next step slowly 

Reduce the number of treats your dog gets in their bed, by spacing them further apart. Sometimes after a longer gap, give the dog several treats in a row.  Aim to be feeding only one or two treats during your meal after about four weeks. 

Another four weeks after that you may be able to just feed your dog at the very end of your own meal. And then you can start moving the basket further from wherever it is you are sitting down to eat. If you want to. 

Won’t my dog get fat?

Your dog won’t get fat during this process provided you subtract the food you use in training, from their daily food allowance. 

In the early stages, depending on whether you feed your dog once or twice a day,  you might be able to use up your dog’s entire dinner this way, while you eat yours.

Later on giving your dog their dinner at the end of your meal, can be their reward for staying in their basket while you eat.  

Begging at the table is an annoying habit, but it is easy to avoid and not too hard to cure. Let us know how you get on with this technique in the comments below!

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