Attitudes to adopt
The education of the puppy at the table must be very strict if we want to prevent puppy from putting its two paws on the table to finish the plates or pushing your arm during the whole meal. These are attitudes that you can endure from your dog, but that you cannot make guests endure.
The puppy knows the importance of the meal early on. From the first hours, it fights with its brothers and sisters to obtain an udder. In the wild or in packs of dogs, the dominants eat first. The dominated watch them eat. It is very important that the master has a dominant position. The puppy should eat after its owners and not ask for anything.
Situations in which the master-animal hierarchy is not respected reinforce the dog’s domination, and as the situation recurs every day the dog feels more and more secure and stronger and stronger. This position creates many relationship problems with the teacher and disrupts education. The rules of food are fundamental for learning hierarchy .
His bowl
As soon as the puppy arrives, it must be assigned a bowl that remains its own. If you have two animals, you need two bowls. Avoid taking a plate of your own, get a real dog bowl. You will wash it after each meal and put it away. The puppy should not play with it.
Its table is on the floor! The puppy should eat from the start in a secluded place. Avoid the entrance to the kitchen. No one can then have access to the refrigerator when the dog is eating. It’s not really a submissive position anymore! You don’t have to feed it in the cellar either. A quiet little corner of the kitchen looks perfect. It eats after you, and alone!
The second service
The puppy must attend the meal of the master and the family but must imperatively eat after you. We have seen that the reason for this is the balance of handler-dog relationships. The dog should not ask for food, and if it does, you should not give in. If the puppy asks, ignore it or send it to its basket.
If you give it a “little something” out of kindness, you change the hierarchical position of the puppy and you turn it into a dominant. Of course, all family members have to adopt the same attitude. Whoever gives in will no longer have any authority over the dog. Be vigilant with children, the dog must also obey; this to avoid accidents when they are alone with it.
When your meal is finished, offer its bowl to the dog. Then act like the dominant: go away and let the dog eat alone .
Limited time
Leave the bowl for ten to fifteen minutes and then remove it, even if it is not finished. You will give it back to it at the next meal. A dog should not eat all day. Either way, eating at a fixed time is excellent for intestinal transit. This also applies to the master! We have seen that cleanliness also stems from the regularity of meals. The dog will quickly understand that it must eat without hurry but in a limited time.
Untouchable?
No: neither the dog nor the bowl should be untouchable during the meal. Far too many owners consider it normal for the dog to growl when you touch his bowl or its meal. This denotes an attitude of domination on the part of the dog. You must be able to get a bone out of its mouth. This allows you to assert yourself as a master. It also helps to get something dangerous out of its mouth.
In addition, young children often take advantage of the fact that the dog eats and does not move to come and pet it. The dog must not “turn around”. It is up to you to provoke these situations from an early age by purposely removing the bowl and then returning it to puppy. It is not sadism, it is fundamental for the obedience of the dog. If it growls, don’t give them back its food. You will wait for them to calm down to give them its meal again.
The menu
There is only one menu! And the same every day ! One of the first rules is to give it dog food. In other words: forbid yourself to serve it the leftovers of your meals. If you decide to make it follow a certain diet (canned pâtés, croquettes or traditional food), it should not be changed.
Some owners think that boxes make their dog sick. Sometimes this is only due to the fact that the dog usually eats meat and pasta. Its digestive system is not accustomed to boxes, they “go badly”. If you have to change your diet (for the holidays, for example), you have to anticipate and make a transition over ten days (you introduce little by little, in the usual ration, the new ingredient).
When you decide to feed the puppy a meal, if it doesn’t want it, don’t change anything. Either it’s sick and you get them treated, or it’s temperamental and it won’t have the last word. The owners hope, by modifying the meal, to find what the dog likes and stop there.
But it will last three days and then the dog will get bored and ask for something else again. Don’t give in! A dog can eat the same menu all its life. It is too often the master who gets tired of it!
The end of the dinner
The dog does not need anything at the end of the meal and especially not the sugar in your coffee. Its health depends on compliance with these rules. It should not eat anything between meals, except the treats as a reward. If you can replace them from time to time with hugs, even better.
The dog’s meal in summary
To do
– Give the puppy a personal cover
– Make the dog eat after its masters
– Remove the bowl after a quarter of an hour
– Do not modify the menu
– Calculate the ration according to its weight
Don’ts
– Give it your dishes to lick
– Give it little bits of food during your meal
– Leave it free to eat when it wants
– Give in to its whims
– Watch it eat
– Accept that it prevents you from touching its bowl