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Originally Posted by iloveemmy  When we sit down to eat, I fill up the pups' bowls and set them on the floor next to my husband and me. They know it is time to eat. Our vet said little dogs like company when they eat--just like humans. I think she was right. |
I'm glad I read this b/c while I have always thought the company thing it's glad to hear someone else say it. Reagan's bowls are in the kitchen so everytime we go in there to cook here she comes eating. And if she's eating while we aren't in there she goes and gets one piece then comes out of the kitchen just far enough that she can see us.
Ok now back to the original question. I agree with everyone to stop(if you do) feeding her from your plates. Even if you want to give her something put it in her bowl.
What I have done with Reagan is after I had taught her to stay I started using a "to your spot" command. I tell her "to your spot" then in the beginning I would pick her up and put her in her bed (what we use as her spot) and tell her to stay. The idea is that she has to stay in her spot until we tell her it is "ok" to get up. We no longer have to pick her up and put her in her in spot but we still have to walk over to it, I'm hoping that she will get to where I can tell her from anywhere in the house and she will go get it in. Anyway it works great for various times, mealtime is a big one, another is when we have guests over and she keeps jumping on them or if someone is coming over to work on something like the cable guy or something. If you try this out I would work with "to your spot" at a quiet calm time, don't start out with a mealtime. Add a bit of more time each time you do it then eventually when you are pretty confident of her try mealtime. Also if she gets up just go put her back in and tell her to stay again, even if you were about to let her up you(or you family) needs to be the ones to tell her when its time to get out. Reagan quickly learned to stay through all of a mealtime, after we are done eating I always give her a small bite or two of what we had as a treat. She learned that if she stays when we tell her to that she is definately getting something, whereas if she is under the table she doesn't. Good luck with whatever you try.