Our four-legged friends are creatures of habit, so once they learn a bad habit it’s really difficult to get them to unlearn it! The reason for this is that their innate consistency that often clashes with what we tell them to do! If your dogs in restaurants are well behaved, you are sitting and quiet, you will not have problems with other diners. If not, if your dog goes around all the tables looking to beg or make trouble, we will help you learn how to train your dog to stop asking for food on the table. Let’s take a look at some advice!
How to educate dogs in restaurants not to ask for table food
If we give in when our dogs beg at the table, and then expect them not to, it’s no wonder the dog is confused! It’s a bit like teaching your dog not to jump up- if you pet him when he jumps sometimes and then other times tell him to get down, how is supposed to understand? And then he will repeat the behavior with other people, hoping for pets from them too. Another example is when the puppy bites to play or steals objects in the home, and everyone has fun, but then once the dog is an adult you scold them for the same behaviors.
After these examples will be easy to understand why if we bring our dog to the restaurant, our friend will pay a visit to each table asking for tidbits from all the patrons. This is not at all surprising! If we want to educate dogs at the table, we must avoid these contradictions as much as possible! Therefore if you want to have a dog in the restaurant and expect him to be well behaved, you should never feed him from the table at home.
Your dog should never know that there is something good for him on your table, indeed quite the opposite, so they wont jump on your knees asking for a treat! If you cannot resist their sweet eyes, leave the table, take a biscuit from the cupboard where you keep their food, move away from the table and give it to him. With our four-legged friends we need to use a lot of consistency otherwise we risk losing their confidence and diminish their attachment to us. Never forget that as for us, even in the canine world, it’s hard to unlearn a bad habit.