Command To Get Dog To Eat Breakfast/dinner

[Stealthmatt]

Hi all,

I have been training my dog to wait for a command before he eats his dinner. The command I give is "eat"

I am wondering is this a bad idea? I recently watched a video where a bad dog bites when taking away food, and he said the owner gave the command "ok" for the dog to start eating.

Is this bad? He said it was un-natural?

Do people give commands to their dog to wait before eating?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpPNhjD7Mg4

Edited November 15, 2013 by Stealthmatt

[pie]

This is an extreme case and you are bound to get a lot of people here saying Cesar is an idiot.

I have always made my dogs sit and wait and they can't touch their dinner until I say "OK" - never had any food guarding issues myself. Most people I know with dogs do it also - good for self control and manners.

[Podengo]

My dog can sit & wait for a release cue, but I don't do it much... Don't see a point really for her.

[Stealthmatt]

I don't like how Cesar punched the dog while he was eating for no reason... I am not sure what that was suppose to achieve.

How would u train this out of a dog? I feel he could have used a lead to prevent the dog from launching rather than take his food straight away.

How do u give postive re-enforcement with a situation like this?

[RuralPug]

I have multiple dogs and I find it really helps to get them to sit and wait for the command before they start eating - if nothing else it means they eat the bowl I have prepared for them and not the bowl for the dog that weighs 35kg more or is getting a different supplement!

I think it is just good manners and they are less likely to steal food from a child as well.

ETA - I didn't bother watching the video. Waiting for a release command can either be achieved with a tether (see TOT in here) OR simply by lowering the bowl towards the floor and raising it again if they break the sit or drop you have them in.

Edited November 15, 2013 by RuralPug

[Podengo]

I don't like how Cesar punched the dog while he was eating for no reason... I am not sure what that was suppose to achieve.

How would u train this out of a dog? I feel he could have used a lead to prevent the dog from launching rather than take his food straight away.

How do u give postive re-enforcement with a situation like this?

If your dog has resource guarding problems like this I would suggest seeking the advice of a behaviourist.

[Stealthmatt]

If your dog has resource guarding problems like this I would suggest seeking the advice of a behaviorist.

Thankfully my dog couldn't careless, not even when the little dog takes his ball right from his German Shepard mouth.

But I am curious to know what others would do, I feel the command is a good idea because it can stop them from picking up scraps etc when you have guests over.

I also think maybe the owners in the youtube clip didn't correct the dog when it first started. If mine started doing this, it would be a quick no and removing the food straight away.

[blakkjackal]

That's IMO not the right approach to solving resource guarding problems. The dog is behaving like that because heis afraid that you're going to take his food away and by telling him off and taking the food away you're just going to make the dog even more worried next time. My dog had this issue for a while but we've worked our way past them now. The main thing is to make the dog comfortable about having you around when he's got something he values a lot, in this case food. I would start from a distance and casually walk past the dog while he was eating (not paying attention to the dog at all and thus make him worried) and throw in something really yummy. I repeated this at every meal time until the dog started to anticipate me throwing in more food. Then I would very slowly work my way closer, always making sure I didn't go over his threshold. It's not an overnight solution and definitely requires dedication, but to me that's the only right way of regaining your dogs trust as it is a trust issue after all. Keep it positive and step back, take it nice and slow if your dog is not comfortable with something. I personally respect my dog's dinner time peace and don't disturb unless really necessary (so no games why taking away bones etc, I could do this with a puppy though but always give something better in return). I don't believe in scaring the dog to "respect your authority" when it comes to taking away something as precious as food. Even the lowest ranking pack members have the right to defend their food, everyone's gotta eat and guarding behaviour is quite natural. Just not acceptable in most living arrangements.. Sorry about the lack of paragraphs and possible typos, typing this on my phone. Edit: I make my dog wait before he gets to eat but I don't think this has much to do with the "leave it" command that you kind of described above (not picking up food scraps etc). I just don't like having a super excited dog around me when I prepare his meals lol.

Edited November 15, 2013 by Hockz

[Taliecat]

We've trained our dogs to wait for a release cue from day one.

We've got one dog who is perfect with waiting for a release cue to eat, sometimes I even have to tell him twice that he's allowed to eat.

Our pound dog is still learning and she has some resource guarding issues were working on.

I think it's a great way to help enforce good doggy manners and teach patience, it's also very rewarding to see the change in a staffy staring at his food to watching me walk across the room, waiting for his cue to eat

[Daisy.Tea]

We have release cues. 'Okay' is what I use generally but originally I had a specific meal cue, 'food'. The dogs know not to pick things off the floor unless I give the 'food' cue and it also works well whilst they calmly wait for their meals.

[Staffyluv]

All of my dogs are asked to wait for their dinner and then I say, OK eat now.

I have had a couple of resource guarders come in as fosters and they are usually OK once they realise everyone gets their own dinner..

So they can't have been bad resource guarders in the first place..

I am not a behaviourist so won't discuss what CM does in that video..

The man obviously knows what he is talking about as he does get some amazing results with difficult dogs from what I have seen of his show. But I guess his methods, like all trainers, aren't for everyone.

[persephone]

My dogs always sit & wait for their dinner .. it's no big deal - just like a human kid saying please ... :)

[sheena]

My dogs always go into a drop & wait for their dinner...till I say OK..Get it :)

[Kavik]

If your dog has resource guarding problems like this I would suggest seeking the advice of a behaviorist.

Thankfully my dog couldn't careless, not even when the little dog takes his ball right from his German Shepard mouth.

But I am curious to know what others would do, I feel the command is a good idea because it can stop them from picking up scraps etc when you have guests over.

I also think maybe the owners in the youtube clip didn't correct the dog when it first started. If mine started doing this, it would be a quick no and removing the food straight away.

My dogs sit and wait for a cue to eat their dinner. Don't think it stops them from picking up scraps though :laugh:

[Nekhbet]

Cesar's method has merit - now hear me out.

What he does is a valid idea in beating aggressive responses - old fashioned yes. If the dog exhibits a behavior and is not successful it will not continue to exhibit that behavior, it will move to something that does gain it success. BUT you see - to make the dog not successful is incredibly dangerous no matter the size of the dog particularly when dealing with this type of behavior.

I tell all my clients, don't pick a fight you cannot win, and 99.9% of physical fights you will come out second best no matter the size of the dog.

Making a dog wait for it's food is really a 'trick', it has little to do in the causation of food aggression. This labrador seems to have more then just food aggression problems and I did agree, NEVER to be around children with that type of behavior.

[Kazhak]

I give a wait command to my boys so I don't get rushed when placing food bowls down then I give a release command of OK once clear, so they can approach their bowls, in saying that neither of my boys are aggressive around food & I know if I had to, I could remove bowls while they were still eating & not get attacked or even growled at.

[huski]

I don't just ask for a stay for dinner but also for eye contact, I think it shows respect that the dog is looking to you for permission to eat.

[Agility Dogs]

My dogs earn every piece of food they get. No bowls for us.

Interestingly - when I fed from bowls I would get some resource guarding behaviour between the dogs if I handed out bones or pigs ears. (Two would retreat into a corner and bark on the off chance that someone MIGHT come near them.)

Since moving away from using bowls and making them work for every scrap this behaviour has disappeared. Not sure if the two things are connected, but it does seem a bit coincidental.

[huski]

My dogs earn every piece of food they get. No bowls for us.

Interestingly - when I fed from bowls I would get some resource guarding behaviour between the dogs if I handed out bones or pigs ears. (Two would retreat into a corner and bark on the off chance that someone MIGHT come near them.)

Since moving away from using bowls and making them work for every scrap this behaviour has disappeared. Not sure if the two things are connected, but it does seem a bit coincidental.

I think it can teach them that to earn a treat they have to comply with your commands not compete with each other, so it could very well have impacted on the resource guarding.

[LisaCC]

I don't just ask for a stay for dinner but also for eye contact, I think it shows respect that the dog is looking to you for permission to eat.

Yup, I ask for eye contact too.