Eating training is a very useful chapter. Canine dining behavior training mainly includes regular dog eating training, food protection training, and very useful food refusal training! These dog feeding techniques are essential for every pet owner.
According to Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, establishing consistent mealtime routines is crucial for canine digestive health and behavior. The time a dog spends eating must be limited, usually 10-20 minutes is enough. Many dog owners let their dogs eat for a very long time, which is actually a very bad habit. Generally, if a dog eats for more than 20 minutes, it will be taken away. Dogs are not as complicated as humans. When they encounter something delicious, they will not stop until their stomachs are full.
dog behaviour training for eating. You may think that food refusal training is a skill that only police and military dogs that have to face bad guys and criminals need to learn. In fact, the continuous poisoning incidents of pet dogs in society show that pet dogs also need to learn to refuse food. Good dogs will not eat food from the street.
Dogs have very simple thoughts. They will never understand or believe that someone will deliberately feed them poisonous food. Appetite is a strong instinctive desire of dogs. Therefore, food refusal training is difficult and may not be completed overnight. It requires the owner's patience to complete it.
food training for dogs. Good dogs won't eat food from the street through proper dog dining etiquette training. Food refusal training can be divided into two parts: one is not allowing the dog to eat food fed by strangers, and the other is not allowing the dog to pick up food and eat it anywhere. Below I will introduce the relevant training methods one by one.
Good dog eating habits training
Solving dog feeding problems starts here. Before learning how to train a dog to refuse food, we should first understand the basic requirements for dogs to eat.
Like people, dogs should also develop a good habit of eating: eating at regular times and places is very beneficial to the health of dogs. When many dogs are sick, they complain to "Dog Knowledge Encyclopedia": saying that their dog's stomach is not good. After careful inquiry, it is actually caused by bad feeding habits.
So what should we pay attention to in diet?
1. Meal time training
The time a dog spends eating must be limited, usually 10-20 minutes is enough. Many dog owners let their dogs eat for a very long time, which is actually a very bad habit. Generally, if a dog eats for more than 20 minutes, it will be taken away.
Dog feeding tip is removing bowls after 20 minutes. Don't be afraid that your dog will be hungry. Don't feel soft-hearted; this establishes routine and prevents lifelong pickiness. These best practices for teaching dogs to eat well prevent future issues. You must let your dog develop a regular meal schedule. Unless you want to worry about your dog not liking to eat for the rest of your life.
2. Don’t give your dog too many snacks
When eating, try to feed your dog mainly with dog food, and do not add any food or canned meat at will, especially do not add canned meat every meal. This will easily damage the dog's mouth, and it will easily stop eating dog food in the future because there is no added food.
Feed mainly dog food without constant additives. Professional dog food contains complete nutrition - a cornerstone of puppy mealtime coaching. Random additions damage eating discipline and cause dog training eating everything issues.
Generally, professional dog food is carefully formulated by experts and contains all the nutrients that dogs should have, so you don’t need to worry.
3. Persistence
Because dogs are very smart, they know that if they just bear with it and don't eat dog food for 1 or 2 meals, their parents will feel bad and offer them something tastier. Please don't do this, dog parents: this will make your baby more fearless and more picky about food.
Stick to these two principles: try it for two or three days, and don't be soft-hearted.
Dogs test boundaries by refusing meals. Managing dog mealtime behavior requires unwavering consistency: "No extras after 2-3 days!" This how to train your dog to eat properly approach ensures improvement.
No matter how hard you try, your dog will definitely improve its eating habits.
Refuse food from strangers
This training is very important. There are many cases of poisoning in residential areas. This article strongly recommends that you make this training a key training item!
Dogs are friends of human beings, but not everyone likes dogs so much. Some people hate dogs very much, and some thieves also hate dogs very much. They will put some poisonous food in some places for dogs to eat, and poison the dogs to achieve their despicable purpose. This critical dog obedience training for mealtime prevents poisoning. Use this method:
One training method is to teach the dog to eat from a special dish. If the dish is made of a different material, such as stainless steel instead of ceramic, the dog will not be able to eat the food in it. You can also teach the dog to only eat food fed by the left hand. However, these methods are mainly used for police dogs, because police dogs can be kept away from the outside world for a long time, which is easier to implement.
For general domestic dogs, the following methods can be used for training:
Basic training method for food refusal:
First, choose a place with few pedestrians and less interference. The dog owner should ask a friend to take a piece of the dog's favorite food and prepare it for the dog.
The friend holds a little meat in his hand and approaches the dog in a friendly manner. The friend has already understood your intention: the dog must not eat the meat no matter what. When the friend holds the meat over to the dog, the dog will surely be happy to take a bite. At this time, you should suddenly tighten the collar and yell, "No!" The dog may try to eat it three or four times, and the cooperative friend will retreat and leave.
At this time, sit down, relax a little, and wait for your friend to come back with the piece of meat. Ideally, you should use a new "evil feeder" each time. (However, many people have reported that in the actual training process, only one friend is needed. If the dog looks aggressive, it is not easy to find someone to help.)
The following lessons still revolve around "your friend tempting the dog": whenever the little one wants to eat meat, your friend pretending to be a "stranger" will slap it in the face (if it is afraid, you can also use a water gun to spray the dog), so that the dog will gradually become bored or even hostile to the "stranger"'s food.
Continue to ask friends to come and seduce the dog. The little guy is not a fool. If he is stopped again and again, he may think of ignoring it. Great! That's it, you must think so. Haha, don't worry, it's not over yet! There is still a long way to go.
Now, ask your friend to throw the meat on the ground. You loosen the chain on the dog's collar slightly, so that the dog thinks it can finally bite the delicious food in front of it. When it moves, you vigilantly tighten the chain and sternly stop it with "No!" while scolding the dog.
(Note! Never let the dog eat the meat, otherwise if it sneaks in once, it will think of trying its luck next time - the whole training is completely ruined. This is not an easy training, which is why we always take it slowly and keep pausing.)
Repeat this several times. When the dog is no longer interested in the stranger's food, please reward the dog immediately. Finally it worked!!
Summary: For dogs, refusal training is a difficult one and it takes a long time to consolidate the effect. At the same time, the effect of refusal training is closely related to the quality of the dog. For some dogs with strong appetite reflexes, refusal training often takes longer. This teaching dogs to eat calmly technique requires patience but saves lives. Monthly refreshers maintain vigilance.
However, for the dog's health, the owner still has to persist in training. As long as you work hard, you can grind an iron rod into a needle.
Once mastered, the dog can effectively protect himself - so it makes sense to spend more time and energy training other skills. To keep your little one alert, conduct realistic simulation tests and review at least once a month.
Chili Food Method
I have seen someone introduce another method in this article: the chili food method. However, this is not a mainstream training method. I will briefly explain it here so that everyone can understand it:
- In order to ensure that the training is not disturbed, first choose a place with fewer pedestrians and less interference.
- The dog owner asks a friend to place some meat soaked in chili oil or meat with chili peppers on the ground. When the owner brings the dog by, ask your friend to drop the meat. The dog will feel uncomfortable after eating the meat and chili peppers. In this way, even the most greedy dog will learn a lesson.
However, based on the experience of this article: dogs are very sensitive to spicy and pungent smells. Unless the meat is poured with a very thick broth, this method may still work. Hehe, everyone is just a reference. Try to train your dog according to the first method.
Dogs are not allowed to pick up food anywhere
In the last section, we learned “how to train dogs not to eat food from strangers”. In this section, we will also learn “training to refuse food on the ground”. This dog dining etiquette training complements stranger refusal.
Dogs are lively and curious. When you go out for a walk, they will always smell the ground curiously. If they see something delicious, they will eat it. This situation is very common among pet dogs.
However, picking up food scattered on the street is very dangerous. First of all, even if the food is clean and non-toxic, it will become dirty and full of bacteria and viruses when it falls on the street; in addition, many foods have already spoiled and dogs will get sick if they eat them.
This is true for originally non-toxic foods, not to mention those that are toxic in themselves. The rat baits scattered on the streets and poisonous dog food thrown by bad people are all killers that seriously threaten dogs' lives.
Training methods:
- When taking your dog for a walk, if you find that the dog is about to pick up food, the owner should immediately and severely criticize it, saying "No!" At the same time, pull the dog leash hard, or tap the dog's mouth with your finger to stop the dog's behavior in time.
- If the dog can ignore the food, the owner should encourage the dog in time, praise it in a gentle tone, and touch it affectionately. (Dog owners please note: when the dog picks up food, the owner should stop it in time, and the tone of criticism should be short and strong. Nagging criticism will only make the dog misunderstand your meaning).
- However, dogs have a strong appetite. For dogs with strong appetite reflexes and poor obedience training foundation, repeated training may not be effective. At this time, the dog owner can use a stronger stimulus such as "water gun" to punish the dog. At the same time, pull the dog leash hard to stop the dog from eating. Consistency is vital - training tips for dogs to eat calmly only work with monthly practice.
- Pay attention to the strength when pulling the dog leash. For dogs with strong appetite reflex, you can use a little more force. At the same time, you must praise the dog in time. For dogs with good basic obedience training, a few such trainings will show results.
If a dog eats food outside at will, it must be criticized.
To be honest, not picking up food is as difficult to train as refusing food, and it takes a long time to consolidate the results.
In order to consolidate the results, you can train continuously 2-3 times a month. At the same time, the effect of the training of not picking up food is closely related to the quality of the dog. For some dogs with strong appetite reflex, the training of not picking up food often takes longer.
But in order to protect our babies, please try your best to grit your teeth and train your dogs in this skill!
Stop dogs from guarding their food
It is a bad behavior for a dog to guard its food. If a dog guards its food from a young age, not only will it be difficult to learn the previous "food refusal training", but it will also develop into guarding its toys, territory, etc., which will be a headache for you as a dog owner.
Resource guarding undermines all feeding habits training for dogs. Correct it early. At the beginning, you need to learn some ways to play with your dog, such as learning to massage your dog before it eats, and then feeding it food little by little with your hands.
Training methods:
1. At first, the dog will be very disgusted when you approach its food, and may even threaten the owner with a voice. So at the beginning, you can first put a little food in front of it not far from your hand, and then gradually feed it directly with your hand. This will gradually let the dog understand that you are not a threat to its food, but a giver, so that it will relax its vigilance towards you.
2. Secondly, you can often feed your dog with your hands. Spread your palms, put the delicious food on the palms of your hands and feed it to the dog. This way of feeding is very safe, the dog will lick the food and will not bite your hands. After the dog gets used to it, you can try to hold the food bowl in your hands and feed it to your puppy.
3. Next, you need to let the dog get used to having someone around when eating. When you feed it, put your hands on it first. While petting it, pour the food into its food dish. Don't stop petting it while it eats. The movements should be gentle and slow, and you can talk to it to make it trust that you will not steal its food.
4. Don't be too aggressive when petting. Take your time depending on how receptive the cat is. You can start by petting the back half of its body, and when it doesn't object, gradually move to its head (this process sometimes takes several days to complete).
5. Once the dog is used to eating with someone around and being petted, that is, not threatening, start trying to take away the food bowl. During the whole process of eating, if you find that it has signs of threatening, such as wrinkling its nose, making a whining sound, looking at people with squinting eyes, etc., yell at it and take away the food. When it calms down, praise it, pet it and say "good." Then give it the food bowl. Repeat this until it stops resisting.
Note:
- Training a dog to "not guard its food" requires a little patience. Don't snatch its food at the beginning, as this is more dangerous. Especially when taking away the lunch box, pay attention to the dog's nerves. If the dog shows signs of attacking, stop taking the lunch box.
- Occasionally remove bowl during eating return when calm. This managing dog mealtime behavior teaches you control resources, not threaten them.
Make it easy for dogs to take medicine
On the surface, taking medicine for a dog cannot be considered eating. However, in many cases, you have to put the pills in the food to trick the dog into eating it. Therefore, feeding medicine is often closely related to feeding food.
It is impossible to make a dog take medicine on its own initiative, especially for some very bitter medicines. People can't even swallow them, let alone dogs. The general method is to force the dog to chew it open, or feed it with a syringe, but these methods are often ineffective and dangerous.
We need to find a way to make the dog willing to open its mouth. Why do dogs want to open their mouths? Because dogs think good things will happen. So we usually need to train dogs to make them associate opening their mouths with good things.
This specialized dog feeding technique uses mouth-opening drills. I think it is very good, so I will introduce it to you:
Open mouth training
1. Let the dog lick the food first.
2. While the dog is focusing on the food, the owner uses the thumb, middle finger and ring finger of his other hand to reach into the dog's mouth from the side.
3. Put your fingers into both sides of the dog's mouth and open it.
4. After the dog opens its mouth, the owner immediately puts the food into the dog's mouth.
The core of this training is: usually use food to train the dog, and then use medicine instead at critical moments. In addition to being useful when feeding the dog medicine, if the dog picks up something that it shouldn't eat in its mouth, the dog owner can also take it out in time.
Note:
- However, it is the nature of dogs to not accept having the food in their mouths taken away, so when training, you can first put the dog’s favorite small food in your hand, and when the dog smells the scent, he will open his mouth.
- Generally, small dogs are not a big problem. If it is a medium or large dog, be careful not to get bitten by the dog.
Training to open the mouth
1. Lick the dog with food first.
2. While the dog is focusing on the food, the owner uses the thumb, middle finger and ring finger of the other hand to extend from the side of the dog's mouth into the mouth.
3. Insert your fingers from both sides of the dog's mouth and open the mouth.
4. After the dog's mouth is opened, the owner immediately puts the food into the dog's mouth.
The core of this training is: usually use more food to practice dogs, and you can use medicine instead of medicine at critical times. In addition to being useful when feeding medicine to dogs, if the dog picks up something that should not be eaten in its mouth, the dog owner can also take it out in time.
Precautions:
- However, the nature of dogs is that they cannot accept that the things in their mouths are snatched away, so when training, you can first put the dog's favorite food in your hand, and open your mouth when the dog smells it.
- Generally, small dogs are not a big problem, if it is a medium or large dog, be careful not to be bitten by the dog on the hand.
Through these best practices for teaching dogs to eat well, you'll establish lifelong safety and manners. Remember: solving dog feeding problems requires patience, but protects your companion from countless dangers. Consistent puppy mealtime coaching creates the foundation for all advanced dog obedience training for mealtime.
