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I told some people I would post this, I sometimes get contracts to write articles for emags or other literature, I have a few I've written on different aspects of "Dog Training." If people are interested, I'll post more. I just don't want to seem like I'm doing this for attention...ya know? The articles had criteria I had to meet, so you may have to wade through some fluff. I also did a little editing, so my auto swap of "and" for "&" may appear a few times. Also, I decided last minute to merge a couple different ones so their may be some redundancy. But if you are a dog lover, you will enjoy it.
Dog Training – Who is Training Who?
Training Using Dog Psychology
Most people buy or adopt a dog with the best of intentions. They plan to feed him, play with him, train him, & fill a special place in their hearts - that only dogs can fill. It's going to be wonderful! Once the puppy is home, reality sets in. The pup is doing #1 & #2 in the house, chewing every item you care about, & otherwise terrorizing your previously peaceful life. Despite your best efforts, he won't sit, or lay down, never mind stay. It doesn't take long to get frustrated, which only makes owning a dog less fun. Your discouraged, the dog is becoming a burden, your motivation to train is much lower than before. Owning a dog should be a thing of joy, not trouble.
There are a couple of things at play here that most people don't realize. There is an easy way, and a hard way to do things. I'm going to show you the easy way. However, it's not all rainbows and butterflies from here on out. A friend of mine made a life observation one time that I will never forget. She said "Have you ever noticed how it takes effort to make things easy?" This is certainly the case with owning a dog. Here is a number of things you can do to make things, "easy."
Training Puppies
Patience is Key
Our main focus will be training dogs a little older than puppy-hood. But I feel I need to cover some aspects that cause the most frustration; potty training and chewing.
Dogs like to pee on things that are soft. In nature they pee outside in the grass, dirt, anything soft. They prefer not to pee on hard surfaces because they don't like the splashing, but they will. In the house, a carpet is as good as grass in their mind. They honestly know no different. It would be as if an alien beamed you up & took you to their house, where they had a special room, & a thing remarkably like a toilet inside. But when you pee'd in it, they hit you with newspaper. You would be very confused, no? (analogy taken from The Culture Clash - Jean Donaldson)
The trick with puppies is to take them outside frequently to pee. When they do, make a really big deal of it. Praise, hugs, kisses, treats, whatever is necessary to get the point across to that dog that you are very happy with what they just did. Dogs in general, but puppies especially have small bladders and short digestive tracts. Take them out enough so they have the opportunity to succeed. Don't set them up for failure. Then, when they do fail, all you need to do is give whatever word or sound you have chosen for your "I disagree with that behavior" command, pick them up, & rush them outside. It only takes several successes & a couple failures for the dog to understand. Also, the frequent bathroom breaks is a short term thing. Very quickly the dog will have bigger organs, & better control of them.
Dogs make associations almost instantly. With humans, you could comment on something someone did yesterday, & they would know what you were talking about. Dogs don't register things that way. If you want to "comment" on a dogs behavior, it needs to be right away. Literally within 2 seconds before or during the act, otherwise they don't make the connection. That is half of your battle right there, understanding that concept. In fact, it is so quick, that once you become good at this, you will be "commenting" to the dog, before he has even physically done anything. But now, you will be catching it at the prime time, the moment they start to think it.
"Commenting" is basically that; giving the dog whatever signal system you have worked out, that you are happy, displeased, or ambivalent. Dogs sense much more emotion than this. But for training purposes, those are really your main options. You either like this behavior, you dislike it, or you haven't said or done anything. In this case, the dog goes to his default response, that this is a freedom he is allowed. So keep in mind, every time you don't comment on the dog's behavior, you are in fact giving him a message. That message is "I don't mind what you are doing."
A dog does not have "feelings" you need to dance around. You must give a dog feedback, all throughout it's life, but especially in the beginning. As Cesar Milan always says (correctly in my opinion) it wants rules, boundaries & limitations. If you are not giving those to the dog...at all times, the dog assumes you are ambivalent, & it is free to do this behavior. If you cannot catch it time to make the correction, obviously lead the dog away from the situation, but hold off correcting until next time.
When you are outside & Fido starts pee'ing, say whatever command you want to be your pee command. Same thing with number 2. That is actually my command, I say "number 2?" The perfect time to say the command that you want the dog to associate with said action, is the moment he is thinking about doing it, or starts to do it. This applies throughout the dog's life. But when potty training, this is especially useful.
One of the easiest ways to train is to pay attention to what your dog is doing. When he does a behavior that you want, just call it out. E.g. the dog sits down, you say the word "sit" & then praise the dog. A great way to teach dogs this is just to sit in a chair with a treat in your hand. Say nothing. The dog will begin to do anything it knows how to do to get the treat. Block any bad behavior, & wait until the dog sits. When he does, say "sit" in a happy voice, & give the dog the treat. Continue to do this, with the major commands until the dog gets it. Dog's learn behavior first, word association second. So just watch their behavior and add the word association when appropriate. Once they have the word association, they can perform the action on command. But before this connection takes place in his little doggy brain, he needs to know what he just did, & what it is called. This applies just the same when you take them outside to do their business. Wait for them to do it, yell happily to your neighbors, "Go Pee!" Reward the dog however you choose. Always take young dogs out on a leash (unless fenced), it's easier to show them where they are allowed to go, & where they are not. Meaning the boundaries of where you will allow the dog to travel in your yard.
Dog Chewing
Your puppy is going to want to chew everything in sight. The most important thing is to gate the dog into one room and puppy proof it. That means remote controls, shoes, pillows, books. Anything in the dog's reach that it can get in it's mouth, it will.
Again, don't set your dog up for failure. Get the dog things he CAN chew on. A constant flow of things it's ok for him to chew on. During times you are with the dog (at night watching TV) put things on the floor the dog is not allowed to chew, so that you can teach the dog what is ok, & what is not ok. Make sure to remove before you leave the dog alone again. NEVER give the dog an old shoe or mittens to munch on, he is not going to know the difference between shoes and mittens that are ok vs. ones that are not. Make the things that it's ok for him to chew within easy reach and praise him when he uses them. Use them for play, make them exciting for the dog. You want to develop his interest in the things it's ok to chew on and remove the temptation to chew on other things.
Do not underestimate what your dog will try to chew in the beginning. I can't express this enough. If I had a dollar for each item my dog chewed, ripped, gnawed, disemboweled or just plain ate something I didn't think he would...I'd be a rich man.
Training your Dog - Who is Training Who?
Reverse Dog Psychology
Dogs are constantly learning how to manipulate their environment. This is happening, whether you know it or not. They can't talk, they can't gesture. The only way they know how to get what they want is to do doggy things. This is where your effort will eventually make things easier for you, & lack of it will lead to an unruly dog, & many years of stress for you.
To give you an example, when your dog wants to go outside, if it goes ballistic, jumping around, scratching at the door, etc and then you let the dog outside. The dog has just learned that this is the behavior he does when he wants to go outside. When I want to go out, I just go ballistic on this glass door here, & then they open it for me. It makes perfect sense to the dog. But humans often don't see it.
We need to use a little judo here. Use the dogs manipulation tactics against him. If you make the dog sit by the door before you let him out, the dog learns that this is the behavior that gets him let outside. Remember that dogs need that quick connection, so within seconds of the dog sitting, reward him by letting him outside. Every time you get frustrated & give in so the dog will stop being a hassle, you are teaching him a lesson. & the dog is learning. This is what many people don't realize.
If a dog has a good life, it consists of 2-3 meals a day, at least one walk a day, bathroom breaks, naps, & snuggle time. Not bad, but like all of us, the dog usually wants more....of something. You need to remember that the dog is always learning how to manipulate it's surroundings in order to get what it wants. Did you see that? Always. & you are always teaching. If you are not involved, you are teaching the dog just the same. But the dog is learning how to manipulate you, instead of you controlling the dog. We are going to allow the dog to manipulate us...oh yes, we are going to let the dog think he has figured us all out. But the way we are going to teach him to manipulate us, is actually the way we want him to behave.
If your dog begs at the table while you are eating, and you give it to him thinking he will be appeased and leave you alone, you couldn't be more wrong. You have just taught the dog that begging will get him fed. Dogs, being the geniuses that they are (at times) will continue to pursue what has worked for them in the past. Turn it around and make it a behavior that you want. A behavior that the dog will pursue in the future that won't be a hassle for you.
For example, I suggest no one ever feed the dog from the table, ever. Not company, not relatives, not children...never. When my wife and I are cooking, the dog used to be constantly underfoot, waiting for something to drop. It occasionally did and the dog was inadvertently rewarded. We did not want to reinforce this behavior, so we got a mat, and put it in the corner of the kitchen. We told the dog to sit on the mat and tossed him a treat as soon as he sat. But just far enough away that he had to get up from his spot to get it. He would then proceed underfoot and we would redirect him to the rug. As soon as he sat down on the rug, we tossed another treat. It doesn't take long for the dog to figure out that if I put my bottom here, I get what I want! Within three sessions or so, the dog sits patiently on his mat, thinking he is manipulating us! (Mats are a great tool for dogs, put them anywhere around the house you want the dog to sit. Use the technique I just mentioned above, & associate it with the words "Where do you sit?" They will go to their mat).
Here is a video of my dog Buddy and how he behaves in the kitchen. He does this without any prompting. I gave him no vocal signals at all, what you hear in the background is an episode of SVU playing (which I fixed for the following videos) What you may also hear is two times I dropped food on the floor, once was one of his treats, once was a piece of beef which he finds irresistible. You'll notice he didn't go for either one. He waited patiently on his rug because that is what he has learned gets him treats. After he understood where he was supposed to sit, we would intentionally drop things, & if he got up to eat them, we would pick them up. Poor little doggy was foiled. He notices that when he gets up to get the food, we take it away. He is confused, so he will look to you for a comment. This is an utterly beautiful moment. Now, you tell him "ok" & he is allowed to get the food. Only a couple sessions of this, & you can drop anything on the floor, the dog will stay on the mat, & look at you (that eye contact is good, that means they are looking to you to tell them what to do). Now the dog is not underfoot, unless we allow him to be, then he goes right back to his spot.
Sitting, where it all begins
Offering sits
Offering sits
By now you have the basic idea of how to use your dog's natural manipulation instinct to your advantage. They are smart. Are you smarter? Use his desire to get what he wants to get the behavior you want. You want to teach and reinforce good behavior. Never reward undesirable behavior. A lot of this starts with the sit.
Before we let our dog outside he goes and sits by the door. Before he gets fed he runs into his crate and sits, before we let him on the couch he sits and waits for permission. He loves all of it as he thinks of it as "winning!" But all this behavior starts by getting the dog to "offer" sits. I've included a video below of Buddy's behavior before being fed. Again he did this with no vocal prompting.
Offering sits is when the dog sits of his own volition, without vocal prompting. The way to do this is to have high reward treats, something your dog really likes. Treats need to be visible or the dog at least needs to know you have them. The dog will usually then proceed to go through several behaviors to try to appease you and get a treat. The moment he sits, click or praise, and give him a treat. Toss the treat far enough away from the dog that he needs to get up to get the treat so you can restart the exercise. Do this 30 times a few times a week. You may need to adjust the amount of food you give the dog on his regular feeding schedule to account for all the treats he will be getting. You don't want the dog sitting because he is too obese to stand.
Also practice this exercise in different places. Dogs don't generalize in the same way that we do. He might be able to do this exercise in the house, but if you try it outside they are usually baffled. After several regular sessions of this exercise the dog will start to use this as his fall back behavior when he wants something. Isn't that great!? Now when the dog wants something, his first idea is to sit calmly! After you get him good and trained with this exercise all you will have to do is look at him and he will sit. Anytime he wants something and doesn't get it right away he will sit. What a great behavior for the dog to practice. When starting out, if you have to give the dog a vocal command to sit, it's not ideal - but do what you must. Remember the end goal is for the dog to offer sits without vocal prompting. As training gets more advanced, you will progress to where the dog offers other behaviors. Anything you can train the dog, in which they think it was their idea, is good training.
Now that the dog knows the behavior it's very easy to incorporate into whatever you want. As I mentioned earlier our dog sits quietly in the kitchen when we cook and we randomly toss him treats. He does not bother us while we eat because he knows it does not get him what he wants.
Doggy Judo Black Belt
Now who is training who
I've been to people's houses where they have a full grown dog who is a maniac. Jumping on people, bothering you while eating, using outside energy in the house. What I always hear from the people is "He's not trained."
Quite the opposite. He has been very well trained for a long time. The dog's behavior has consistently been reinforced in one way or another by the owners. They just didn't realize that this entire time, they were teaching, and the dog was learning. In many cases the dog was actually the teacher and the people were learning how to appease the dog. It seems so stupid once you know what is going on. Especially considering how easy it is to remedy. You have a dog that constantly "scheming" (in an innocent way) on how to manipulate their surroundings. All you have to do is make those "manipulations," the behaviors you would like to see anyway.
Every dog is different. Some are less food motivated. But because they will always want a walk, to be fed, to have bonding time, you are chock full of opportunities! Not only to train the dog, but to make the dog LOVE being trained!
As I said in the beginning this is going to happen whether you like it or not. It's an ongoing process that you can't ignore, at least not without consequences. You are constantly teaching your dog whether you choose to put in the time or not. You can use your dog's desire to manipulate to your advantage, or to your detriment. It takes effort to make things easy.
Dog Training – Who is Training Who?
Training Using Dog Psychology
Most people buy or adopt a dog with the best of intentions. They plan to feed him, play with him, train him, & fill a special place in their hearts - that only dogs can fill. It's going to be wonderful! Once the puppy is home, reality sets in. The pup is doing #1 & #2 in the house, chewing every item you care about, & otherwise terrorizing your previously peaceful life. Despite your best efforts, he won't sit, or lay down, never mind stay. It doesn't take long to get frustrated, which only makes owning a dog less fun. Your discouraged, the dog is becoming a burden, your motivation to train is much lower than before. Owning a dog should be a thing of joy, not trouble.
There are a couple of things at play here that most people don't realize. There is an easy way, and a hard way to do things. I'm going to show you the easy way. However, it's not all rainbows and butterflies from here on out. A friend of mine made a life observation one time that I will never forget. She said "Have you ever noticed how it takes effort to make things easy?" This is certainly the case with owning a dog. Here is a number of things you can do to make things, "easy."
Training Puppies
Patience is Key
Our main focus will be training dogs a little older than puppy-hood. But I feel I need to cover some aspects that cause the most frustration; potty training and chewing.
Dogs like to pee on things that are soft. In nature they pee outside in the grass, dirt, anything soft. They prefer not to pee on hard surfaces because they don't like the splashing, but they will. In the house, a carpet is as good as grass in their mind. They honestly know no different. It would be as if an alien beamed you up & took you to their house, where they had a special room, & a thing remarkably like a toilet inside. But when you pee'd in it, they hit you with newspaper. You would be very confused, no? (analogy taken from The Culture Clash - Jean Donaldson)
The trick with puppies is to take them outside frequently to pee. When they do, make a really big deal of it. Praise, hugs, kisses, treats, whatever is necessary to get the point across to that dog that you are very happy with what they just did. Dogs in general, but puppies especially have small bladders and short digestive tracts. Take them out enough so they have the opportunity to succeed. Don't set them up for failure. Then, when they do fail, all you need to do is give whatever word or sound you have chosen for your "I disagree with that behavior" command, pick them up, & rush them outside. It only takes several successes & a couple failures for the dog to understand. Also, the frequent bathroom breaks is a short term thing. Very quickly the dog will have bigger organs, & better control of them.
Dogs make associations almost instantly. With humans, you could comment on something someone did yesterday, & they would know what you were talking about. Dogs don't register things that way. If you want to "comment" on a dogs behavior, it needs to be right away. Literally within 2 seconds before or during the act, otherwise they don't make the connection. That is half of your battle right there, understanding that concept. In fact, it is so quick, that once you become good at this, you will be "commenting" to the dog, before he has even physically done anything. But now, you will be catching it at the prime time, the moment they start to think it.
"Commenting" is basically that; giving the dog whatever signal system you have worked out, that you are happy, displeased, or ambivalent. Dogs sense much more emotion than this. But for training purposes, those are really your main options. You either like this behavior, you dislike it, or you haven't said or done anything. In this case, the dog goes to his default response, that this is a freedom he is allowed. So keep in mind, every time you don't comment on the dog's behavior, you are in fact giving him a message. That message is "I don't mind what you are doing."
A dog does not have "feelings" you need to dance around. You must give a dog feedback, all throughout it's life, but especially in the beginning. As Cesar Milan always says (correctly in my opinion) it wants rules, boundaries & limitations. If you are not giving those to the dog...at all times, the dog assumes you are ambivalent, & it is free to do this behavior. If you cannot catch it time to make the correction, obviously lead the dog away from the situation, but hold off correcting until next time.
When you are outside & Fido starts pee'ing, say whatever command you want to be your pee command. Same thing with number 2. That is actually my command, I say "number 2?" The perfect time to say the command that you want the dog to associate with said action, is the moment he is thinking about doing it, or starts to do it. This applies throughout the dog's life. But when potty training, this is especially useful.
One of the easiest ways to train is to pay attention to what your dog is doing. When he does a behavior that you want, just call it out. E.g. the dog sits down, you say the word "sit" & then praise the dog. A great way to teach dogs this is just to sit in a chair with a treat in your hand. Say nothing. The dog will begin to do anything it knows how to do to get the treat. Block any bad behavior, & wait until the dog sits. When he does, say "sit" in a happy voice, & give the dog the treat. Continue to do this, with the major commands until the dog gets it. Dog's learn behavior first, word association second. So just watch their behavior and add the word association when appropriate. Once they have the word association, they can perform the action on command. But before this connection takes place in his little doggy brain, he needs to know what he just did, & what it is called. This applies just the same when you take them outside to do their business. Wait for them to do it, yell happily to your neighbors, "Go Pee!" Reward the dog however you choose. Always take young dogs out on a leash (unless fenced), it's easier to show them where they are allowed to go, & where they are not. Meaning the boundaries of where you will allow the dog to travel in your yard.
Dog Chewing
Your puppy is going to want to chew everything in sight. The most important thing is to gate the dog into one room and puppy proof it. That means remote controls, shoes, pillows, books. Anything in the dog's reach that it can get in it's mouth, it will.
Again, don't set your dog up for failure. Get the dog things he CAN chew on. A constant flow of things it's ok for him to chew on. During times you are with the dog (at night watching TV) put things on the floor the dog is not allowed to chew, so that you can teach the dog what is ok, & what is not ok. Make sure to remove before you leave the dog alone again. NEVER give the dog an old shoe or mittens to munch on, he is not going to know the difference between shoes and mittens that are ok vs. ones that are not. Make the things that it's ok for him to chew within easy reach and praise him when he uses them. Use them for play, make them exciting for the dog. You want to develop his interest in the things it's ok to chew on and remove the temptation to chew on other things.
Do not underestimate what your dog will try to chew in the beginning. I can't express this enough. If I had a dollar for each item my dog chewed, ripped, gnawed, disemboweled or just plain ate something I didn't think he would...I'd be a rich man.
Training your Dog - Who is Training Who?
Reverse Dog Psychology
Dogs are constantly learning how to manipulate their environment. This is happening, whether you know it or not. They can't talk, they can't gesture. The only way they know how to get what they want is to do doggy things. This is where your effort will eventually make things easier for you, & lack of it will lead to an unruly dog, & many years of stress for you.
To give you an example, when your dog wants to go outside, if it goes ballistic, jumping around, scratching at the door, etc and then you let the dog outside. The dog has just learned that this is the behavior he does when he wants to go outside. When I want to go out, I just go ballistic on this glass door here, & then they open it for me. It makes perfect sense to the dog. But humans often don't see it.
We need to use a little judo here. Use the dogs manipulation tactics against him. If you make the dog sit by the door before you let him out, the dog learns that this is the behavior that gets him let outside. Remember that dogs need that quick connection, so within seconds of the dog sitting, reward him by letting him outside. Every time you get frustrated & give in so the dog will stop being a hassle, you are teaching him a lesson. & the dog is learning. This is what many people don't realize.
If a dog has a good life, it consists of 2-3 meals a day, at least one walk a day, bathroom breaks, naps, & snuggle time. Not bad, but like all of us, the dog usually wants more....of something. You need to remember that the dog is always learning how to manipulate it's surroundings in order to get what it wants. Did you see that? Always. & you are always teaching. If you are not involved, you are teaching the dog just the same. But the dog is learning how to manipulate you, instead of you controlling the dog. We are going to allow the dog to manipulate us...oh yes, we are going to let the dog think he has figured us all out. But the way we are going to teach him to manipulate us, is actually the way we want him to behave.
If your dog begs at the table while you are eating, and you give it to him thinking he will be appeased and leave you alone, you couldn't be more wrong. You have just taught the dog that begging will get him fed. Dogs, being the geniuses that they are (at times) will continue to pursue what has worked for them in the past. Turn it around and make it a behavior that you want. A behavior that the dog will pursue in the future that won't be a hassle for you.
For example, I suggest no one ever feed the dog from the table, ever. Not company, not relatives, not children...never. When my wife and I are cooking, the dog used to be constantly underfoot, waiting for something to drop. It occasionally did and the dog was inadvertently rewarded. We did not want to reinforce this behavior, so we got a mat, and put it in the corner of the kitchen. We told the dog to sit on the mat and tossed him a treat as soon as he sat. But just far enough away that he had to get up from his spot to get it. He would then proceed underfoot and we would redirect him to the rug. As soon as he sat down on the rug, we tossed another treat. It doesn't take long for the dog to figure out that if I put my bottom here, I get what I want! Within three sessions or so, the dog sits patiently on his mat, thinking he is manipulating us! (Mats are a great tool for dogs, put them anywhere around the house you want the dog to sit. Use the technique I just mentioned above, & associate it with the words "Where do you sit?" They will go to their mat).
Here is a video of my dog Buddy and how he behaves in the kitchen. He does this without any prompting. I gave him no vocal signals at all, what you hear in the background is an episode of SVU playing (which I fixed for the following videos) What you may also hear is two times I dropped food on the floor, once was one of his treats, once was a piece of beef which he finds irresistible. You'll notice he didn't go for either one. He waited patiently on his rug because that is what he has learned gets him treats. After he understood where he was supposed to sit, we would intentionally drop things, & if he got up to eat them, we would pick them up. Poor little doggy was foiled. He notices that when he gets up to get the food, we take it away. He is confused, so he will look to you for a comment. This is an utterly beautiful moment. Now, you tell him "ok" & he is allowed to get the food. Only a couple sessions of this, & you can drop anything on the floor, the dog will stay on the mat, & look at you (that eye contact is good, that means they are looking to you to tell them what to do). Now the dog is not underfoot, unless we allow him to be, then he goes right back to his spot.
Sitting, where it all begins
Offering sits
Offering sits
By now you have the basic idea of how to use your dog's natural manipulation instinct to your advantage. They are smart. Are you smarter? Use his desire to get what he wants to get the behavior you want. You want to teach and reinforce good behavior. Never reward undesirable behavior. A lot of this starts with the sit.
Before we let our dog outside he goes and sits by the door. Before he gets fed he runs into his crate and sits, before we let him on the couch he sits and waits for permission. He loves all of it as he thinks of it as "winning!" But all this behavior starts by getting the dog to "offer" sits. I've included a video below of Buddy's behavior before being fed. Again he did this with no vocal prompting.
Offering sits is when the dog sits of his own volition, without vocal prompting. The way to do this is to have high reward treats, something your dog really likes. Treats need to be visible or the dog at least needs to know you have them. The dog will usually then proceed to go through several behaviors to try to appease you and get a treat. The moment he sits, click or praise, and give him a treat. Toss the treat far enough away from the dog that he needs to get up to get the treat so you can restart the exercise. Do this 30 times a few times a week. You may need to adjust the amount of food you give the dog on his regular feeding schedule to account for all the treats he will be getting. You don't want the dog sitting because he is too obese to stand.
Also practice this exercise in different places. Dogs don't generalize in the same way that we do. He might be able to do this exercise in the house, but if you try it outside they are usually baffled. After several regular sessions of this exercise the dog will start to use this as his fall back behavior when he wants something. Isn't that great!? Now when the dog wants something, his first idea is to sit calmly! After you get him good and trained with this exercise all you will have to do is look at him and he will sit. Anytime he wants something and doesn't get it right away he will sit. What a great behavior for the dog to practice. When starting out, if you have to give the dog a vocal command to sit, it's not ideal - but do what you must. Remember the end goal is for the dog to offer sits without vocal prompting. As training gets more advanced, you will progress to where the dog offers other behaviors. Anything you can train the dog, in which they think it was their idea, is good training.
Now that the dog knows the behavior it's very easy to incorporate into whatever you want. As I mentioned earlier our dog sits quietly in the kitchen when we cook and we randomly toss him treats. He does not bother us while we eat because he knows it does not get him what he wants.
Doggy Judo Black Belt
Now who is training who
I've been to people's houses where they have a full grown dog who is a maniac. Jumping on people, bothering you while eating, using outside energy in the house. What I always hear from the people is "He's not trained."
Quite the opposite. He has been very well trained for a long time. The dog's behavior has consistently been reinforced in one way or another by the owners. They just didn't realize that this entire time, they were teaching, and the dog was learning. In many cases the dog was actually the teacher and the people were learning how to appease the dog. It seems so stupid once you know what is going on. Especially considering how easy it is to remedy. You have a dog that constantly "scheming" (in an innocent way) on how to manipulate their surroundings. All you have to do is make those "manipulations," the behaviors you would like to see anyway.
Every dog is different. Some are less food motivated. But because they will always want a walk, to be fed, to have bonding time, you are chock full of opportunities! Not only to train the dog, but to make the dog LOVE being trained!
As I said in the beginning this is going to happen whether you like it or not. It's an ongoing process that you can't ignore, at least not without consequences. You are constantly teaching your dog whether you choose to put in the time or not. You can use your dog's desire to manipulate to your advantage, or to your detriment. It takes effort to make things easy.