# Begging is getting on my nerves. Plus staying out of the kitchen advice.



## WinnieThePoodle (Sep 1, 2020)

I have 2 issues that I need help with. I have a very small kitchen and when I am in there I don't allow Winnie to come in as it would be easy for me to trip over her and hurt her or myself. She is allowed to watch by the door (I have one at both ends as it is a galley shaped kitchen) and as she follows me everywhere she is always by one of these doors. She knows she is not allowed in but as soon as I look away she plops both front paws in to the kitchen. When I notice this I tell her 'out of the kitchen' and she will pull her front paws back out again. Again when I turn to carry on her front paws come back into the kitchen. This will go on back and forth until I come out of the kitchen. Do I continue to reward her for pulling her paws back or is this just a way for her to get a reward each time? I sometimes feel like she knows she will get a reward so puts her paws in on purpose. Or should I stop rewarding her? 

The other issue is begging. She never used to do it when she was little but now we are reluctant to eat anything in front of her as she just pesters us. If we are having lunch or dinner I give her something to chew at the same time but she can often finish this before we finish. Or if we are having a snack between meals I don't want to have to give her things to eat every time we are eating anything. If we tell her 'down' she does it reluctantly but will go down and leave us alone but its constant and by the time she is down we have more or less finished the snack. Do we just continue doing this or can we get better results another way?


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## Ava. (Oct 21, 2020)

Stop rewarding her, She's training you. Tell her out, and ONLY give her a treat if she stays out (with no tricks!) for several moments.

Can you teach her a place command? Tell her to go to her bed or place whenever you eat


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## WinnieThePoodle (Sep 1, 2020)

Ava. said:


> Stop rewarding her, She's training you. Tell her out, and ONLY give her a treat if she stays out (with no tricks!) for several moments.
> 
> Can you teach her a place command? Tell her to go to her bed or place whenever you eat


Ah ok I will stop rewarding her. I do need training but not from her . Sometimes if I am in the kitchen for a bit longer she will lie down on the mat outside the kitchen entrance and when she does this I do toss her a treat her for lying nicely, but most of the day I am in there for short periods. It doesn't help that the dishwasher is at one end so she gets the smells every time I put something in and at the other end is the bin which draws her nose in. Unfortunately I can't move it anywhere else.

I can tell her to go to bed but she doesn't want to do it and does it reluctantly and takes ages to get in there. Any other time I tell her to go on her bed she does it straight away without a fuss but when there is food about its a different story.


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## Ava. (Oct 21, 2020)

Thats good that you toss her a treat when she settles. Keep doing that. Do not let her get away with getting in the kitchen, even though you are tired of fixing her. She'll get the idea "no matter what, im not allowed in the kitchen". When she settles down, toss her a treat. If she steps foot in the kitchen, shoo her out, and ignore her until she settles again.

Can you be a bit more exiting? Lure her to her bed with food, and every 5-10 mins, go over there and give her a treat. That way she's exited to wait there, because while shes not getting human food, she's getting her own snacks. Thats how I proofed deacons place. He will sit at his place for hours, sometimes I'll forget he's still In a place, because he will not move.


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## WinnieThePoodle (Sep 1, 2020)

Ava. said:


> Thats good that you toss her a treat when she settles. Keep doing that. Do not let her get away with getting in the kitchen, even though you are tired of fixing her. She'll get the idea "no matter what, im not allowed in the kitchen". When she settles down, toss her a treat. If she steps foot in the kitchen, shoo her out, and ignore her until she settles again.
> 
> Can you be a bit more exiting? Lure her to her bed with food, and every 5-10 mins, go over there and give her a treat. That way she's exited to wait there, because while shes not getting human food, she's getting her own snacks. Thats how I proofed deacons place. He will sit at his place for hours, sometimes I'll forget he's still In a place, because he will not move.


Yes I could do that. I think my worry was that I didn't want her thinking that just because we are eating she has to eat too even if it is her own and would somehow come to expect it every time.


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## Ava. (Oct 21, 2020)

WinnieThePoodle said:


> Yes I could do that. I think my worry was that I didn't want her thinking that just because we are eating she has to eat too even if it is her own and would somehow come to expect it every time.



Its just apart of training, eventually you will phase out the treats and only give her a treat once she is done with staying, as a reward.


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## Michigan Gal (Jun 4, 2019)

You can use aversive training for the paws in the kitchen. When the paws creep into the kitchen, you give a harsh "ahh!" If she doesn't move, add "out of the kitchen!" No reward.

Sometimes you need your dog to know what the aversive means, particularly when you are out and about and can't train the behavior you want in a millisecond.


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## PeggyTheParti (Sep 5, 2019)

One thing that jumps out at me is that you are consistently rewarding her for paws out, but you’re not adding any duration. When I train Peggy, the rewards come easy at first, to capture the basic behaviour. But then I want to refine it.

So with the kitchen, I’d choose a spot outside—ideally where she could still watch me—and place a mat there. First I’d reward for all four paws on the mat. Then for sitting on the mat. Then for laying on the mat. At that point I’d do a real treat party—treats every 5 seconds for a minute or so. Then I’d _slowly_ start spacing them out more.

This will work for begging, too, and is actually how we trained Peggy to lay in her bed while we eat dinner. Because we were transitioning from a pen, we tethered her to start, but still rewarded her as I described. Now she gets maybe one treat mid-meal, and always a yummy something at the end right before we release her.

We also still use the “tether”—just a very lightweight leash with a small clasp—but don’t actually anchor it to anything. Lol. Just the act of putting it on her says, “Okay, time for a nice long settle. Yummy things await.”


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## PeggyTheParti (Sep 5, 2019)

(You could also just continue doing what you’re doing, if you don’t want to teach a settle spot, but Winnie should not be getting rewarded every time she steps out of the kitchen because that’s not actually what you want her to do. You want her to _stay_ out of the kitchen. So reward the behaviour you want. Treat for five seconds out of the kitchen then slowly build that duration. You can also practise inviting her into the kitchen to better establish that boundary. Invite her in. Reward. Poodle steps into the kitchen _without_ an invitation? No reward.)


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## Dianaleez (Dec 14, 2019)

We seem to have the same kitchen. I send Normie out and if necessary block his return. But I don't reward with anything other than 'good dog.'

Most days he gets bored and joins my husband in another room. 

I don't use 'place' because I want him to be free to move on with other activities.


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## PeggyTheParti (Sep 5, 2019)

Dianaleez said:


> I don't use 'place' because I want him to be free to move on with other activities.


Yeah, I don’t use that for kitchen time either. Sometimes Peggy enjoys watching me from her bed in the dining room or her mat in the kitchen, but sometimes she’d prefer to just watch TV or have a snooze on the couch. I’m happy to let her choose.

While we eat dinner, on the other hand, I do want her settled in one spot. That way, if we can ever have guests over for dinner again (sigh), I won’t be constantly keeping an eye on her so she doesn’t pester people. I will know exactly where she is.


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Get a mat and put it just outside the kitchen. A small rug will do. Arm yourself with tiny treats, think Cheerio size, bits of cheese or chicken. Put a treat on the mat. Wait for the dog to eat it, put another on the mat. Try to reward 15 times in a minute, so lots of rewards for staying on the mat. If the dog steps off the mat, treats stop. Don't coax the dog to get on the mat. It's the dog's decision to play along. So, hard as it is, say nothing. Wait for the dog to puzzle out how to get more treats. 

After a minute, toss a treat off the mat for your dog to chase. Say nothing. Do nothing. Wait for the dog to step on the mat. Now, change the rules. Instead of just stepping on the mat making treats appear, ask for a down. When the dog is down, for a whole minute, treat continuously between the paws. Treat, swallow, another treat, swallow, another treat... Again, throw a treat off the mat for the dog to chase. Say nothing. Do nothing. See if the dog offers a down on the mat. Another minute of continuous treats for lying down. If no down, no treats. Let the dog figure out how to get the treat machine to work. Ignore anything that is not a down. Whining, pawing, barking, spinning... those are closed doors. Nothing but a down will start the treat machine. But, when the dog lies down, treat machine starts.

Repeat this game a few times a day until you are willing to bet me $100 your dog will lie down on the mat. When you are ready to bet, that's when you name this behavior, "Place." As your dog is falling down on the mat, say, Place. Repeat with a full minute of non-stop treats. Place, down, treats one after another, release the dog with a treat off the mat, repeat.

After a week of playing, back off to 10 treats a minute. Eight treats a minute. Five treats a minute. When you get to five treats a minute, walk to your kitchen sink, return, treat on the mat. Walk to the fridge, treat on the mat. Walk to the sink, fridge, stove, treat on the mat. Once you get to this point, put a longer lasting treat on the mat like a bully stick, make a sandwich for yourself, return to the dog, treat. 

If you are consistent, and practice 10 minutes a day, you'll end up with a dog who is trained to calmly lie down on a mat while you are in the kitchen. 

To stop bugging you while you are eating, Kong Wobbler. https://www.kongcompany.com/dog/play-type/interactive/wobbler-2/wobbler/ Best thing I ever got with my puppies. Load it up, let the dog bat that toy while you eat dinner. It spills out a tiny amount of kibble per whack. You can put your dog's entire meal in the Kong Wobbler. It can be a bit loud, but it beats whining by a long mile.


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