You may not realize it, but your dog begging for food is a HUGE red flag when it comes to your training efforts. That’s because giving in to his constant whining is one of the most dangerous contributors to his overall disobedience.

I’m not blaming you or anything. All dog owners have been there.

You’re enjoying dinner with the family and suddenly the little guy comes wandering up to you with that sad, tender look in his eyes.

Surely one little table scrap can’t hurt right?

Think again. When you give in to these little begging episodes, you’re doing a whole lot more than just encouraging the behavior. Your dog is testing you – but more than that, he’s trying to gain rank within the ladder of command.

If you’ve learned anything from this site, hopefully it’s that in order to establish dominance over your dog, you NEED to be the Alpha dog.

In your dog’s pack mentality, mealtime is incredibly significant as to who dominates the chain of command. When you give in and give him that bite, he’s doing a whole lot more than enjoying that morsel of food. He’s taking pride in the fact that he’s gaining ground towards alpha status.

This can lead to escalating behavior problems when you don’t give in to his requests and may even bring about aggressive resistance. He no longer sees himself at the bottom of the pack, so he may try to fight for his status.

Really, it can turn into a messy scenario.

As a dog owner and dog trainer, it MUST be your objective to establish your dog at the bottom of the pack’s rank.

First and foremost, stop feeding him from the table altogether.

That doesn’t mean, give him a nibble when he’s good. That doesn’t mean give him a taste 1 out of every 150 times. Let me tell you, if you give him a bite every 1 out of 150 times he asks, he’ll remember that one time and he’ll keep coming back for another chance at table food.

Set the rule now to NEVER ever ever feed your dog from the table. Talk with your family and educate them as to why. They must comply with this rule or your dog will simply start begging them instead.

It’s important that you feed your dog AFTER you and your family eat. This is very telling and will broadcast the message loud and clear. He is at the bottom of the pack rank.

After you clear your dishes, then put out his food. Be disciplined with this. Just like all other training methods, you must put your dog on a schedule to send the message loud and clear and avoid any confusion on his part.

Once your dog falls into this routine (it may take about 2-3 months), the begging will stop and he will seem much less anxious at dinner time.

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