A few pups out there tend to get a little overwhelmed when they see you filling their dish. Their excitement is justified from their point of view, of course: “The world is ending! We need to have our meals now!!” But if your pup gets too excited for food, and he jumps up on you or another person, he may hurt somebody, or something. With that being said, we have a few easy steps that will help dinner time become just another mindless routine.

One prerequisite of conducting such a training session is to make sure YOU are ready for it. Plan these training sessions when you are not mentally preoccupied. Clear your head. Think of it like this, you won’t teach your teenage daughter how to drive while you have tons of work to do, it requires your complete and undivided focus – so does doggie training!

So clear your head, take deep breaths, here we go:

Day 1:

The 1st step is to get your pooch to sit. You may need to hold his collar. He might struggle a bit first but eventually he will calm down. When he is sitting, hold up your hand and tell him to stay. When he remains seated, reward him with a treat! This may take a few tries, and make to to reward every good behavior with a treat!

Day 2:

Do the same as day 1, perhaps wait for one second and encourage him to calm down more. Use more positive reinforcements. For example give him a treat when he complies, pat him, hug him, make it known that he did something that really really pleased you.

Day 3 & 4:

Don’t hold his collar this time. Order him to sit and wait. Set the food down in front of him, all the while telling him “Stay”. Say “Good Boy” after a couple of seconds and let him eat.

Day 5-10:

Keep increasing the wait time. You will feel that it is working.

Day 10 onwards:

You will notice that Junior is now much more calm at eating time. Simply tell him to sit a few feet away as you put the food down and say “Go” or “OK” after 5-10 seconds. Life would’ve become much simpler by now.

Apart from doggie training, activities like these will increase your confidence as a pet owner.