Dog Behavior – Begging for Food and Attention is a Bad Idea

Unless you specifically train the dog the beg command, the dog should in no way shape or form ever have to beg for any type of food or attention. Some of the dog owners out there feed the bad behavior because they think it is cute when the dog starts begging for any type of attention or food, but it is still a bad behavior which needs to be rectified.

Why is begging so bad?

For starters, begging is another form of demanding and it gives your dog an aspect of control within the family "pack". I describe your family as a pack because that is exactly how your dog sees it. Anyways, while it seems adorable when Sparky rolls over on his back expecting a belly rub every time you enter the room, or just sits all teary-eyed staring straight at your plate of food when you're eating dinner, this behavior has the possibility to gain momentum and become aggressive.

What, how much aggression could a begging dog show?

Your dog could be the cutest critter on the planet and very loving as well. The dog would never even harm a fly on the wall and there is no way that his begging could be a form of aggression; or can it? By remembering that you are in fact giving your dog a form of control in the pack when you give in to begging, eventually if you choose not to give into it, the dog will bite.

After some time, his dog matured and grew bigger, and my friend did not realize that he was reinforcing a dominant leadership role into his dog every time he gave in to begging. Once he decided to change this behavior with his dog, he learned quickly just how dangerous the situation was. At one of his meals, my friend absolutely refused to feed his dog anything and the begging and crying turned into aggression and barking. Then without notice, his dog leaped up onto his plate and snapped at the food, taking a little bit of my friends flesh with it.

Eliminate the begging through training.

This a real problem and no matter how much you say it cannot happen, it is important to remember that although a dog is domesticated, he is still an animal that behaves based on a set of natural instincts which are embedded in his genes since the days that his ancestors ran the wild freely.

You need to start training the dog while he is still a puppy, preferably before he reaches 15 weeks of age. During meal time, while you and the rest of the family is eating, train the puppy to sit and stay in one place until the meal is finished. After the meal is over, if he was truly a good dog and followed the rules throughout the meal, then offer him some praise and a warm meal in which he has to eat in his own food dish; never a dinner plate.

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