I really need some advice

[ThorThePup]

Thor is now 5.5 months old. He is a pretty smart pup. (Here is a pic http://i.imgur.com/7FZ4Q.jpg?1 )

Anyway, there are three things I really want to teach him.

1. Not to beg for food. He gets fed ample food three times a day but whenever I am eating something or my family is at the dining table he will sit there watching us, or follow me around while I eat. I am pretty sure he understands 'No' but this isn't effective when it comes to him trying to get more food.

How do I get him to stop being such a hungry slob all the time?

2. Whenever he goes out for a walk he has habit of picking things up, sometimes unwanted things. How do I teach him 'leave it'?

3. He understands the command 'Speak' but there are times when I want him to shut up. How do I teach him to stop barking on command?

I apologize if these questions have been answered before but I've had an extremely long day and didn't have the energy for research.

Thank you for reading!

[Good_Karma]

Sometimes it is easier to train a dog to do something instead of training him to NOT do something. In other words, give him an alternative behavior and reward him for it.

During meal times, you can teach him to be in his "place.". This can be a dog bed or a mat. You train him to stay on the mat, gradually increasing the time and the distractions until he is solid in his stay in the place. Then during dinner time, you tell him to go to his place. If he gets up, then you need to do more work in the training. Make sure that he gets a really awesome reward when your meal is finally over.

I will let others chime in on your other questions since we still struggle with both of those issues at times. But we were able to successfully train both our dogs to lay quietly while we eat a meal and to not get up and pace or both us at the table by using this method.

[ThorThePup]

Thanks for your reply!

Any more replies would be greatly appreciated as well!

Thanks!

[runnershigh108]

Originally Posted by ThorThePup

2. Whenever he goes out for a walk he has habit of picking things up, sometimes unwanted things. How do I teach him 'leave it'?

First off, i'm not a trainer nor have I taken my dog to any formal training. I had this same problem with my dog. She would pick up random things on our walks sometimes unwanted things but also some things that were not so bad. To curve the behavior I taught her to "pick it up". I did this by placing two of her toys in front of her and pointed to one and told her to pick it up. After she would pick it up I would reward her. Then I taught her to pick it up and hold it. Don't reward her until she holds it for quite awhile after giving the hold it command. Then I would place the toys in front of her and say leave it...reward her after she did nothing for a while. I think the leave it she also learned just from playing fetch....sometimes she would drop the ball at my feet and as i would reach for it she would jump on it but I got in the habit of saying leave it. She would then leave the ball alone. Anyways, now on our walks if I have her on a slightly longer lead where she is able to find something she will look up at my asking permission to pick it up. If I believe it is not harmful Ill give her the command of pick it up. for cans and other things ill give her the pick it up and hold it command, she will carry it all the way back home and we can toss it in the garbage. She thinks its a game. Hope that helps.