Hungry Dog

[HaloLover]

Hi– Our 8 month old is wonderful in so many ways a Basenji is wonderful. HOwever, we cannot deter her from jumping on our kitchen table, and taking our children's food. Even spraying her with water does not stop her. We do not want to yell anymore... we know it is pointless... please help-- we are at wit's end with this behavior! (not to mention embarrassing in front of guests!). Any ideas are appreciated-- we will try them all! THANK YOU!

[nobarkus]

Can you crate her at dinner time?

[HaloLover]

So sorry because I am sure I will cause you to roll your eyes but we are new to our dog (2 weeks) and new to crating. We crate her when we are not home, and when we sleep, but never when we are here. She makes that loud crying sound when we put her in the crate (when we leave– not at nighttie) and since we started putting cheesewhiz in her kong, she now eats that, but then begins her 20 minutes of crying after she finishes eating that... so, with that being said... do you recommend crating her in the same room? Just ignore the crying? What do you suggest? Please tolerate a new owner who needs to get past the idea that I would feel like I am "punishing" her with the crate during dinner...

[Rita Jean]

You can crate or someone is going to miss dinner and sit on the floor holding the dog and no - off, no - off it's going to take more than once. We have a eight month old also there are 4 of us and daughters boyfriend and all of us tell Jaycee no - off even looks at table.
I do not think yelling will ever work I just think they turn those big ears off to us. Maybe letting your dog have dinner in there bowl as you all sit to eat. I do know but with anything the longer it goes on the harder it becomes to stop.

Rita Jean

[tanza]

Sounds like until you can teach her basic manners, you need to crate her when you eat…. And work on teaching her good behaviors. Teach her to sit and stay, reward the behavior when you are at the table and she sits and stays.

I will say one other thing, I think you crate her too much. If you have to crate her during the day when you are not home, it is not really fair to then crate her at night too... at least in my opinion. Is there a reason she can't sleep in bed with your or one of your children? And then while you work on "manners" you will not feel so bad crating her when you eat.

While mine do not beg at the table, but when we had guests, they did... and we did crate them... as they knew a "sucker" when they met one..gggg....

[HaloLover]

@tanza:

Sounds like until you can teach her basic manners, you need to crate her when you eat…. And work on teaching her good behaviors. Teach her to sit and stay, reward the behavior when you are at the table and she sits and stays.

I will say one other thing, I think you crate her too much. If you have to crate her during the day when you are not home, it is not really fair to then crate her at night too... at least in my opinion. Is there a reason she can't sleep in bed with your or one of your children? And then while you work on "manners" you will not feel so bad crating her when you eat.

While mine do not beg at the table, but when we had guests, they did... and we did crate them... as they knew a "sucker" when they met one..gggg....

THANK YOU! Do you think our 8 month old can be trusted to a. not pee and b. not tear up toys/carpet during the night? We can't wait to NOT crate her at night… Truly want to know your opinion. We've only had her for 10 days...

[nobarkus]

@HaloLover:

So sorry because I am sure I will cause you to roll your eyes but we are new to our dog (2 weeks) and new to crating. We crate her when we are not home, and when we sleep, but never when we are here. She makes that loud crying sound when we put her in the crate (when we leave– not at nighttie) and since we started putting cheesewhiz in her kong, she now eats that, but then begins her 20 minutes of crying after she finishes eating that... so, with that being said... do you recommend crating her in the same room? Just ignore the crying? What do you suggest? Please tolerate a new owner who needs to get past the idea that I would feel like I am "punishing" her with the crate during dinner...

You give her CHEEZE WIZ? I wouldn't recommend that. There's healthy treats you can put in the kong. That's pretty junkie stuff.

[Basenjimamma]

I would agree with Tanza, you need to crate her, or close a door/babygate so she has a room that she can be in until dinner is done. Make her eat in her crate so she sees it as a positive place, or give her dinner in a kong or someting so she is occupied. My Otis (almost 8 mo) is horrible once we are done, and taking the dishes off, he will do anything to see if he can steal something, but he will not beg/steal while we are eating..basic obedience training with"leave it" has done wonders with that..
We do use a babygate to close of the utility room with if we have company, the only one that jumps it is the little yorkie/schnauzer mix we have, not Otis, he knows better (in that sense at least..LOL).

[tanza]

@HaloLover:

THANK YOU! Do you think our 8 month old can be trusted to a. not pee and b. not tear up toys/carpet during the night? We can't wait to NOT crate her at night… Truly want to know your opinion. We've only had her for 10 days...

Typically once they start sleeping in bed with a "human" rarely will they get up in the night… mine never did and still do not unless they have a problem... at 8 months she can certainly hold it all night... You might have to keep an eye on her for the first couple of nights to see how it goes.

What do you know about where she came from? Did she come from a breeder or is she a rescue?

[Basenjimamma]

How did the breeder have it when you got her? Was she crated at night or did she sleep loose in their house? More then likely, IMO, at night she will conk out and sleep, not damage stuff, and as an 8 month old, she should be able to keep her bladder and not pee in the house. Otis sleeps in his crate every night, but with the door open, it is his room and he enjoys hanging out and sleeping in it. My two other dogs have never even set fot, I mean paw in it, they know it is Otis' room.

oops, Tanza asked first.

[Rita Jean]

I do agree with Tanza lot of time in a crate then put crate were she can see you when you eat. Manners for sure will help but under learn some manners I would crate or gate the door something.
We still put Jaycee in her crate at night but she is never in it during the day. Jaycee getting closer to sleeping with us she use to go to bed on her own at about 8:30 now moved up to when ever we go to bed.

Rita Jean

[tanza]

@Rita:

I do agree with Tanza lot of time in a crate then put crate were she can see you when you eat. Manners for sure will help but under learn some manners I would crate or gate the door something.
We still put Jaycee in her crate at night but she is never in it during the day. Jaycee getting closer to sleeping with us she use to go to bed on her own at about 8:30 now moved up to when ever we go to bed.

Rita Jean

Not sure if you misunderstood my post… first I didn't say anything about putting the crate where she could see them when eating.. In fact, I think that is not a good thing to do... almost like teasing... And mine were only crated at night, however they were in the bedroom

Also, my remark was that I thought she was in her crate too much already if they are crating during the day and then at night too.

[lvoss]

I agree that you will need to work on manners with your dog and that you will also need to find a way to keep you dog from practicing the bad behavior while you work on the better manners. Here is a brochure on crate training that I recommend. It sounds like your dog doesn't view its crate a a great place to be yet and this brochure might help with that.

http://www.askdryin.com/movies/CrateDogLR.pdf

I am a big fan of using the Kong as a positive way to keep the dog out of trouble. I have several recipes that I use to stuff my Kongs and then I freeze them so they take 30-60 minutes to unstuff. I would recommend starting a routine in your house that when it is meal time for the humans it is also mealtime for the dog. Give your dog it meal in its crate in a Kong so you can enjoy your meal while you dog enjoys its meal.

Also make sure you dog is getting enough exercise and interaction. If the dog has been crated all day it probably has a lot of pent up energy that it needs to expend before it will be ready to settle down for dinner time.

[Rita Jean]

Sorry Tanza I myself tried to say feed the dog in there crate when they eat and if it be were it can see them IMO is not bad maybe will understnad this is your food and this is ours not yours.

Rita Jean

[HaloLover]

@nobarkus:

You give her CHEEZE WIZ? I wouldn't recommend that. There's healthy treats you can put in the kong. That's pretty junkie stuff.

Vet recommended b/c of loose stools… Not our choice

[HaloLover]

@tanza:

Typically once they start sleeping in bed with a "human" rarely will they get up in the night… mine never did and still do not unless they have a problem... at 8 months she can certainly hold it all night... You might have to keep an eye on her for the first couple of nights to see how it goes.

What do you know about where she came from? Did she come from a breeder or is she a rescue?

THANKS AGAIN! She came from a home where she was crated all day every day which is why they decided to pass her onto a home where she would have a lot more attention and exercise (I work from home and can take her on multiple walks, and our two boys and my husband and I have already been to multiple dog-friendly locations with her in 10 days). She slept in a crate all night there too… Tonight at dinner we tried sit/stay for treats, and it worked, until we were done-- then back up to lick the table dry (or wet!). Then what?

[tanza]

Well at least you were done with dinner…ggg you have to be consistant with training... it is not going to change overnight... You have to work at it... and keep up with the sit/stay until you clear the table... if you catch her in the act of getting on the table a sharp "no"... and remove her from the table. Back on the floor... when she stays on the floor praise her.... but again, the behavior is not going to change overnight... baby steps...

[dash]

Our boy did the same thing. It didn't help that when we went to the inlaws they fed him from the table. My reccomendation would be for 1 adult to keep the dog on lead during dinner. If the kids are at the table and you are cooking, tie the leash to your belt so he can't get at the kids food. As you are eating, I would give him a treat to work on. Since he is on lead you have control. If he jumps up, you correct him with "NO!" "off!" and then praise the second he gets back down. The first couple times you may have to swoop his back legs from under him. You will probably repeat this a bazillion times the first few days, but eventually if you are consistant he will get it. Our dog occasionally will have a brain fart and put his front feet on our legs but then we just have to look at him and he sits politely. However, we still have to leash him when the in-laws are there because they still feed him from their plate.

[wizard]

You've only had the pup for a short time so a lot of patience is in order while you train her. I feed mine at the same time as my dinner but she gets fed in her crate (so it has become a place where she wants to go). If the sit/stay worked well then keep that up The next step is to prevent her from getting on the table. I would suggest that as soon as dinner is done, the table be cleared as people are moving away. One person (adult) watch the dog for signs that she is going to leap (she starts to put weight on her hind legs for example) and stop her at that point - it can be a "no" or some treat to distract her or simply putting an arm up in front of her to change her path. Then immediately do something with her that she likes as a treat for not jumping (a belly rub even). You could also try put boxes on the table as people leave so she can't get up there.

[Basenjimamma]

I have a pretty unconventional way that worked on our westie in the past that would get on the tables. We put out lots of mouse traps all over the table, set ready to go off, and then we carefully covered the mousetraps and table with a thin sheet or the like, the next time Bogus got on that table, he got a scare unlike anything else, that did the trick for him. A basenji might need this done several times, I don't know. We tried everything with him, and nothing bothered him and he was stubborn as mule.
Otis' biggest problem, or I guess our biggest problem with Otis is the counter surfing..last night, while we were eating dinner, he once again stole something I didn't even think of as interesting and tore it in a million pieces, so powder went allover him and the kitchen..what you might ask..a brand new, unopened package of Alfredo sauce mix..I never would've thought of him getting that..He got it into his nose and allover his body..He got this huge sneeze attack and looked pretty puny after that..