We teach our puppies to wait for a release before eating as soon as they turn 6 weeks of age. At this age, puppies are eating 3 meals a day. All of these meals are fed either in a training session or with what we call our “Meal Time Manners” routine. This routine complements our initial on-the-floor training and helps to cement in the puppy’s mind the idea that all food must be taken with our permission. If continued for life, this concept of waiting for permission to eat will teach a dog not to sniff for food when training and not to counter surf for food. Our dogs don’t even take a plate full of enticing people food left on an easy to reach coffee table. They know that all food is ours until we release them to eat it.
The end result of our “Meal Time Manners” routine is a dog who will wait with eye contact while we place a full meal in front of them. Once we say “okay”, they will take their food.
Here is how to teach it.
For at least 2 weeks, divide each meal (unless the dog is working for the meal in a formal training session) into 6-8 portions and put each portion in a small bowl (small enough to cover completely with a hand). For a young puppy whose food is already divided into 3 meals per day, this is a very small amount of food.
I like to start this process with the puppy in a crate because sometimes a loose puppy will think that wandering off might be the ticket to food access. Having the puppy in a crate limits the choices. Many puppies do try to exit the crate. If this happens, simply block the crate door with your arms so that the puppy cannot get out.
For the first day’s work, I stack my crate on top of a couple of other crates as you can see on the video. I use bungee cords to secure the stacked crates together. If you don’t have multiple crates, you can set a small crate on top of a table as long as it is stable.
When the crate is on the ground, it can be hard on your back. Some puppies can take up to 30 or even 45 minutes for the first meal. Multiply that by the number of puppies in a litter and it’s a long time bending over for us. If you’ve got a good strong back, leaning over is an option. After the first day, the work should go much faster.
Our puppies are already conditioned to like the crate and to fly to get in there as soon as we open the door. They’ve been eating all their meals in crates for about a week in addition to other crate work. If your puppy does not like a crate, I’d spend some time on crate conditioning before starting this work. I like Susan Garrett’s “Crate Games” for this process. We’ve tweaked her program a bit for our taste and to better reach our particular goals.
Once your puppy is liking a crate, you can start our meal time manners routine. The meal time manners work will complement the training sessions on the floor. Training on the floor will help the meal time manners work to be easier for the puppy and to move faster. Practicing the meal time manners routine will help the training sessions on the floor to progress more efficiently.
Here’s how you start the meal time manners work. Once your puppy is in the crate, put the food down in front of the puppy and cover it with your hands so that the puppy is unable to get to the food. Most puppies will struggle to get to the food. Many will scratch at your hands. A few might bite at your hands. Try not to react and to remain calm no matter what the puppy does. The puppy is not trying to hurt you. He’s just trying to get the food in any way that he can. Do not uncover the food and remember that a puppy’s teeth are not very sharp. They may scratch your hands up a bit, but the small amount of pain from a puppy’s needle like teeth will pay big benefits. I’ve trained about 150 puppies this way and thus far, none of them have hurt me at all except for during the first meal. I’ve done it with up to ten puppies one right after another and thus far, the worst has been a few scratches on my hands.
Adults are less likely to bite as they understand the power of their own teeth, whereas young puppies may not. I’ve never had an adult try to bite.
In addition to biting and scratching, many puppies will try climbing on you. Others will try climbing out of the crate. I block this behavior with my arms as you can see on the video. The goal is to isolate the behavior of eye contact. I don’t want to give the puppy the chance to give me the eye contact that I want at the same time he is doing something like climbing that I don’t want. I am waiting for the moment the puppy gives me eye contact so that I can reinforce it by marking and giving him his food. I don’t want him doing something else at the same time because that something else (like climbing) would be reinforced along with (or instead of) the eye contact.
The first day of this training can be very time-consuming. The first portion of the first meal usually takes from 5 to up to 40 minutes depending on the dog. Most puppies give in and stop the struggle for the food after about 15-20 minutes.
When the puppy finally quits struggling for the food, leave one hand covering the food bowl and use the other hand to gently stroke the puppy under the chin. This will accomplish two purposes. First of all, it is a gentle reward for stopping the struggle and second, it encourages the puppy to look up.
Continue stroking the puppy until he looks up at your eyes. If he resumes the struggle, put both hands back on the bowl. At some point the puppy will give you a brief glance in the eyes. At that very moment, say yes, uncover the bowl, and lift the bowl up to your puppy’s face so that he can have the food.
The reason for the lifting of the food to the puppy’s face is that by the time the puppy stops the struggle and then gives eye contact, far more than half of them will have forgotten that the food was even there. Raising the food to the puppy’s face after you’ve given the okay will help the puppy to begin associating the “okay” with a release to take the food.
Wait for the puppy to eat his food. Then place another bowl of food in front of him and repeat the process. The second time should be much quicker. Place each of the 6-8 bowls in front of the puppy one portion of food at a time waiting for eye contact before releasing with an “okay” and allowing the puppy to eat.
Puppies get the idea much quicker with each successive portion of food. By the time the first meal is finished, puppies should only be struggling to get the food for a couple of minutes per portion before remembering that eye contact will trigger a release from his person so that he can eat the food.
Though time-consuming, the results are well worth the time investment. This work in the crate jump starts learning eye contact so that working with your puppy on the floor is easier and progresses quicker. The floor work will be much easier if you’ve done the crate work first.
However, your puppy must be conditioned to like the crate before asking him to wait for his food in it. Therefore, wait as long as it takes to get a puppy who chooses to go in his crate when the door is open before starting this work. In the meantime, you can go ahead and be moving through the other steps in this program. These steps might progress slower for you, but that is okay. You shouldn’t be in a rush.
If you are intimidated by a puppy who is too aggressive in trying to get the food in the bowls, you can skip the “Mealtime Manners” routine until you’ve had a session or two on the floor with your puppy. If you have your first floor sessions prior to the crate/bowl work, the floor sessions are more difficult. On the other hand, if the crate/bowl work is done first, that work is more difficult. I’ve done it both ways and though the process overall is slightly quicker and easier with the bowl work first, either way is fine and in the end will accomplish the same objectives.
Once the puppy is giving consistent, but brief eye contact shortly after you place the food in front of him, it’s time to increase criteria. Gradually require the puppy to give longer and longer periods of eye contact before saying “okay”. As the puppy gets more dependable, you can gradually remove your hand from the bowl. Always have your hand ready to re-cover it should the puppy try to go for the food before being released. After a few weeks, your puppy should be so dependable that you can even close the crate and the puppy will wait on the release.
Back when I had several dogs, I’d feed 3 or 4 dogs at a time placing the food in each crate and closing the doors. After all food was in the crates, I’d release all 3 or 4 dogs to eat with one “okay”. This behavior became very solid with consistent training. Once, we went on vacation and a neighbor took care of and fed our dogs. She called on the first day saying the dogs wouldn’t eat. I had forgotten to tell her to give the “okay” release so all of them were sitting and staring intently at her waiting for permission to eat.
Where to Find Demonstration
The skills described in this lesson are demonstrated in our 1st Day Video: Mealtime Manners
