How to Train my puppy to eat foods given only by me.

**joydeep.agt** · 12-07-2011, 08:53 AM

I m bringing a new puppy my home recently, but first i have to train him only to eat my food. coz, i dont want people giving him unhealthy foods,making him sick.so, please suggest something

**dweck** · 12-07-2011, 09:07 AM

Train LEAVE IT! So that if a stranger offers a hot dog, you simply use LEAVE IT to make sure the dog doesn't eat it.

Also, I hope I'm correct in thinking that when you say "my food," you're talking about kibble that you provide and not the people-food from your plate. People food is very unhealthy for a dog.

**HersheyK's Dad** · 12-07-2011, 10:16 AM

Teaching Leave It will definitely help, BUT are we seriously talking about teaching a Lab to never take food (that means something edible) from anyone but the handler? Seriously? Personally, I do not believe this is possible for 99% of the Labs in this world. And the other 1% must be trained by a really skilled trainer.

Or maybe I am just generalizing Hershey Kisses food drive to all Labs. But then there was Newman, Jake (not Laura's), Brewer, Nash, Ice, Rainey, Tuck, Pete, Reo, Willow, Jorgen, Bailey, How many other Labs do I know personally? Nope, its not just Hershey Kisses, they are all food driven.

**Garth** · 12-07-2011, 10:19 AM

**dweck** · 12-07-2011, 10:24 AM

I don't underestimate the power of the food drive in a Lab. Or any dog, for that matter.

But......

One of the exercises to qualify for therapy work is to heel by a food bowl with treats in it. And also heel by a person who drops a treat on the floor. You are allowed to give the LEAVE IT command but no unduly harsh collar correction to get the dog to walk on by.

Wesley did it. Every one of our therapy dogs does it. My expectation is that Parker will do it.

Especially important in therapy work, where meds may accidentally (or on-purpose) wind up on the floor. A dog ingesting an Rx drug could be a very serious matter.

**Jan** · 12-07-2011, 10:42 AM

Are you ever going to kennel your dog? Don't go too far with this - "leave it" should be fine.

**BigBrownDog** · 12-07-2011, 11:08 AM

I simply tell people not to feed my dogs. When we have parties and there is a lot of food around and little kids the temptation is to slip something to the dogs and with a diabetic dog I just can't have that. Everyone gets instructed as they arrive - no feeding the dogs - period.

**Beerfish** · 12-08-2011, 05:18 PM

You are training the wrong animal. Train the people.

**Tanya** · 12-08-2011, 05:59 PM

Originally Posted by HersheyK's Dad

Teaching Leave It will definitely help, BUT are we seriously talking about teaching a Lab to never take food (that means something edible) from anyone but the handler? Seriously? Personally, I do not believe this is possible for 99% of the Labs in this world. And the other 1% must be trained by a really skilled trainer..

this. While I agree with training leave it, that pretty much only works when you are there. Labs are by nature friendly and if someone offers them a treat, unless you say leave it, it would be nearly impossible to train them to "not take it" .

supervise your dog and tell others not to feed them.

**chantelle_87** · 02-17-2012, 07:49 AM

You could use a release word? My lab is only 10 months old and even when we hold food in front of his mouth, place it on his nose or wiggle it in front of him saying yum yum etc he wont touch it until we either say "ok" or "gentle". The way we did this was by having treats in our hands and not letting him take them until we said the word and gentle came later...we wouldn't let him take it until we said "ok" and then "gentle" and he had to nibble it very gently or we wouldn't release it from our hand...takes a little bit of time but he seemed to figure it out! ....labs tend to learn very quickly what they are supposed to do in order to get the food!