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Begging for food

2320 Views 24 Replies 16 Participants Last post by  Willow518
Hello, I'm new to this site. I did not search for similar problems as mine because I have done so much research on this topic and all I see is the same suggestion. Don't give food to the dog off of your plate. Well we never have.
My husband and I adopted 2 Jack Russel terriers. The male is 7 and the female is 5. Apparently their previous owner fed them table scraps all the time. The female, Chello, will just sit there and stare at you while you're eating. The male, Banjo, hops up and down - whimpers and just makes a downright nuisance of himself. He's driving my husband crazy to the point that he doesn't want to keep him.
We've had them for about 3 months now. Not once have we given them any of the food we have been eating. Every site we've gone to has said to break the behavior, just stop giving them food. I would think after 3 months, if this were to work, it would have by now.
We've tried putting him in other rooms and crating him. We can't even enjoy our food for all the barking and whining and whimpering. It's really making my husband miserable which in turn is making me miserable. Is this a lost cause with a 7 year old male dog? I don't want to give him up and I don't want to separate the dogs, they have always been together, but this is becoming extremely unbearable. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jen
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Zoey learned not to beg when we are eating by us only giving her scraps if she is sitting quietly, not jumping up, standing, or making noise. The few times she has tried to actively beg, we have told her to lay down and stay in the kitchen, away from the dining room. You could try a similar approach.. if they are good, they get rewarded, if they beg, they get moved farther away from the thing they want. I don't know if it will work for you or not, but it worked for us. Hope it helps a little.
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