April 17, 2025 • 10 mins
Tired of your puppy pawing at your legs every time you sit down to eat? In this episode, we dive into why puppies develop this habit and how you might be reinforcing it without even realizing it. More importantly, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step training plan to teach your pup a polite, alternative behavior—like relaxing on a designated mat or holding a down-stay during meals.
With patience, consistency, and positive reinforcement, you can create a peaceful dining routine for both you and your furry friend. Tune in to learn the best techniques for setting clear boundaries and enjoying stress-free meals with your puppy by your side! 🐶🍽️ #DogTraining #PuppyTips #PositiveReinforcement
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On today's episode I'm answering a client question.
How do I train my puppy to stoppawing my legs while I eat
dinner?
How do I teach her not to dothis?
Great question, let's talkabout it.
Welcome to the Puppy TrainingPodcast.
I'm Amy Jensen, founder ofBaxter and Bella, the online
puppy school.
(00:20):
Here we are all about helpingyou create the best possible
experience raising a puppy, fromtraining tips to practical
tricks, all aimed at fostering ahappy, well-behaved dog who
truly feels like part of thefamily.
So if you are ready to enjoythe journey and strengthen the
bond with your dog, let's getstarted.
Hi you guys, thanks for in tothe puppy training podcast.
(00:48):
Every once in a while I like tomix things up a little bit and
answer questions that come infrom you.
So today's question this personhas a puppy that just wants to
paw her leg, probably asking forfood, right as she's sitting
down to dinner, and that couldbe kind of annoying.
Now she wants to change thebehavior.
How do we go about it?
But first, if you've seen onsocial media all about our
(01:10):
Easter egg hunt, you found anegg here on the podcast.
This is your egg episode.
So head on over to my Instagramaccount at Baxter and Bella and
DM me letting me know you foundthe podcast egg.
Make sure to include thispodcast number 223.
Thanks for having a little funwith us.
Okay, back to the question ofthe day.
(01:32):
Dog is pawing you while you'retrying to eat dinner.
So teaching our dog to stopdoing something like pawing at
our legs while I'm eating dinnerthat's a really important thing
to consider as we establishboundaries with our dog and we
teach them polite behavior atmealtime.
Understanding why my puppychooses that behavior will help
me as I decide how to handle it.
(01:52):
I want to be careful not toaccidentally or unintentionally
reinforce it.
And then what can I do?
How can I get my puppy to do amore desirable behavior which is
going to set them up forsuccess and me as well?
Less frustration, for sure.
So.
So first let's understand thebehavior.
Dogs naturally seek attention.
They love attention.
They're social creatures andthey want reinforcement from us.
(02:15):
Pawing is a common way thatthey communicate their desire.
They're asking for something.
So if they come and paw at us,they want something.
Right now, most likely, I'mgoing to assume in this
situation the dog probably wantsfood, but other times they
might want your attention, theymight want you to play with them
During mealtime.
Your puppy likely paws at yourlegs because she's learned that,
okay, if I paw at your leg, Iget some form of response.
(02:38):
Okay, maybe you just look ather, maybe you talk to her and
tell her no, maybe you've givenher a treat to try to get her to
do something else.
While you might have the bestof intentions when doing all of
these things, they might notalways pan out how you expected
or hoped.
Some of that is going to beinterpreted by her as attention,
(02:58):
which means it's reinforcingthat pawing behavior.
Without realizing it.
Many of us we reinforce unwantedbehaviors.
If you've ever fed your puppyfrom the table when she paws at
you, she's learned thatpersistence pays off.
Even negative attention, suchas pushing her away or scolding
her, can be rewarding, becauseit still involves interaction,
which is part of what she'sgoing for.
(03:19):
So the key to changing thistype of behavior is to ensure
that pawing no longer leads toany type of reward, while an
alternative behavior isconsistently reinforced.
So we're going to teach her abehavior to do.
That's what we're going to payher to do before she even starts
to paw us, and then that newbehavior that we're paying will
become the behavior she tries inthe future.
(03:42):
So teaching an alternativebehavior is the key, rather than
simply trying to stop the pine.
It's kind of hard to say I wantto train my dog to stop doing
something.
It's much easier to focus onwhat do I want my puppy to do
when I sit down to eat a meal,so it's way more effective to
train your puppy to do somethingduring mealtime.
Now a great alternative isteaching her to go to a
(04:03):
designated spot, such as a mat,a rug, a bed, or even have her
lay under the table in a downstay.
So I would pick one of those,pick one that works for you and
we're going to introduce thespot.
So let's just say that I have araised bed near my table and I
want my dog, during mealtimes,to go lay on their bed and I
want them to stay there untilreleased.
(04:25):
So I'm going to introduce thebed to my dog.
I'm going to put it in a spotnear my dining area, but not in
the way, so tuck it out of theway, but close enough to you
that you can definitely deliversome food rewards as you enjoy
your meal.
So we're going to use favoritefood rewards, just small little
pieces about the size of yourpinky fingernail, and we're
going to do this intermittentlyto encourage our puppy to remain
(04:47):
on that bed.
Now, to get them to go to thebed, you might need to use a
little food to lure them ontothe bed.
Lure them into a down mark.
Yes, pay them.
Count to two seconds.
Drop another little half atreat, right, very teeny, tiny
size of a pea, you guys, little,little but tasty.
And then count to two, dropanother one.
Count to five.
Drop another one.
(05:07):
Count to 10, drop another one.
We're going to slowly increasethe amount of time in between
when our puppy gets a reward.
If you increase time tooquickly, your puppy will jump
off.
They'll get frustrated, right.
They'll probably come back andtry to paw at you.
Too quickly, your puppy willjump off.
They'll get frustrated, right.
They'll probably come back andtry to paw at you.
So we want to make sure in thebeginning that we are
reinforcing frequently enoughthat the puppy's willing to wait
(05:28):
that next second for the nextreward to come.
Over time, as you do more andmore sessions, the time between
food rewards will be greater.
Your puppy will have morepatience.
They know they're going to berewarded and they're willing to
wait a little longer for thatnext reward to come until
finally you can cue them to goto their bed.
You can enjoy your meal, cuethem to get off their bed and
(05:50):
then reward them.
That's the ultimate goal.
So marking and rewarding isimportant when our puppy steps
onto the mat.
If they are nervous about themat or the bed or the spot going
under the table can be a littlenerve wracking for some puppies
.
Whichever spot you've chosen,let's just say they're scared to
get on the bed.
Then you might just start there.
Can you lure them onto the bed,mark?
Yes, let them get off.
(06:10):
Lure them onto the bed, mark?
Yes, let them get off.
And then we want to get to thepoint where they'll go onto the
bed and they will go into a downposition.
So a lot of this.
They will go into a downposition.
So a lot of this you're goingto introduce and teach before
mealtime.
It doesn't even have to be inthe same room, you can be
somewhere else.
Introduce the bed or the mat orthe rug or whatever you're
using.
Make sure your puppy'scomfortable and likes and enjoys
(06:33):
laying and settling on thatsurface.
Sometimes I choose a surfaceand my dog doesn't love it.
That's not really going to besuper ideal if I want them to
stay there a long time.
It's going to be much easierand the process will be much
faster if my dog naturally lovesthis spot that I've chosen for
them.
Make sense Once my puppy iscomfortable.
Getting on the bed, getting offthe bed, laying down on the bed,
(06:54):
settling on the bed for a fewminutes or seconds, even at the
beginning, is fine.
We can start to put it on cue.
Or seconds, even at thebeginning is fine, we can start
to put it on cue.
So what you're going to do issimply add in the cue go to bed,
go to mat, go under whateveryou want to say, depending on
the behavior you're trying toachieve.
So let's just say we're usingthe bed again, I would cue my
(07:14):
dog, go to bed and then, as soonas she gets on the bed and lays
down, that's when I mark yesand I pay her If she needs a
little help, as I firstintroduced that cue.
So I'll say the cue lure heronto the bed into a down, mark
yes, pay her.
I'm going to do that severaltimes and then I'm going to drop
out the help.
So then I'll say the cue, I'lldrop out the luring.
(07:34):
She's going to be able tofigure this out on her own
because she's done it a coupleof times and she got paid for it
.
So in her little brain she'strying to figure out how do I
get that reward again?
What did I do?
Oh yeah, I jumped on this bedand I laid down and then Amy
said yes, so we want to get ridof that luring as quickly as
possible, but it might be neededfive, 10, 20 times, okay, until
your dog figures it out.
(07:55):
Then you can skip that luringpart.
You just say the cue, the dogdoes the behavior, we mark yes,
we pay them, and from then onyou're just lengthening the
duration.
So that's where thatintermittent reinforcement comes
in in the beginning, especiallywith a young puppy that doesn't
have patience.
It's going to be seconds.
Once you get to 20 seconds Ifeel like most dogs figure out
(08:16):
oh yeah, I'm supposed to justhold still until I hear that
release cue.
Make sure you do train thatrelease cue.
We can help you in our program.
Train both this go to bed cueand the release cue.
If your dog doesn't understanda release cue.
It's hard for them to know whenthey can get off.
So we train both and then wejust start to reinforce the
behavior.
Pretty soon, your dog's goingto do it automatically.
(08:38):
You don't even have to say goto bed.
As you head into the kitchen andsit down for your meal, your
dog's going to do itautomatically.
You don't even have to say goto bed.
As you head into the kitchenand sit down for your meal, your
dog's going to go, run over totheir spot, lay down and wait
for their rewards to come.
Which notice how we'veeliminated the pawing behavior.
It's gone.
It's not even part of thepattern.
We head to the kitchen, we getour meal, the dog goes to their
bed, they lay down, and that'sthe idea Is we want to teach our
(09:00):
puppy an alternative behavior,a behavior that they can't do.
The pine while they're doingthis new behavior.
It's incompatible, right?
So pick a behavior you wantyour dog to do during mealtime,
teach them how to do thatbehavior and then you sidestep
all of the pine in the processand that just gets washed away.
Cool.
(09:21):
We can help you teach this andany other type of training
behavior similar to this insideof our program, the online puppy
school at Baxter and Bella.
Check it out If you haven'talready.
We have trainers that you cantalk to one-on-one.
You can email us your questions.
You can join our live group Qand A chats.
Weekly.
We have classes, courses, youname it.
We're here to help you.
(09:41):
We want you to be successful.
All right, you guys?
Thanks for checking in.
Have a great week and happytraining.
Thanks for tuning in to thepuppy training podcast.
I hope today's tips help youfeel more confident and excited
about raising your dog.
Remember, with a littlepatience and consistency, you
can create a loving bond and awell-behaved pup who's a joy to
(10:03):
have in your family.
If you found this episodehelpful, be sure to subscribe,
leave a review and share it withfellow puppy parents.
For more resources, visitBaxter and Bella online.
Until next time, happy training.
On today's episode I'm answering a client question.
How do I train my puppy to stoppawing my legs while I eat
dinner?
How do I teach her not to dothis?
Great question, let's talkabout it.
Welcome to the Puppy TrainingPodcast.
I'm Amy Jensen, founder ofBaxter and Bella, the online
puppy school.
(00:20):
Here we are all about helpingyou create the best possible
experience raising a puppy, fromtraining tips to practical
tricks, all aimed at fostering ahappy, well-behaved dog who
truly feels like part of thefamily.
So if you are ready to enjoythe journey and strengthen the
bond with your dog, let's getstarted.
Hi you guys, thanks for in tothe puppy training podcast.
(00:48):
Every once in a while I like tomix things up a little bit and
answer questions that come infrom you.
So today's question this personhas a puppy that just wants to
paw her leg, probably asking forfood, right as she's sitting
down to dinner, and that couldbe kind of annoying.
Now she wants to change thebehavior.
How do we go about it?
But first, if you've seen onsocial media all about our
(01:10):
Easter egg hunt, you found anegg here on the podcast.
This is your egg episode.
So head on over to my Instagramaccount at Baxter and Bella and
DM me letting me know you foundthe podcast egg.
Make sure to include thispodcast number 223.
Thanks for having a little funwith us.
Okay, back to the question ofthe day.
(01:32):
Dog is pawing you while you'retrying to eat dinner.
So teaching our dog to stopdoing something like pawing at
our legs while I'm eating dinnerthat's a really important thing
to consider as we establishboundaries with our dog and we
teach them polite behavior atmealtime.
Understanding why my puppychooses that behavior will help
me as I decide how to handle it.
(01:52):
I want to be careful not toaccidentally or unintentionally
reinforce it.
And then what can I do?
How can I get my puppy to do amore desirable behavior which is
going to set them up forsuccess and me as well?
Less frustration, for sure.
So.
So first let's understand thebehavior.
Dogs naturally seek attention.
They love attention.
They're social creatures andthey want reinforcement from us.
(02:15):
Pawing is a common way thatthey communicate their desire.
They're asking for something.
So if they come and paw at us,they want something.
Right now, most likely, I'mgoing to assume in this
situation the dog probably wantsfood, but other times they
might want your attention, theymight want you to play with them
During mealtime.
Your puppy likely paws at yourlegs because she's learned that,
okay, if I paw at your leg, Iget some form of response.
(02:38):
Okay, maybe you just look ather, maybe you talk to her and
tell her no, maybe you've givenher a treat to try to get her to
do something else.
While you might have the bestof intentions when doing all of
these things, they might notalways pan out how you expected
or hoped.
Some of that is going to beinterpreted by her as attention,
(02:58):
which means it's reinforcingthat pawing behavior.
Without realizing it.
Many of us we reinforce unwantedbehaviors.
If you've ever fed your puppyfrom the table when she paws at
you, she's learned thatpersistence pays off.
Even negative attention, suchas pushing her away or scolding
her, can be rewarding, becauseit still involves interaction,
which is part of what she'sgoing for.
(03:19):
So the key to changing thistype of behavior is to ensure
that pawing no longer leads toany type of reward, while an
alternative behavior isconsistently reinforced.
So we're going to teach her abehavior to do.
That's what we're going to payher to do before she even starts
to paw us, and then that newbehavior that we're paying will
become the behavior she tries inthe future.
(03:42):
So teaching an alternativebehavior is the key, rather than
simply trying to stop the pine.
It's kind of hard to say I wantto train my dog to stop doing
something.
It's much easier to focus onwhat do I want my puppy to do
when I sit down to eat a meal,so it's way more effective to
train your puppy to do somethingduring mealtime.
Now a great alternative isteaching her to go to a
(04:03):
designated spot, such as a mat,a rug, a bed, or even have her
lay under the table in a downstay.
So I would pick one of those,pick one that works for you and
we're going to introduce thespot.
So let's just say that I have araised bed near my table and I
want my dog, during mealtimes,to go lay on their bed and I
want them to stay there untilreleased.
(04:25):
So I'm going to introduce thebed to my dog.
I'm going to put it in a spotnear my dining area, but not in
the way, so tuck it out of theway, but close enough to you
that you can definitely deliversome food rewards as you enjoy
your meal.
So we're going to use favoritefood rewards, just small little
pieces about the size of yourpinky fingernail, and we're
going to do this intermittentlyto encourage our puppy to remain
(04:47):
on that bed.
Now, to get them to go to thebed, you might need to use a
little food to lure them ontothe bed.
Lure them into a down mark.
Yes, pay them.
Count to two seconds.
Drop another little half atreat, right, very teeny, tiny
size of a pea, you guys, little,little but tasty.
And then count to two, dropanother one.
Count to five.
Drop another one.
(05:07):
Count to 10, drop another one.
We're going to slowly increasethe amount of time in between
when our puppy gets a reward.
If you increase time tooquickly, your puppy will jump
off.
They'll get frustrated, right.
They'll probably come back andtry to paw at you.
Too quickly, your puppy willjump off.
They'll get frustrated, right.
They'll probably come back andtry to paw at you.
So we want to make sure in thebeginning that we are
reinforcing frequently enoughthat the puppy's willing to wait
(05:28):
that next second for the nextreward to come.
Over time, as you do more andmore sessions, the time between
food rewards will be greater.
Your puppy will have morepatience.
They know they're going to berewarded and they're willing to
wait a little longer for thatnext reward to come until
finally you can cue them to goto their bed.
You can enjoy your meal, cuethem to get off their bed and
(05:50):
then reward them.
That's the ultimate goal.
So marking and rewarding isimportant when our puppy steps
onto the mat.
If they are nervous about themat or the bed or the spot going
under the table can be a littlenerve wracking for some puppies
.
Whichever spot you've chosen,let's just say they're scared to
get on the bed.
Then you might just start there.
Can you lure them onto the bed,mark?
Yes, let them get off.
(06:10):
Lure them onto the bed, mark?
Yes, let them get off.
And then we want to get to thepoint where they'll go onto the
bed and they will go into a downposition.
So a lot of this.
They will go into a downposition.
So a lot of this you're goingto introduce and teach before
mealtime.
It doesn't even have to be inthe same room, you can be
somewhere else.
Introduce the bed or the mat orthe rug or whatever you're
using.
Make sure your puppy'scomfortable and likes and enjoys
(06:33):
laying and settling on thatsurface.
Sometimes I choose a surfaceand my dog doesn't love it.
That's not really going to besuper ideal if I want them to
stay there a long time.
It's going to be much easierand the process will be much
faster if my dog naturally lovesthis spot that I've chosen for
them.
Make sense Once my puppy iscomfortable.
Getting on the bed, getting offthe bed, laying down on the bed,
(06:54):
settling on the bed for a fewminutes or seconds, even at the
beginning, is fine.
We can start to put it on cue.
Or seconds, even at thebeginning is fine, we can start
to put it on cue.
So what you're going to do issimply add in the cue go to bed,
go to mat, go under whateveryou want to say, depending on
the behavior you're trying toachieve.
So let's just say we're usingthe bed again, I would cue my
(07:14):
dog, go to bed and then, as soonas she gets on the bed and lays
down, that's when I mark yesand I pay her If she needs a
little help, as I firstintroduced that cue.
So I'll say the cue lure heronto the bed into a down, mark
yes, pay her.
I'm going to do that severaltimes and then I'm going to drop
out the help.
So then I'll say the cue, I'lldrop out the luring.
(07:34):
She's going to be able tofigure this out on her own
because she's done it a coupleof times and she got paid for it
.
So in her little brain she'strying to figure out how do I
get that reward again?
What did I do?
Oh yeah, I jumped on this bedand I laid down and then Amy
said yes, so we want to get ridof that luring as quickly as
possible, but it might be neededfive, 10, 20 times, okay, until
your dog figures it out.
(07:55):
Then you can skip that luringpart.
You just say the cue, the dogdoes the behavior, we mark yes,
we pay them, and from then onyou're just lengthening the
duration.
So that's where thatintermittent reinforcement comes
in in the beginning, especiallywith a young puppy that doesn't
have patience.
It's going to be seconds.
Once you get to 20 seconds Ifeel like most dogs figure out
(08:16):
oh yeah, I'm supposed to justhold still until I hear that
release cue.
Make sure you do train thatrelease cue.
We can help you in our program.
Train both this go to bed cueand the release cue.
If your dog doesn't understanda release cue.
It's hard for them to know whenthey can get off.
So we train both and then wejust start to reinforce the
behavior.
Pretty soon, your dog's goingto do it automatically.
(08:38):
You don't even have to say goto bed.
As you head into the kitchen andsit down for your meal, your
dog's going to do itautomatically.
You don't even have to say goto bed.
As you head into the kitchenand sit down for your meal, your
dog's going to go, run over totheir spot, lay down and wait
for their rewards to come.
Which notice how we'veeliminated the pawing behavior.
It's gone.
It's not even part of thepattern.
We head to the kitchen, we getour meal, the dog goes to their
bed, they lay down, and that'sthe idea Is we want to teach our
(09:00):
puppy an alternative behavior,a behavior that they can't do.
The pine while they're doingthis new behavior.
It's incompatible, right?
So pick a behavior you wantyour dog to do during mealtime,
teach them how to do thatbehavior and then you sidestep
all of the pine in the processand that just gets washed away.
Cool.
(09:21):
We can help you teach this andany other type of training
behavior similar to this insideof our program, the online puppy
school at Baxter and Bella.
Check it out If you haven'talready.
We have trainers that you cantalk to one-on-one.
You can email us your questions.
You can join our live group Qand A chats.
Weekly.
We have classes, courses, youname it.
We're here to help you.
(09:41):
We want you to be successful.
All right, you guys?
Thanks for checking in.
Have a great week and happytraining.
Thanks for tuning in to thepuppy training podcast.
I hope today's tips help youfeel more confident and excited
about raising your dog.
Remember, with a littlepatience and consistency, you
can create a loving bond and awell-behaved pup who's a joy to
(10:03):
have in your family.
If you found this episodehelpful, be sure to subscribe,
leave a review and share it withfellow puppy parents.
For more resources, visitBaxter and Bella online.
Until next time, happy training.
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