# Supper Time Hassel and Is She Getting Worse?



## sladestrife (Apr 2, 2009)

Hello all!

My puppy Gracie has been giving my wife and I a hard time when we have supper. Whether it is at the table, on the couches or on our patio the dog tries to climb up to grab food off of our plates. We have tried distracting her with one of her toys, ignoring her, separating her and none of these things work! We feed her when we eat, or at least before we do. No matter where we place her she just non-stops barks at us!

She is currently 14 weeks old. I have been taking her out for 1-2 times a day for walks at 30-45 minutes each, and the past week she has begun nipping more and chewing on stuff she isn't supposed to. Her house training seems to be going backwards even though I try to give her a treat when she does go outside (most of the time she just refuses it). So I have been praising her when she does go outside. Is this normal for a puppy to start acting out like this when she didn't before? If not what can I do to help her?


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## Oaklys Dad (Dec 28, 2005)

It all sounds like pretty normal puppy stuff to me. I would put her in her crate at your mealtime in another room or just throw a sheet over the crate. 

The nipping is also very normal at that age. You will find lots of threads on the subject here but most of us have gotten by with a loud "OUCH" and replacing our hand with an appropriate toy.

For housetraining it sounds like you are doing everything right. The trick is to do it very often. Every time they wake up, stop playing, seem distracted you need to take them out on leash to potty. It can be very frequent at first since they have small bladders but the more they get it right and get praise for it the quicker they will learn. Good luck to you.


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## Debles (Sep 6, 2007)

Crate her during meals. : )

When you take obedience classes, you will learn sit, stay, down etc and that will wrk during meals once she gets older, more mature.


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

Robs suggestions are tried and true.....
This is the perfect age to get a handle on these issues.....they are much more difficult and frustrating when the dear-ones get bigger, louder and have more stamina!
You can also toss a stuffed frozen KONG in the crate for her during your mealtime.


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## BeauShel (May 20, 2007)

Agree with Rob on this.


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## sladestrife (Apr 2, 2009)

Thank you I shall give that a try!


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