Mealtimes are an exciting time for most dogs, but some dogs overdo the celebration making feeding time an unpleasant chore. Does your dog bark, spin, nip at you, knock the bowl out of your hand or otherwise make dinnertime unpleasant? Here’s how to calm things down.

First, remember that any behavior that comes before dinner will be rewarded when you feed your dog. Many dogs superstitiously believe that the barking, jumping etc is what speeds you up and makes dinner happen. From their perspective, they bark; you feed them, so barking must be the best way to get dinner.

So from here on out, rude behavior makes the feeding process stop. On days when you don’t have time to work on this, put your dog outside or in another room while you prepare dinner and put it down. Only then let your dog into the room.

We will start by teaching your dog to sit politely while you place his bowl on the floor and release him to eat. Prepare a bowl with ¼ of your dog’s meal (put him outside if necessary while doing this). Show your dog the bowl, hold it over his head, and ask him once to sit. Now wait. Presuming he knows what sit means, he will eventually sit, although he may spend a minute or two barking first. When he sits, take one piece of kibble out of the bowl and reward him. From here on out, you will say nothing; your actions will tell your dog what to do.

As long as he is still sitting, lower the bowl a couple of inches. If he gets up, immediately raise the bowl back up and wait for a sit. Then try lowering it again. If you can lower it two inches and he is still sitting, reach for a piece of kibble out of the bowl and reward him. Now lower it another couple of inches, give him another piece. Continue like this lowering the bowl, rewarding from the bowl, and lifting the bowl back up any time he moves.

Over the course of 10 minutes, you should be able to get the bowl close to the floor. Don’t quit now! Try touching the bowl to the floor, but be prepared to immediately pick it up out of reach if he moves. If he stays sitting, give him three treats, one at a time, by hand from the bowl. Still sitting? Now is the time to give your release cue (Free! OK! or whatever) and let him eat.

Repeat the whole exercise with another ¼ of his dinner. If more than one person feeds the dog, then each person should try this.

Troubleshooting: If the dog keeps sitting too close to the bowl making it hard to lower it without letting him take a bite, either put your body between the dog and the bowl (lower bowl with left hand, feed with right with dog on your right, for example) or you could tether him to something to keep him in one place.

Be sure you are waiting to reach for the kibble to reward your dog until he has earned it. Don’t have a piece of kibble in your hand when you are lowering the bowl.

Real Life:

Ideally, work on this at each meal. Usually for the first few days it takes a while, but after that it goes very quickly. If you are in a hurry, fix the meal and put it down while your dog is outside or in a crate, then let him into the kitchen to eat. This way he can’t practice his old ways.

Meal Preparation:

For many dogs, the craziness starts long before you go to put the food down. If this is the case, for the first week, crate your dog or put him outside while fixing the meal then proceed as above. Once you are making progress on sitting for dinner, start working on calm behavior during meal prep: Pick up your dog’s bowl and head for the pantry. At any sign of rude behavior (jumping, barking, nipping etc), put the bowl on a counter and walk away. Spend a couple of minutes doing dishes, reading the paper or whatever, then try again. Be ready to interrupt the feeding process any time there is rude behavior. The first couple of days, this can take quite some time, but if you stick to your guns the problem is usually solved in a week.