November
Thanksgiving table manners for dogs.
A dog at a Thanksgiving table has one job: to be on place until released. How to teach it in the three weeks before the meal, and what to do on the day.
The Thanksgiving table is a four-hour test of one command. A dog that holds place from the first plate to the last piece of pie is a pleasure to have in the room. A dog that works the table is a hazard, a nuisance and, by the end of the day, an emergency vet visit if it finds the turkey bones.
Three weeks out
Put the place bed in the dining room now and feed the dog its dinner on it while you eat yours. Start with your own meals, ten minutes, then twenty, then a full family dinner. Release the dog only when the table is cleared. By week three the dog should hold through a meal with the children up and down and someone dropping a fork.
- Place bed in the dining room from now until December
- Every family meal is a training session
- Nobody feeds from the table, including the guest who thinks it is harmless
- Bones, fat, onions and the trash go where the dog cannot reach
On the day
Walk the dog well before guests arrive, feed it before the meal, and put it on place before the first dish comes out. Give one adult the job of holding the rule. If the dog breaks, it goes back on place without drama, every time. A dog with a solid place command finds Thanksgiving easy; a dog without one finds it the most exciting afternoon of the year, and behaves accordingly.
Guests and their dogs
The extended family's dog is the Thanksgiving variable nobody plans for. Two dogs that have never met, a house full of food and a crowd is the setting for the fights we hear about every December. Introduce the dogs outside, on leash, walking parallel down the street before anyone goes indoors. Feed them in separate rooms. Give each dog its own place bed on opposite sides of the room and keep the leashes on for the first hour. If either dog has guarded food or growled at another dog before, the honest plan is separate rooms for the whole day, and a conversation with our team about resource guarding after the holiday.
What a dog can eat, and what sends it to the emergency vet
Plain turkey meat, plain sweet potato and green beans are fine in small amounts on the place bed after the meal, as a reward for a job well done. Bones, skin, fat, gravy, onion, garlic, grapes, raisins, chocolate and anything with xylitol are the reasons the emergency vets in Cypress and Katy are busy on Thanksgiving night. The trash can with the carcass in it is the most common culprit; take it out to the garage before dessert. The ASPCA poison control line is the number to have on the fridge, and the counter-surfing guide is the place to start if your dog has learned that the kitchen counter is a buffet.
Best Dog University Team
Board and train trainers in Cypress, Houston. 16+ years, 900+ dogs. About our team
