I've found through experience over the years that it is easier to train when the puppy is receptive to what you want. So expecting a hungry puppy to understand it has to wait to eat is not going to work. So I work on different things until the puppy is able to cope with that requirement. My puppies leave me able to go outside to the toilet or use pads if in the house and no access to the outside, I've usually got that sorted by 6 weeks. I can brush them, wipe them over with a wipe, take toys or a bone from them, without any problems. Once they have eaten their breakfast they all come to me and sit round me and they each have a chicken wing, with no snatching, that is because they have eaten already, and are now receptive to what I want, which is far easier than tormenting them with food when they are hungry. Gradually the chicken wing lesson is moved onto other things because I have put a foundation in place without any undue stress or misunderstandings. I make their learning a fun flexible thing, if we get nowhere today, then we go back to something they can understand and finish on a note of praise and happiness. Tomorrow we can try a new thing again, but so tiny a step they don't even notice they have been moved on, again praise and cuddles and back to play

Agree with others that you are expecting far too much of your puppy. Just a baby. Probably he would even out and not get overweight. We would feed that age six times a day.

Lovely post June.. thank you

Labradors and Labramutts are my favorite and I have one. I've had them for over 15 years now. Getting a food obsessed Labrador puppy to stop obsessing over food is impossible. Stark raving impossible. They are hungry and greedy on top, impossible to take food off their minds.

However, there are ways to help him from gulping and snatching. My dog was a snatcher... if he bit my hand when trying to take a treat he didn't get the treat. He was made to try again and I'd say "Gentle" and if/when he didn't lunge for the treat, he'd get it and a praise reward. Quickly put the treat flush against his nose for him to eat, and it helped me get bitten less. If he's not doing tricks, simply give the treat in the palm of your hand.

My boy also scarfed down his food. To help with this, I tried out different foods until I found one he didn't like too well. Bought a HUGE bag of it. This helped him slow down. It became a habit with him to eat much more slowly and eventually even his tasty food wasn't gulped down. The no gulp bowls don't work on Labradors, they are garbage.

Keeping the treat hidden inside your hand when giving commands may help him not focus on the treat directly in front of him, but focus on the trick which gets him the treat, this helped me. In addition, don't give a treat after EVERY successful trick, give only praise every now and then, which will help him focus a bit, as well.

If you're interested in clickers, which help with timing and may assist in when he expects his treat and thus helps him focus... you can check that out on the internet. I personally think clickers are extremely irritating and my dog wanted to play with them, making them useless but many people find them useful, especially with Labradors.

Good luck!

But I aksed for help to get him to behave the way he should, and all I get for comments were "maybe you don't feed him enough" and "he's just being a puppy." That doesn't give me any ideas on how to train him. I guess I will just use google next time.

Thank you. I try to do our little training sessions after breakfast, or after dinner, and he still very much wants the treats. I've found if I'm fast enough I can put the treat on the palm of my hand and he doesn't grab my fingers, t my kids have a hard time with that and of course they want a part in the fun also. They also help put his food bowl down after I've filled it. I haven't looked into clickers much, I never understood what they were meant to do. Maybe I will look into them.

What are you teaching them by giving them a chicken wing? I don't understand you. Either way my dog is not being starved, I feed him breakfast before I even try to train him using treats. He knows "sit", "lay down" and "leave it" however anything other than "sit" is almost impossible to get him to do with out temptin him with a treat. he will also come when he's called. He just is very nippy when he takes his treats, and if I get the bag of treats out he will get very excited and sometimes not even pay attention to me. When he acts that way though I just put them away and he doesn't get any.

Hello Furmom It is natural behaviour for a puppy to gulp his food down quickly , they soon learn when with their litter mates that if they don't eat quickly others may get it.

I see nothing wrong in puppies eating quickly, unlike humans they do not need to chew food for the digestive process to begin they can just swallow it . The only exception is if a puppy is gulping down food to 'get its share' the regurgitating later to eat it slowly.

I wouldn't interfere too much or make 'a big thing' about food when your puppy is having his meal or you could make your puppy become more possessive around food and begin to guard it.


You can teach 'gently' by concealing the treat in your hand and just allowing a sniff then opening you hand to allow the treat to be taken when the puppy has calmed down .


ETA
How long has he been on three meals a day , he should have only just gone onto 3 meals at 12 weeks...

Age 4-12weeks = 4 meals a day
Age 3-6 months = 3 meals a day
Age 6-12months = 2 meals a day
1 year onwards = preferably 2 meals a day.

Puppies are best 'grown slowly' little and often by calculating the daily food allowance and splitting it between meals. The instruction on 'the bag of food' are a given as a guide and do not take into account the individual dog.
You may need to adjust them slightly according to need and the shape of your puppy.

There are video clips on Youtube about clicker training.

Kikopup is very popular.

https://www.youtube.com/user/kikopup

Gwen bailey's books -, Puppy school and The Perfect Puppy are useful.

Tip

Make sure any dry biscuit food needs to be moistened first ether in water or gravy . Ever heard of Gastric torsion? more commonly called bloat.

If a dog fills his stomach as full as possible, should the dry food swell it has nowhere to go in the stomach and twists it which could lead to the dog dying if not got to a vets very quickly

OK

How to prevent this

Any new type dry biscuit take a small handfull and place in a bowl and pour warm water over it. Leave for a few minuits to see if it expands. This imitates what happens inside a dog.
So if the food swell to a large amount feed less in one go and may need to be fed 2/3 times .