YNP #107: Stop Dinnertime Chaos

YNP #107: Stop Dinnertime Chaos

From Your New Puppy: Dog Training and Dog Behavior Lessons to Help You Turn Your New Puppy into a Well-Behaved Dog by Debbie Cilento: Dog Trainer | Dog Behavior Consultant | Owner of Playtime Paws | Belly Rub Specialist

January 14, 2026 · 11 min · Episode 107

About this episode

This episode addresses the common issue of dogs begging and demanding attention during mealtime and offers strategies to create a more peaceful dining experience.

Dinner should be a chance to relax, not a nightly negotiation with your dog. In this episode of Your New Puppies Podcast , I’m breaking down one of the most common struggles I see with puppies and adult dogs: dogs begging, barking, or demanding attention while their humans are trying to eat. It does make sense that this happens. Besides the obvious food, everyone is gathered together, and there tends to be a lot of movement and chaos. Your dog just wants in. The good news is you don’t need to teach new cues, run training drills, or micromanage every meal to fix this. This is a perfect example of how we can train without training by using consistency, structure, and a predictable routine. In this episode, I talk about: Why dinner time is such a challenging moment for dogs Why attention (even negative attention) keeps the behavior going How to give your dog something better to do before begging starts When and how to remove access to the table altogether How to build a predictable dinner routine These are things you can start doing today . It may not be perfect immediately, but with consistency, most families see improvement within a week. Enjoying this podcast?  Please rate…

People in this episode

Host: Debbie Cilento

Topics covered

  • dog behavior
  • dinnertime chaos
  • puppy training
  • dog begging
  • meal routines

Keywords

  • dinner time
  • dog training
  • puppy behavior
  • begging
  • meal routine

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Playtime Paws

More episodes of Your New Puppy: Dog Training and Dog Behavior Lessons to Help You Turn Your New Puppy into a Well-Behaved Dog

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Your New Puppy: Dog Training and Dog Behavior Lessons to Help You Turn Your New Puppy into a Well-Behaved Dog podcast page.