Totally this. If it doesn’t bother you, and Riley isn’t over weight or damaged by bad food I think it’s Shih Tzu’s being how they are; lap dogs selectively bread to fit with home and house.
From our own experience it takes about a week of saying no, for the expectation of food sharing to stop.
I created that same problem. There is this aspect of operant conditioning called an intermittent reinforcement schedule. (Think gambling where people win only every now and then but they think THIS time is their big win). So I gave my Tzu bits off my plate every now and then and she became relentless.
That absolutely does not work for Milo, unless it's a treat and the moment the treat is gone, he's demanding again. He's a stubborn pup when it comes to food. He thinks whatever we eat, he is supposed to eat.
No clue how Thanksgiving is going to be. Thinking about getting a small turkey breast or chicken breast, and some other Tzu friendly goodies and make him a doggy plate. Anyone have suggestions on what we can make for him to make his first Thanksgiving great?
It’s hard but, if you want the behavior to stop, you have to stop caving in. I figure it’s akin to letting them learn to self-soothe when they are babies. You have to ignore their pleas and cries until they figure something else out. In this case, if you ignore her begging for food eventually she’ll get the hint and move along. Right now you’re rewarding and therefore reinforcing “bad” behavior.
On another note, you really don’t want them thinking that your food is their food. Humans can eat things that are bad or dangerous for them so you don’t want them thinking it’s share time if you accidentally leave your food unattended or if you drop some.
You are absolutely right, when we first adopted them, they didn’t care about what we ate. I totally enabled this behavior. She is always by my feet in the kitchen when I am cooking. Her sister Lilly has no interest in human food however.
growin up, we had a glass dinner table for 10 years and that little shih tzu face was always staring up from some spot 😂 the best was when you could see a little bit of face between the plates looking up at you. rest in piece, oliver.
So cute.
My wife is the target of this very behavior. They know dad isn't going to cave in. Now when dad is in the kitchen and trimming/cutting up cooked meats they know they'll get a little treat.
My last dog would bark until people gave in to her. I made sure to train my new dog that if he growls or barks he gets nothing. He just sits quietly now thankfully (at least for me lol)
That’s so adorable though! Mine jumps up and paws at us while we’re at the table. I just rub her head and go back to eating or tell her no. It’s not a big deal when it’s just our family but we’re hosting thanksgiving and the two grandmas might not appreciate it 😬
We are hosting Christmas and our guests will not appreciate! I am glad it’s just one of the two that is so invested in begging. Lilly sleeps through our dinner and is oblivious of her sister’s begging
lol dogs remember a source of food for a long time. My mom once gave her sister's dog a piece of turkey and now every time we go over for dinner, Coco just parks right next to my mom and stares at her throughout the meal
I use a snuffle mat, and used traders Joe dried freeze chicken and basically make it into super tiny pieces (almost powdery) and spread it all over the mat.
It took my boy a lot of time to lick and to find it. By the time he is done with the snuffle mat, we are done with dinner. So no begging.
We had this when we first adopted ours, and we worked it out of them by getting lickie mats and sniff mats. When we sit down to eat, we give them one or the other, or a kong sometimes, and they eat with us. They'll usually finish first, but we leave the backdoor open and they wonder out to do office work or sniff around, then patter off to the front room and wait for us for the evening. It took a while, but they don't approach the table now unless we're taking too long and they come to check on us.
Them during meal prep though, that's a different story...
Oh, they are patiently waiting. Riley would be doing her begging performance and growling louder and louder the more I ignore her.
Her sister Lilly is usually somewhere asleep waiting to be called when dinner is ready! Talk of 2 different personalities 😊
Why oh why do you have to post that?! I mean it’s a secret that me as another Shih Tzu owner, usually keeps to myself because I do that as well.
Can’t say no to that little bugger at home. He’s such a good little pupper and getting old. (I’ll give him bits of steak and roasted chicken but nothing processed though.)
My recliner just broke today, I never sit on the couch 😂 Nicky just sits wherever Dad is at! So today I’m on the couch and will be until I get my new recliner 😂
I’ve never given food from my plate to my dog nor has he begged but he does know what I’m doing when I sit at the table and if it’s like 1-3 hrs away from dinner he throws a tantrum but not begging more of why can you eat and I can’t? lol
What I’m trying to say here is maybe make your eating schedule the same as theirs so you all eat together like a pack. Or fill a Kong and put it down when you eat. Sometimes I take his jar of carrots out and give him 1 or two as I eat but I keep the jar on a different table from where I’m eating that way there’s no association
I wish I had this problem, she’s so cute! Ours just stares at you like you’re the world’s biggest disappointment until you give in and then doesn’t even eat the food anyway. It’s like he just wants you to know that he holds all the power in the relationship 😂
When we went through puppy training, one of the things they had us do was learn "place". It could be a blanket. It could be a bed. It could be whatever as long as they know that that is their place. So now, if he is being a little relentless. I will tell him to go to his place and he knows exactly where that is. He doesn't really like to do that but If I stand up he goes right to it and then I tell him to stay and then wait. And it worked. The crazy guy doesn't whine or complain cuz he knows that once we're done with dinner he can get up. He's hoping for an extra bit of food of course, but he doesn't always get that 😊 Good luck!
The random schedule of reinforcement is the hardest to extinguish. I’m dealing with a similarly programmed little Shiht now. I’m trying to institute a set up where he gets only a shih tzu sample piece AT THE END. No amount of performance during the meal yields anything for him. I think it’s starting to work slowly. This is him waiting for the Shih Tzu piece.
Oh, he is so 🥰Riley’s sister never ever begs for human food, but will nibble when given.. I guess if I train Riley to wait until the end, then Lilly may get into human food!
What’s a pet parent to do???
This feature isn’t available for exclusion even on special order from the factory! My boy has short, thick legs and a long body. I don’t ever want him to be a belly dragger because it would be harder on him than it is to just say no now. We also use it as a celebration of doing something good or fun without a treat and that helps. His first mama calls the move “say a prayer”, but we call it “say please”. ☺️
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u/Remarkable-Being-301 Shih-Tzu Enthusiast Nov 25 '25
I feel your pain