Curtis is always hungry!!

[valentina]

Hi everyone,

Firstly, just to get this out of the way, I know it is not worms, because he has been wormed.

But my goodness, he is always hungry!! I feed him twice a day, and on occasion give him some dry food. I give him treats as rewards. But he is still hungry!
He follows us to the kitchen every time he hears a cupboard opening or cutlery or a packet of food opening. He will even wake up from his sleep if he hears a kitchen cupboard opening and run to the kitchen. Just last night, he was lying asleep in my lap, and my boyfriend went into the kitchen to make a snack, and Curtis lept out of my lap and ran into the kitchen.

If I am preparing a meal, he will put his paws on the cupboards and just this morning he started scratching on the cupboard because I was ignoring him.

It is starting to become very annoying in the kitchen and I am afraid to invite over guests because he might harass them for their food.

Has anyone else gone through this? And how did you deal with it.
It makes me feel really bad, like I am not feeding him enough - but I know I am, he is a solid weight - he may even be overweight. I am afraid of our next vet visit to find out if he is. But I feel so guilty because he scoffs his food down within minutes at feeding time.

[CountryPug]

That is pretty typical pug behavior, they always want to eat. Whenever I get the cutting board out and start chopping, they come running. You have to be careful about giving too many treats though or they will get fat. I try not to spoil mine too much, but they do love baby carrots and broccoli:)

[Hellas]

Yes, typical pug behaviour. Our dogs are the same and I don't really mind. If it's really bothering you, perhaps try to teach him to go to his bed/blanket and stay there while you prepare food or eat? With positive methods, it can be done, but pugs are not the most patient of dogs. I'll admit that mine will go to bed when I tell them, but they won't stay there for very long :)

[Snifter]

He's just being a pug.

If he gets under your feet in the kitchen that can be dangerous if you are carrying hot pans. Never give him any titbits while you are preparing food. Eventually he will get the message that harrying you for food in the kitchen does not work.

Warn your guests that he might harass them for food and tell them to ignore him completely if he does so, and to push him off gently without speaking to him if he jumps up at them.

Make him sit for every treat you give him.

I do give ours treats while we are eating a meal, but not human food. I adjust their meal sizes to cater for the treats they get. They know that only my husband and I dispense treats so they sit by our chairs waiting and don't hassle guests.

[gemayer]

You have a piggy pug mine the same way.

[Tinker's mom]

Typical pug!!

[AMC7181]

You just described my Peyton and Bailey exactly. And they're certainly getting plenty of food. :)

I know what you mean about it being tough not to give them something when they're being so persistent. I've made the mistake of rewarding their bad behavior intermittently and now I have to work on undoing it.