Q: I have a 3-year old female Pug. She is the love of my life, but I have one major behavior problem I would like to share with you. She constantly begs for food when anyone is eating at my home. It is very annoying and she is quite persistent. We rarely give her anything from the table as our veterinarian likes to keep her fit and trim, as do we. My question is, how do we break her of this constant begging? She eats twice a day and weighs 15 pounds. I like to keep her at 13 pounds, but she is a bit overweight now. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

A: It sounds like this sweet, pudgy girl is on a "variable reinforcement schedule" for getting food when she begs at the table. This is a method used by trainers to make a behavior very reliable. Instead of rewarding every time, or at a predictable interval, they reward the dog once in awhile, at unpredictable intervals. Over time, this leads to an individual who is very hooked on the behavior. This is exactly the type of reinforcement that causes humans to get addicted to gambling!

The solution for your dog is to train ALL the humans! NOBODY gets to give her food when she begs, EVER again! You may have to be extremely firm with these humans! Every time someone gives her a treat, even if she has begged 100 times with no treat since the last one, they are confirming for her that "If you just keep begging, it will eventually pay off!" They are making her more and more PERSISTENT in the habit of begging! So, as you can see, there is no need to break the dog of begging. Break the people of giving her food, and she will eventually give up begging, with no breaking at all! If you are going to give her people food sometime, wait until the meal is over, then give it in her dog dish away from where the people eat. Never, ever reward begging again, and the begging will eventually stop.

But listen to your veterinarian--this little dog cannot safely carry the extra weight. The calories of people food you give her have to be subtracted from her regular food. This usually means you will unbalance her diet. An overweight animal often handles nutrients less efficiently than an animal at normal weight, and needs a balanced diet even more.

So, get those humans in line! Tell them you love your little doggie, and you know SOMEONE is feeding her when she begs, because the very fact that she keeps begging is the proof. Put a video camera on those people if you have to! I'm gonna do that to my husband any day now!