We feed her a bowl of food in the morning and it sits there pretty much all day. But as soon as something gets thrown in the garbage, even if it's a paper plate, she's right on it licking it and sniffing for more. When any of us gets something to eat, she sits at our feet and stares at us. Just stares. She acts insulted if we yell at her to get out of the garbage, and will follow us around if we have any food for ourselves. At meal times, she can be sound asleep somewhere in the house and as soon as I call the kids to wash up, she's at the table waiting for us to give her our food. We DO NOT feed her from the table and the only time she gets people food is if it falls on the floor and she gets to it before we do. We got her from the shelter almost 2 months ago and at first she messed in the house a lot. Now she's better with that and has a new issue. How can we fix this problem? Or is it something that is embedded into her? She's about 9 months old, black lab mix.

I have a silly question - does the garbage can have a lid on it? if not - get one that has a lid - that will help a lot.

There's an easy way to deal with the staring thing - ignore the dog and don't give it any attention - if you ignore the dog it will walk away and go lay down.

This is an easy fix though time consuming. You NEED to exhibit patience and consistancy. Your family also.

There is no way to cure her from getting into the garbage. As soon as she gets something no amount of yelling will get her to stop because she's already received her reward. Put a lid of the trash can or put it away in a cabinet.

To cure the begging (which is a huge pet peeve of mine) is to teach the dog the go away command. Snap your fingers or make a sound to get the dogs attention. Not her name! Point and say go away. Get up and lead the dog away and put her in down on her bed, in a corner or just another room. Tell her to down and stay. In the beginning you'll have to do this over and over and over and over. (Routine is how dogs learn). After a bit you can point and tell her to go away then stand in front of her forcing her out of the room w/o touching her, take her to her spot then tell her to lay down and stay.

Eventually you'll be able to point w/o ever getting up and she'll leave.

During dinner time do not allwo the dog in the room. There are foods that are poinsonous to dogs.. simple things such as onions. You can either use the go away command or teach her to never enter the room in the first place.

There is a spray called boundary that can assist you in breaking the habit of her being in the room. Its a deterant w/ no offensive odor to humans.

During dinner time it should be a habit for the dog to be in another room in down. If you're walking around w/ food you can use the go away command also.. watching tv, going to the bathroom, sitting on the floor etc.

When feeding her.. feed her on a schedule. Put the food down for 15 minutes then pick it till the next feeding. You can also put water on it, put it in the microwave bringing out the smell making it more alluring. (She'll still beg for your food regardless if she's eaten or not..but at least you know she's eating!)

Good Luck