When I got my French Bulldog puppy, he faithfully followed me everywhere and had to hold me when I stopped. I found this to be very endearing, and then I tripped over him while having dinner one night. I wasn’t too worried about him at the time, because I stepped on another dog (who yelped loudly) while trying to right myself.
Luckily that dog was fine, but Louie woke up the next morning unable to put weight on his leg. Turns out, I broke his leg, and he was a trooper who never whined about it. An emergency run to the vet soon got him out, and he recovered perfectly despite a break in a growth plate.
This incident was a red flag that I needed to be more vigilant about keeping the dogs out of the kitchen while we were cooking. Unfortunately, my occasional efforts to say, “Get out of the kitchen!” while pointing at the other end of the room doesn’t work as well as I expected. Depending on my tone, the dogs would occasionally follow, only to come back for a few minutes and step on it again.
There are many dangers in the kitchen. Here are five reasons to avoid dogs in the kitchen while preparing food:
How to keep dogs out of the kitchen
1. Hot liquid
Whether you’re stirring a pot and it spills, there’s an overflow on the stove, or you’re taking a pot of pasta to the sink to drain, you don’t want to accidentally burn your dog. It’s painful for both of you to trip over the dog while carrying a pot of boiling water.
2. Sharp objects
I’ve dropped knives a few times and I’m in the habit of jumping back quickly when I do so I don’t accidentally stab myself in the leg. If my dog was at my feet, I could trip the dog (and break another leg) or the dog would get the sharp end of the knife. These are not good scenarios.
3. Forbidden food
Avocados, onions, garlic, grapes, raisins, macadamia nuts, and other foods can be toxic to dogs. We all know that the five second rule doesn’t apply if you have dogs, because they’ll destroy the food that falls on the floor before you even count to five. If Fido ingests something he shouldn’t eat, depending on the size of the dog and the amount of food eaten, he can become very sick.
4. Garbage
All forbidden foods can go in the trash, as well as things like aluminum foil, plastic wrap, meat-wrapped string (which dogs can’t resist), and broken glass. If your dog is aggressive, you’ll be more vigilant about littering when you know Fido will be unsupervised for any period of time. Pet owners rarely think about Fido knocking something off the top of the trash can while they’re distracted cooking. Asking him to stay out of the kitchen is for his benefit.
5. Missing dinner
The five-second rule we talked about? Well, have you ever dropped the whole roast on the floor as you were taking it to a cutting board across the kitchen, only for Fido to sink his teeth into it before you could stop him? No? Just me? It’s not a good choice to make between eating your dog’s first season of roast or nothing but potatoes and green beans for dinner.
How to keep your dog in the kitchen
I decided it was time to get serious about keeping the dogs underfoot while we were cooking, mostly because the wife was complaining about stepping on the dogs. We live in a very rural area, and dog trainers are not plentiful, so I turned to the Internet for help.
I found professional trainer, author, and podcaster Michelle Huntting, who teaches online classes and offered to provide tips for this story. Even better, he does them as a live Skype event, so he can help and give advice as he watches you work with your dog. For someone with a very tight schedule and a lack of readily available dog trainers in my area, this was a perfect fit for me.
I had a deep conversation with Michelle, who helped me teach the dogs the concept of “going to the mat.” The goal is to train your dogs to stay in a certain place until they are let out. A mat is an easy one to find for both of you, but you can use a towel, blanket, or even a dog bed.
We chose to use the dog crates, because they are the open-wire type and are right at the end of the kitchen, where the dogs can watch us and still feel the action. This is important. You don’t want your dog to feel like he’s being punished and pushed away from people; you are just creating a safety zone for him. If he can see you and you can see him, training will be easier and your dog will be happier.
At first, you will need to leash your dog so that he can learn to stay near his mat. Whether you tie him to an easy doorknob, put a leash around the leg of a chair, or drop a heavy stack of books on the end of his lead, he’ll know he can’t go anywhere once he’s on the mat. Please treat your dog to something he is not used to, a chew that will entertain him for a while and teach him that the mat is not a punishment, but a good thing.
As you bring your dog to his mat and to the food, you tell him to “go to the mat” to reinforce what he needs to do. Eventually, you’ll be able to let him off-leash and just give him reminders to stay there until he’s released. You may have to put him back on the mat a few times if he gets lost, but patience and persistence will help him learn what you expect.
Soon your dog will “go to the mat” just because you tell him to, and he’ll stay there until you tell him it’s safe to leave it again. It’s a great tool in your dog’s toolbox, and it’s also useful for calming down when company comes over and your dog won’t stop jumping on them in greeting.
I’m very grateful for the help she gave me, and I’m happy to report that our dogs happily stayed in their crate (with a door, of course) for most of the dinner prep. Sometimes, I still have to remind them to stay until released, but the kitchen has become a safer work environment for our family, and we’re all happier about that. Even Jill and Louie are happy, because they get a better meal than a stray piece of celery that jumped off the cutting board.
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