r/DogAdvice•
emweach

Puppy food discipline

Question

My family welcomed a toy maltipoo puppy 2 weeks ago. He is about 2 or 3 months, and the previous owner seemed to have indulged him a lot, so after familiarizing himself with the place he isn't the most disciplined.

This is the first time we have ever had a dog, and our cat has been with us for 9 years. Our cat has a habit of leaving some food behind for later no matter the ration, and the puppy has been inhaling the rest of the food even though he has his own bowl. He recently also tries to eat the cat's food right right off the spoon. We have gentle parented our cat into sitting and waiting for his food and only starts eating when we let him. He also kinda doesnt want to deal with the toddler, so if the puppy gets to it first he would just straight up leave.

The puppy also start to recognize the cues for meal time, but gets extremely noisy and demanding, trying to jump into food drawer, jumping and barking at me. Using the stern voice doesn't work because I don't think he understands that yet. When I hold him in place he would turn to bite me. I also try to wait until he has tired himself out and sit down to actually take out the food - technically as a reward for the behavior, but he would starts jumping and barking again the moment there is some movement.

We wants to discipline him early, but we don't exactly know where to start. Also we have been kinda occupied so we haven't gotten a crate, but there will be one in a few days.

I would also greatly appreciate some advice on potty training too, but maybe I'll make a separate post for that.

Thanks all!

Posted Feb 22, 2026, 5:05 PM UTC

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