Yeah, for those who remember my aunts obese JRT who I painted a while back and posted the work in progress in the dogs general forum who and everyone was shock horrored over...well, thats how she ended up like that. Not good to feed them bits just because they look at you in that way. Dogs don't beg because they are hungry, dogs beg because they are opportunists who's instinct tells them to take advantage of any nutrient source when it's available whether they are currently hungry or not.

Even giving in sometimes can create an annoying begging behaviour so you'd have to stop giving in completely if you want that behaviour to stop otherwise the dog will always believe there is a chance his begging might work and will carry on doing it.

The reason I knew is because dogs learn through reward and if he had never been rewarded before, he'd have stopped wasting his time ages ago...plus it would not have graduated to whining. This often happens with lots of things where a dog will temporarily get worse to try and make the owner give in when they try to stop rewarding the behaviour. A lot of the time, the dog wins....