My dog keeps stealing food.

[minkajane]

She has plenty of dog food available all the time, but she steals our food. We cannot leave food unattended or even turn away from it. With DH and I, she'll wait till we look away or leave the room, snatch it, and run. With DS, I guess she thinks she's higher up in the pack than him, because she'll snatch food right out of his hand or off his plate. The other day, she grabbed a slice of cheese out of his hand. Just a few minutes ago, he was sitting at his table (a lap table, so really low to the ground) and she took an egg right off his plate.

I guess she was fed scraps before we got her, so she's used to eating people food. I've seen her eat dog food, but not often. She begs like crazy when we eat and DH usually gives her a few fries or the last bite of a sandwich or whatever. That can't be helping.

What can we do to keep her from stealing food?

[femalephish]

Yikes! Just wanted to give you some *hug*s and *hang in there*s. I don't know what to do! Our dog steals food too, but we just don't leave it where she can reach it. (We can't even leave it on the kitchen counter because she'll jump up. And if she doesn't, our cat might jump up and knock it off to her! I swear they are working together sometimes!) Def. your DH shouldn't be giving her food if you want her to stop begging, though. I don't know what to do about the little one. Hopefully more experianced mamas can give you a little more. Good Luck!

[she]

I call it the scavenging instinct. Some dogs just have it switched on. Sometimes it's because they spent some time hungry, as a stray or neglected, sometimes not. I've had two dogs like this (I have the worst luck with dogs), neither of them had a hungry day in their lives, and yet would eat the counters clean the second their dish was empty. I've found absolutely nothing works completely, but you can make it slightly easier to deal with. Best thing is to reduce the temptation as much as possible - lock up the garbage, clean up immediately after every meal, never leave your food unattended. Never let the dog so much as *look* at your food, reprimand the dog for pointing its nose at it, sniffing at counters and tables are big no-nos. When you catch the dog stealing, give them all shades of Hades and then put it immediately in the backyard by itself. In the wild if a dog is caught eating out of turn, they will be attacked by the alpha and run out of the pack for such unsocialized behaviour, no question. I find the combo of aggressive reprimand (not hitting, just loud and angry) and time out works best to reduce the drive. It does only reduce it, these dogs are never cured, but if you get a few seconds delay you can at least turn around, KWIM? Lots of chew toys and bones help with the oral fixation, too.

[greenmagick]

Teach the leave it command. Put a so so treat in one hand and a great one in the other. Offer the so so treat (dont show them the good one yet) in a closed fist and and say Leave it. Let them sniff, lick, etc at your hand and as soon as they back off, give them the good treat and praise them. Keep working on this over and over and eventually, they will get it (and you can stop offering a better treat everytime). In the meantime, its about management, dont give the dog the opportunity to steal food.