I have an aquaintance who reports that family's large dog steals food from counter, when no one else is present. This means apparently going beyond just reaching the edge of the counter, but actually pushing up to get things off from further off of the top. While I know my first reaction is to not leave temptation (and thus rewards) in place, this family with small children has difficulty trying to keep everything stashed away, like sticking a birthday cake into the cold oven. The dog finally got the remains of the birthday cake from the counter. The behavior seems to happen mostly when owner leaves super early in the morning to go to work. This person reports that dog is fine around family meal time, other times in kitchen, just lying around, with no displayed interest in the food.
Need for training ideas regarding stealing food
By msmandy205 on 11/14/2006
prevention is the best way I would say...
I really cannot think of anything that would work (and i know people thatg tried really different things). I have the same problem but I just keep stuff out of my dogs reach. She won't eat if if I'm anywhere near her, but when i leave.
Maybe there is a way, but i think it's a hard one and it's easier to prevent the behaviour from happening. The thing is that behaviour is very self reinforcing and thus hard to get rid of. even if they decide to work on it, they would have to prevent the dog from eating the food while training the don't-eat-the-food behaviour especialy when they are not at home. If they can find a way to do this, i guess they can continue doing it throught the dog's life.
Personaly I don't see the problem of putting away the birthday cake or the supper (hmm, my supper is usualy in the fridge, btw), but if it's complicated, maybe they can lock the kitchen door so dog can't get in, or leave the dog in the crate.
Sanja Miklin
3/205
LPC UWC, Hong Kong