Food stealer-stealing food from the table!!!
Mike is going CRAZY wih this! Pippin has been getting worse and worse with stealing food from the table. Last night betweent he tiome it took Mike to stand up and walk away from the table, and the time when Igot over to his seat to guard the food, maybe 10 seconds, Pip had run off with 1/2 of Mike's hamburger bun!!! which is so very funny, and so very NOT FUNNY all at the same time. I KNOW they countersurf, but he's not just surfing, he's stealing our meals!!! He does know off, but like so many other sheepies, his stubborn streak runs strong when it comes to food... Does anyone have any suggestions for curbing the meal stealing behaviors???? He won't take food if someone is at their place but if anyone walks away WHAMMO! We did try crating him while eating, and he put up quite possibly the biggest ruckus I've EVER heard him make... EVER! |
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Have you started using the can technique? It's an alternative to scolding. Take a coffee can with the lid, add a handful of gravel or coins. Put lid on. When Pippin doesn't something bad, shake the can. The noise scares them. Don't scold. Just shake the can. OF COURSE this means you have to catch them in the act. 
Apparently he doesn't have "stay" down too well. If he does, put him in a spot and "stay" while you eat. It can be right beside the table if you wish, but he must not get up while you eat. Afterwards, move away from the table and reward him with his meal or a treat. Humans always eat first. If this fails, he goes to his room or crate with a treat, while you guys eat. In time they learn not to steal, but you also have to stop the begging or looking too. s. |
| I'm in the process of looking for a taller table right now, not because of a food stealer but a food licker. Bear is so tall, he can slide his head right on my plate if I'm eating and he likes to lick test everything. I figure if I keep moving up, he won't be able to reach and the food will be mine again. |
ButtersStotch wrote: I'm in the process of looking for a taller table right now,
You should get one of those tables that are counter height and you use stools to sit at. My neighbor has one and it looks quite nice. I can't help with the food stealing dilema. I could be eating on the couch with my plate in my lap....Izzie sitting next to me on the couch...and the most she would do is give it a little sniff. Amanda |
I wish I had a suggestion for you, Karen, but I have not been very successful in training for this behaviour either.  |
SheepieBoss wrote: put him in a spot and "stay" while you eat. It can be right beside the table if you wish, but he must not get up while you eat. Afterwards, move away from the table and reward him with his meal or a treat. Humans always eat first.
If this fails, he goes to his room or crate with a treat, while you guys eat. We use the technique that Sheepieboss recommended - we have Bailey down and stay during dinner and we never, ever feed him from the table. (OK - I never ever feed him from the table and my husband doesn't either when I'm home.) But when we have company Bailey forgets that he's trained so he goes to his crate while we eat. Jill, I can just imagine Bear giving a little lick to everything you eat. It's as if he's your personal taster! |
ButtersStotch wrote: I'm in the process of looking for a taller table right now, not because of a food stealer but a food licker. Bear is so tall, he can slide his head right on my plate if I'm eating and he likes to lick test everything. I figure if I keep moving up, he won't be able to reach and the food will be mine again.
My parents' dog does this--especially with the butter on the table! She'll walk up, turn her head so it is lying on the table and then her tongue goes out for an exploratory mission (she doesn't move her head from the edge of the table, just her tongue!) I have no suggestions, either. Maggie still counter surfs and tongue surfs whenever she can (she's almost 9) and Barney (luckily!!!!) has no real interest in our food. |
| Food Licker!!
Sorry, that made me laugh out loud. 
I'm not much help, since I eat on the couch and Boo comes up and has to sniff everything. He'll only steal if I'm not looking, so I've been very careful about cleaning up the counters. |
| Hahahaha! Yes he licks AND steals! When we're done with dinner, he'll do the evening Pippin exploratory pattern, where he goes along the edge of the table with his head laying sideways trying to clean up any crumbs or smudges he might find.
He NEVER is fed treats from the table, ever! That hasn't stopped him from stealing stuff though. I'll try the penny can... maybe that will help. Otherwise he's gonna start being sequestered in the bathroom while we eat. At 4 months, his attention span is not to the point where he could do a 30 minute sit stay. |
| i don't have a sugestion, but i made corn salad for an office arty lase week and went to answer the door. when i returned half was missing and there was a perfect inmpint of cody's face in the salad. Of course he had a poo eating grin and was licking his chops...not to mention he pooed corn for 3 day after. i mean nothing but corn god it wasn't funny at the time, but now well yeah pretty funny. On th eflip side Olive is not a food stealer and she will leave you alone when you eat. i was told by the vet to put food up on the plat that is attached to the coffee can thing on a string. when the dog runs off it will crash and the loud noise will teach them not to sneak up there. even do it when the family is not eating, so no matter what is on the table they will stay off it. good luck. |
| Neat idea! thanks!!
sheepieboss |
Iriskmj wrote: He NEVER is fed treats from the table, ever! That hasn't stopped him from stealing stuff though.
I do. But I find that if I do give them something, they'll lie down quietly and wait for more, not bothering me. I don't mind sharing but some things just aren't sharable (like spaghetti), sometimes I'm just really hungry and don't want to share or it's a food that they shouldn't have. |
| Any other dog I've had I have been able to train to not touch food left anywhere unless told to, but never any of the 4 oes I've had LOL |
Willowsprite wrote: Any other dog I've had I have been able to train to not touch food left anywhere unless told to, but never any of the 4 oes I've had LOL
I was going to suggest a leave it/ok command, too. He can't eat anything until you say ok. I've got Louie at about 90% reliablity (that sheepie stubberness  ) so it is possible for an OES to learn . |
| I'm going to throw a question out to all the counter-surfing dog owners... do you give your dogs table scraps?
We have been very regimented on not giving any table food whatsoever to Frank and amazingly he could care less when & what we're eating. Plus he never counter surfs. Maybe a little ounce of prevention...? (of course, I might be eating my words someday..) |
| One thing to remember is that each time he is successful at stealing food, you've actually rewarded him for the behavior. It's up to you to not allow him to get anything else... it can also be a dangerous behavior if he gets a hold of something harmful. With this said, I've been exactly where you are!
Panda, one of our rescue sheepies, was a natorious counter surfer. We now keep the counters clear... food is either in the cupboard, in a drawer or in/on top of the fridge. Medicine and vitamins are NEVER left out on the counter. The garbage is kept in a dog-proof basket with a lid in another room. The table is never left unattended when there is food on it. We've been able to let down our guard recently. When a delivery man would come to the door at dinner time and one of us would leave to sign for it, Panda would begin eating off the plate of whoever left... with the other person sitting right there! This is the dog that would steal a bunch of bananas and peel them before she ate them  http://www.pomeroys.com/EmmaDarby/Page54.htm Bananas are now kept on top of the fridge. She's eaten a bag of dinner rolls too. I won't go into the car starter she destroyed, the boots, my purses, etc.
Because of the seriousness of the problem, Grannie Annie with NEOESR recommended Scat Mats (they have 3 settings). I'm not sure if it is appropriate for a puppy... you should check with the mfr. We used Scat Mats and consistancy which have corrected the problem by about 95%. But it was also the extra steps that Panda showed us were needed that has brought about a change in her behavior. Good luck and don't give up! |
| We like to eat at the coffee table and sit on the floor. If hubby is not at the table I take my plate with me if I have to get up. The sheepies have me trained well. lol
Also when we sit in the dining room Billy will have to move my plate over next to his. We don't trust them for a second....because a second is all that is needed to steal the food. |
| Butterstoch and Verve-up have both good theories, although opposite ones.
Butterstoch uses it to her advantage and has trained the dogs that they get rewarded with scraps for the behavior she wants. Verve-up uses the "what you don't know won't tempt you", which is more of a management style, and again, works well. Personally, I use a combination which is outlined below. This is a way to prevent counter and table surfing using only postive reinforcement. Using this method I can safely leave either or both dogs in the kitchen with an open garbage container on a chair. Last week my husband had de-skinned some chicken and was out BBQ'ing. I came into the kitchen to find the foam plates full of raw chicken skin, fat and some bones on the edge of the counter where hubby had left it. Dixie was sitting quielty right beside the counter, 6 inches away from it, and Bosley was lying on the floor right beside her. Neither one had been told to sit, stay or anything like that. They were waiting patiently for someone to come into the klitchen to reward them. I gave Bosley a smidget of chicken and Dixie got a veggie biscuit and they ran off with their treat. This is very doable. Mind you Bosley has had this drilled into him from a pup, but Dixie was a scavenger before she came to stay with us 4 months ago, so was a diiferent issue. Harder, even, as she cannot be given hardly anything due to her strict diet, but she has never taken anything from a counter or table. I posted this before, so here it is again, with some adjustments. Once they have discovered that they CAN get stuff off the counter it is very difficult to stop them. You need to make it rewarding for them NOT to counter-surf. Bosley does not sniff counters, tables very much, or even try to get into the garbage if it is left out. If he does get his nose too close he has been trained that "off" means "leave that alone." I can elaborate on how to do this in a postive fashion, if anyone is interested. This is how we have trained him from a pup. When we are in the kitchen at the counter he never got anything "from the counter" when he was standing or sitting. If I was making sandwiches (I don't cook, do wouldnt' be doing much else in the kitchen) I would ask him to lay down, then wait a few seconds and give him a piece of whatever I had. He has tasted lettuce, cheese, friut, bread, all kinds of veggies etc. but only when laying down on the floor. So we get the best of both worlds. He doesn't steal, because he gets whatever he wants when he lays down, and I have a polite dog that lays down on the floor AWAY FROM THE COUNTER when there is cooking or something going on. All good things come from ME. Mind you as a pup I did give him little bits quite often, to keep him primed up for this, but it is well worth the effort. I also controlled what it is that he got, and sometimes now it is just a bit of kibble, or boring potatoe peel, but heh, it works. With an older dog what you will need to do is totally remove the opportunity for the dog to reward himself by stealing, and make it better for him to lay down and get rewarded by you that way. Food needs to be put away so they can't get it themselves, and start rewarding then with teeny bits of yummy stuff when laying down. You can also then reward only when laying down on his mat, or just outside the door etc. when they do that on thier own. Make a special place a "rewarding" place, but keep it rewarding by bringing bits and pieces their way quite often, at the beginning. This may mean during meals, while preparing etc. Do this often, so they build up the relationship between the lying down and the reward, and without any opportunity to fail. Then you can gradually slack up and do some testing, but I wouldn't do any "tests" before at least 3 weeks of solid management combined with rewards. Dixie is not laying down, as yet, but she has a good, solid sit when she asks for something, so will sit down and wait instead of stealing or surfing, whether we are in the room or not. And she gets rewarded quickly for her efforts whenever I can catch her doing it on her own. |
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