How to Stop Your Dog From Stealing Food

Lately, we’ve had a whole mess of problems going on here at our house! It’s hard to know where to start, but I guess I’ll start with the food stealing that has been happening here. Since the pups have gotten big, they don’t seem to understand we aren’t supposed to take things from the table or that counter in the kitchen. Seems every time we get a new addition to the family, the same ole question of “how to stop your dog from stealing food” comes up! This time it’s with the pups, Ozzy and Brandi.

The culprits trying to look all sweet and innocent – Brandi and Ozzy

Just the other day, my Man had set a plate of food on the counter and then left it for a minute.

When he came back, there sat Ozzy – chewing on my Man’s chicken leg and licking his big chops!

Then another time, my Lady caught Brandi trying to eat out of the skillet on the darn stove.

My lady had a fit over that one! 

She said Brandi could a gotten burned or got hot grease on her, never mind the food part!

Stealing Food is not a Good Thing!

It’s not a good thing to have your food stolen and when dogs steal food, it may not be good for them.

My Lady’s working on solving the problem. That’s what I wanted to talk to ya about today. 

It sounds like an easy problem to fix.

But, let me tell you, most dogs left with a good-looking and smelling plate of food sitting right there on the edge…the very edge…oh so close… Well, you get the picture.

My Lady’s got her work cut out for her on the pups. Especially with two of them, it’s like havin’ twins!

So, if you are wondering how to stop your dog from stealing food, follow along and I’ll tell you what my Lady is doing with the young pups.

Draw the line and take control

Hard as it is, the first thing you have to do is stop giving out table scraps.

If you give us food from the table, then try to tell us not to take food from the table or counter – it’s darn confusing to us!

You have to let us dogs know that the food on the table and counter is YOUR food, not ours, and we ain’t allowed to have it. No WOOFS about it!

This gives us a boundary line that we aren’t supposed to cross.

We can understand that. We may challenge it, but we’ll eventually learn.

Well, my Lady messed up and she’s a paying the price!

She’s never fed us from the table while they eat. But, when they finished she would always give us a couple of bites each of something.

I’ll be honest and tell you they were right tasty and I looked forward to them!

Oh, I sure hope them pups haven’t messed it up forever for us!

Counter-Tops and Table

The pups have to learn they won’t get anything from jumping up there.

My Lady doesn’t punish them. She says that won’t work cause it’s a little too late by the time you catch them if they already ate it.

But she ain’t big on punishing anyways. She says praise when they get it right is the best way!

The advice given to her was to make the countertop scary by placing something really noisy up there for them to turn over such as cans filled with pennies.

As my Lady said, that’s a lot of areas to cover with cans 🙁

My Lady found a way that seems to be working though IF you can catch them in the act WOOF!

She got her a squirt bottle and filled it with water.

When they jump up, she squirts them dead in the face and says no.

She tried blocking them from the kitchen, but them dogs are big enough to jump the baby gates!

If she leaves the kitchen, she makes them go to their crates.

It’s for their own good she says, so they don’t get hurt or eat something bad. I think she’s making progress.

These days, they’ve started laying in the dining room watching ever move she makes WOOF!

Maintain Your Position as Pack Leader

If you stick to your guns and keep the rules the same, we dogs will respect you as our pack leader.

If you get all wishy-washy with the rules, that’s when we get confused.

Letting us do it sometimes, or giving food sometimes will lead right back to the problem your trying to solve.

My Lady will get them pups straightened out, but darn it…they ruined a good thing we had going on with them tidbits!

For us dogs, you gotta keep things cut and dry, black and white, yes and no.

When you get all iffy and maybe on us, we don’t know what the heck the rules are.

So, we try it out to see if we can do it. Wouldn’t you? WOOF! 🙂