Stealing Food From Kids

[Guest Comanche]

What are your tips/tricks for training a grey to leave food alone that is on a table or in the hands of a child/human besides the obvious of crating the dog whenever food is out?

[GreyTzu]

Train the humans to be careful with their food and not leave it unattended within reach of the greyhound.

[smurfette]

Train the humans to be careful with their food and not leave it unattended within reach of the greyhound.

That's it. 😆

 

And it depends on the grey. With Col I can leave every kind of food on the living room table, be gone for a time and everything will be where I left it. With Paddy (but I guess it's the name) I can leave food everywhere he can get to it, be gone for a second and the food is gone, too.😈

Edited December 1, 2016 by smurfette

[kronckew]

none of my greyhounds/lurchers/terriers have been counter surfers or food thieves. luck of the draw i guess. with my male, blue, early in our stay together i left a ham sandwich on the coffee table & went upstairs, but kept an eye on him from the landing, he started towards the sandwich & i used the VOG to rumble out 'don't you dare' - he jumped back in surprise & never had a problem thereafter. millie and poppy never even considered it, anything above floor level was mine, anything ON the floor was theirs. i've even tried leaving the ham sandwich, going out for a bit, and returning to find the sandwich untouched. they could hear a slice of sausage land on the floor from 100yds. and be behind you in a second tho.

 

a friend's lurcher, pedro, however, has been know to filch exposed (and not so exposed) food from the top of the refrigerator. anything on the counter tops is fair game for him if your attention is distracted for an instant. sometimes even while you still have it in your hands. he so far has been incurable. if it ain't under lock and key, it's a target. if he could figure out the safety lock on their trash compacter, i'm sure that would also be unsafe storage.

[sarabz]

Train the humans to be careful with their food and not leave it unattended within reach of the greyhound.

Yep. We have 2 greys and a toddler. Our first Grey has been trained to leave food alone if it's on the coffee table, but she has regressed some with new boy arriving. He will now leave things on the coffee table alone. For both of them, this only applies if there is someone in the room with them - if they are alone for one second, the food is gone.

 

They are pretty good about not snatching food from my son's hand if he's walking around but we are also trying to teach him the if he walks around with noms, they are likely to be eaten since they are right at nose level.

[GeorgeofNE]

My parents had dogs long before they had children.

 

It's really up to you to teach your children how to keep their food safe from the dog, and you to keep food out of reach on counters.

 

I know that's easier said than done, but I have clear recollections of our dog Sam stealing food from me and my parents laughing and telling me I need to eat faster and sit at the table, not walk around with food.

[Roo]

I never walked around with food as a kid. I either ate at the table or from a TV tray on the sofa. Boundaries were respected after a loud clap or two and a firm "EHHH". (If your child is young enough, these corrections will be up to you to make.) This only applied if I was currently holding the food. I put my pizza on my TV tray once and went to the bathroom. When I came back, my food was gone and Regis was in the exact same position he had been when I left. I got really mad at mom for throwing my food away and she got mad at me for getting mad at her, then we both realized it was Regis and had a good laugh Dogs will be dogs!

Edited December 1, 2016 by Roo

[krissy]

"It's your choice" training. I've posted a video before, but if you just google it you should find some videos. You really want it to be the dog's choice to leave food, otherwise you run the risk of having a sneaky thief (never grabs food when you're around, takes food when you're not around to stop them).

[sarabz]

Kristie, love this and will use it, thanks.

 

My dogs do not steal food from counters or normal height tables. They don't take it from nose-level unless we have left them alone with it, and Bella never used to - we are working on teaching the newbie and giving Bella a little re-training. They almost never take it from my son, but frankly, if he stays in his seat, then there is no danger of them taking it so it's becoming somewhat effective in teaching him, too.

[greysmom]

Most "training" is about training the people, not the dog.

 

You can find some good tips in Patricia McConnell's book "Childproofing Your Dog."

[Guest chickenpotpie]

We don't leave temptation about, and she's too lazy to counter surf. I tell people who come to my home don't leave anything at her level.... that includes liquor (she's a bit of a boozehound....lol) If you tell her to leave it, she will leave it alone.

[Guest Comanche]

Perhaps I should have expounded a bit.

 

I have 2 year old twins that when seated at the table in their HIGH CHAIRS are mouth to eye level with my grey. He is snatching food out of their hands as they are eating. At the dinner table, not wandering around the house. And the food is not unattended, it's in their hands on the way to their mouths. He has even tried getting food directly out of their mouths as they are taking a bite of something. My 4 year old he leaves alone.

 

This dog is smart - every other behavior that we have chosen to modify we have done so with only 2-3 corrections/positive reinforcements. But this he continues to push the boundary. He will respond to "leave it" and a clap most of the time, but he just keeps going back. I have tried a few things, but the only things that work are crating (which I would rather get away from because it's not possible with every meal) and being leashed and me having him in another room which I also want to get away from for a multitude of reasons.

 

I will check out the It's Your Choice video mentioned above, but if anyone else has any training suggestions that would be helpful, I would appreciate them.

[3greytjoys]

Welcome to GreyTalk!

 

How long has this hound been in your family? I'm a little confused about why he can't be in another room.

 

Dogs repeat behaviors that work for them. Since your hound's behavior has been reinforced repeatedly by scoring human foods from your children, he needs to be redirected to an alternative acceptable behavior.

 

Happily teach him to go to his "place" or whatever you want to call a thick, comfy dog bed in the next room(?) or near the same room entryway but not in traffic path. (He needs to see and feel as part of the family). Similar to the "crate" golden rule, also keep "place" as a happy, safe, undisturbed rest zone for him i.e., never send him there as punishment, and don't let children disturb him when he's lying down. Humans should wait until he's standing far away from his bed for affection. A baby-gate at your dining(?) room entryway could help block him out of that room until training is solidified. I assume he already knows "down" (to lie down). If not, capture his natural down, give it a verbal name "down", and be ready with treats to reward him immediately.

 

Teach "place" or "bed" by tossing treats on that bed. Each time he touches the bed, happily reward with a treat mini-party. Then begin fine-tuning by rewarding only when he's lying down touching the bed. Then reward only when he's fully centered on the bed (vs. 1/2 body on bed and 1/2 body off bed). Thereafter, immediately before humans' actual meals, offer potty outing, then happily cue your hound to go to his place AND give him a safe, busy treat like a frozen food Kong to lick while children are eating in dining room. Make it a special, happy time for him too!

[krissy]

Perhaps I should have expounded a bit.

 

I have 2 year old twins that when seated at the table in their HIGH CHAIRS are mouth to eye level with my grey. He is snatching food out of their hands as they are eating. At the dinner table, not wandering around the house. And the food is not unattended, it's in their hands on the way to their mouths. He has even tried getting food directly out of their mouths as they are taking a bite of something. My 4 year old he leaves alone.

 

This dog is smart - every other behavior that we have chosen to modify we have done so with only 2-3 corrections/positive reinforcements. But this he continues to push the boundary. He will respond to "leave it" and a clap most of the time, but he just keeps going back. I have tried a few things, but the only things that work are crating (which I would rather get away from because it's not possible with every meal) and being leashed and me having him in another room which I also want to get away from for a multitude of reasons.

 

I will check out the It's Your Choice video mentioned above, but if anyone else has any training suggestions that would be helpful, I would appreciate them.

 

This is exactly the place to use It's Your Choice. The whole idea is to make it the dog's idea to not grab. Anything that is the dog's idea is more likely to become a solid behaviour. The way we make it the dog's idea is by letting them make the decisions. Don't control the dog's ability to make his own choices (holding them down, pushing them away, etc), but you do control the resource. Dogs that make good decisions get rewarded, dogs that make poor decisions get nothing. The dog quickly learns to choose the decision that gets him the reward... therefore it is his choice... he just doesn't know that we kind of manipulated the system to help him make the decision that WE wanted.

 

Teaching a go to bed behaviour is also great.