Having Issues Controlling/Addressing Behavior Around Table Food

[bmcd921]

Hi all, 

My wife and I have had our greyhound, Minerva, for about 5 years now. She has always been very food driven, but generally well behaved except for some minor counter surfing the first week we brought her home. We worked hard to address this issue, mostly with a spray water bottle to deter her from jumping on the counter, which resolved the issue.

Since adopting Minerva, we have welcomed a baby girl, who is now 18 months old. Minerva is generally not interested in the baby, except when the baby is eating. For example, our daughter likes to snack on goldfish. Minerva will take them right out of our daughter's hand whenever she has the chance. Minerva does this (or tries to do this) with nearly all our baby's food, and we're having a really hard time preventing or addressing her behavior. It's gotten so bad that she now believes all food is up for grabs - including ours, if we're not careful to make sure it's out of reach.  This morning, my wife made herself lunch and put it in her work bag. She went to grab a cup of coffee, and in the 30 seconds it took for her to get her coffee, Minerva tore open the bag and ate my wife's sandwich. She has never done anything like this, and we're getting really frustrated (which is maybe feeding into the problem).

She is not responding at all to stern talking, pointing, the water bottle - it's like she's in a complete trance when she's around human food now. Any advice would be very appreciated. Thanks!  

Edited February 22, 2023 by bmcd921

[greysmom]

First, she needs to go in for a complete check up and a talk with your vet.  Uncontrollable hunger can be an indication of a thyroid imbalance, digestive issues, even cancer, so don't let the vet fob you off with calling it simply a behavioral issue.  Investigate and eliminate all medical causes first.

If you determine it *is* a behavioral issue you need to take a different approach.  Punishment - like the squirt bottle - are generally less effective with sighthounds who just don't care about people's opinion in general!!    Most dogs will take any food that's available whenever they can as they are genetically mostly scavengers.  In the short term you need to manage the behavior you don't want by changing yours. 

The number one thing is to simply not let her around human food when mealtimes are happening - keep her out of the area when feeding the baby or having people meals.  Don't eat snacks or give her a bite of whatever you're eating by hand.  Baby gate her in another room or area of the house, or use a crate to keep her contained.  Once she doesn't have free access to human food on demand you can work on her end of things. 

Second, be better about keeping people food out of her reach - like not putting lunch in a bag at nose level.  Yes, this is annoying and means more work for humans.

Third, teach her a reliable "leave it!" command - she's already food motivated so this should go quickly for her.  There are some really great videos out there of how to easily teach this behavior.  

While you're looking up videos look up NILIF - Nothing In Life Is Free - training.  Basically, it means your dogs has to "pay" for everything she gets - her daily food, treats, going out the door, rides, everything! - by performing a simple command.  Again, she's food motivated, so you should be able to teach her a sit or down or a touch command fairly quickly.  It helps establish her place in the family so she doesn't feel like she's the boss of the house and can do anything she wants.  This is NOT "dominance" training where you're rolling her over or poking her in the neck all the time.  You're simply making sure she knows that humans *give* her everything she wants and she can't just take it.

All of this takes time and patience to change, and you may need to go back to it several times throughout her life as she tests her boundaries.  She's had this behavior reinforced very strongly, so you're going to have to work a bit to extinguish it.  Anger and annoyance won't help you - remember, you helped establish this pattern in the first place!  Food is important, so the urge to get it is equally important to her.  You just need to be more patient through this than she is until you get the results you want.

[cleptogrey]

mmmmm.....sounds like typical dog/toddler/food relationship on steroids! 

i just spent 6 weeks w/ my grandson, my 2 dogs, 1 elderly hungry dog(meds and senility) and 1 food agressive  mature dog(she has always been crazy with food). the later 2 live w/ the kids who we were visiting. maggie the food aggressive dog just needed to be muzzled. she has never worn a muzzle before but the lightweight whippet muzzles fit her perfectly and she didn't even know it was on. also, during meals she was crated. 

toddlers snack all the time and it's a difficult situation. but going after food and your food especially is a NO NO!

use safety measures, Sharon Conger(has post in merchandise section of GT) sells the lightweight muzzles from Ireland. They are worth their weight in gold. You may be anti-crate, so then leash your dog to it's bed while food is in the making and serving and praise for a long down stay. Also, teaching the dog how to receive food- treats and then teaching the toddler how to give treats will be time well spent.

In my experience dogs just get super hungry with the 3-6 feedings a day that little kids indulge in.

oh, FYI- the kids' dogs have been around for 10-12 years prior to having their child who is now 17 months old. My two love kids and only saw their breeder's grandchildren, so they know about kids. My saluki was 6.5 years of age when our DD was born, he adapted well to life w/ a baby.

 

Edited February 22, 2023 by cleptogrey

[zimsmom]

Can't you just gate her in another room around meal time?  Although I agree a vet visit is needed. 

[Houndtime]

We don't allow our dog in the kitchen when we are eating.  Teach the "Out" command and hope it works.

 

[macoduck]

Regarding the thyroid test - make sure your vet runs the complete thyroid panel, not just the T4 included in a general bloodwork panel. That way you'll get a complete eval of that thyroid.

http://www.greythealth.com/hypothyroid.html