My 7 yr old Golden Retriever boy has steadily started to become obsessed with food. He has not been castrated and although there has been a bit less exercising over the winter, nothing else has changed in his daily routine. It really starts annoying me, because as soon as I sit down anywhere (desk, settee), he'll come and sit right next to me and stare and pant. If I move even slightly (cross my legs...) he'll jump and wag his tail to invite me to go into the kitchen. When I eventually feed him (when I decide to!) he jumps around and acts completely stupid over it like he's starving. He's not been losing weight or condition and I feed him the same amounts. I tell him off when he behaves like this, but it doesn't seem to do anything. He seems to be continuously waiting for feeding time and won't leave me in peace. The same applies if I am eating in front of him or cooking. Any ideas?

Has he been wormed recently? worms could make him hungry..

> I tell him off when he behaves like this, but it doesn't seem to do anything

Even telling him off can re-enforce the behaviour, better to completely ignore him or to give him a task for which he can be rewarded. ie, get him to lay down & wait, after a little hwile give him a treat for doing that.

My dog is a foodie and will try his hardest to get a treat out of us. If he is trying in a good way, (sitting nicely, laying down, or closing cupboard doors/draws) then he'll get his treat, but if he is pestering (pulling my OH to the treat cupboard by the seat of his pants, pushing my OH to the treat cupboard, barking, pulling trousers legs, pawing etc.) then he gets ignored.

My boy is greedy and he'll go into the kitchen and kick his bowl around the floor which is very annoying, when he was a puppy and he had a plastic bowl he used to carry it to the top of the stairs and repeatedly throw it down. I normally do some clicker training with my boy when he's being 'naughty' like this and the reward can be treats or playing with the best toy and he normally stops then so I normally put it down to boredom rather than hunger with him.
Maybe your dog is the same? With having a bit less exercise over the winter, dinner could be seen as a major excitement of the day. Maybe you could try doing some extra training or having some extra games during the day with him?

Thanks guys, it all makes a lot of sense. I do think he is maybe a little bored and with me being more attentive to my girl who's just been spayed recently, he might just feel left out a bit? I will worm them again, it did them about 3-4 months ago, so well due again.

Your post was just as though i had written it...my girl on high dose of steroids and like you i cant cross/uncross my legs without her leaping up, she has strarted raiding the bin and today on her walk a man shouted at me to walk back to Prunella (as she had stopped following me) as she was eating the contents of a smashed jar of mayonaise on Brighton beachfront !

She will eat orange peel/pith, poo,anything she can get.

She is wormed and know its the steroids but i just wish she'd settle down.

Oh God! She sounds bad indeed! Bless her! Sam is no way that bad, at least he doesn't scavenge... too much. I actually noticed that "someone" had eaten all the rabbit's food (he lives free range in the house and has a bowl in the lounge which the dogs tend to respect...) and i immediately blamed my younger bitch for it as she has done things like that in the past. But when I walked them this morning, I was struck by the copious amounts of unusually brown-looking droppings from Sam... Not the usual small hard handful, just loads of something looking very much like horse manure... And then it hit me... Little bugger had had the bunny's food!

And they do enjoy a bit of rabbit/Guinea pig poo every now and then too!

Don't you love it? hahaha!