Hi everyone.Can anyone give me advise on the best way
to stop my 6mth dane pup from stealing food.at first he used to do
it in front of us even once tried to take it off my plate as I was eating.
as I have never really had to shout at him for anything before as he is very well behaved at other times, when he tried to stael the food I shouted a firm No
and he ran off with his tail between his gangly legs.
However he now still steals food when he is on his own in the kitchen.
So whats the best way of stopping him from doing it.Up to now I've just
shouted at him when I've walked in and found him chewing the pack of butter
or whatever, but this obviously isn't the answer cause he is still doing it.
Any ideas Please
Rach

I had a similar problem with my 6yr old son and I left out a cake on the side that I'd filled with pepper buttercream.

It must have tasted awful because he didn't do it again. May be you could try something like that with your pup, that way he'd associate stealing food with a vile taste.

Good luck,

Fiona
x x x

My doggy does this. One day I saw him sneakily retrieving a packet from the bin to lick out, and I decided to let him as the packet had contained madras curry and I hoped that once he'd licked it, he would think twice before stealing like this again.

WRONG!

He absolutely loved it and licked the packet clean!

Hi Rac

My two puppie bouviers do this all the time, and they're real professionals at it fruit out of the fruit bowl and if you leave them near the kitchen table with food on that is fatal .
also love stealing cloths so I just think they love the grub ha ha

Pat xx

Catching them in the act and a telling off normally has a positive effect !

Lucy

My doggy likes to steal by bras, of all things!

My cocker steals socks, knickers, bras and boxer shorts. She has recently figured out how to get the lid off the laundry basket. Can be embarassing if we have guests round!!!

Often the best and easiest way of dealing with this kind of problem is to make sure that opportunity doesn't present itself. That means DO NOT leave any food out where your pup can access it. Make sure that the butter is put back into the fridge out of the way or food into a cupboard. A Dane won't have any problems eventually, if he can't now reaching to the backs of the worktops etc....
Get into the habit of dealing with any leftovers straight away so that no food is left on plates and don't feed your pup titbits from your plate while you are eating. If I feed leftovers, I scrape my plate into thier bowl and give it to them afterwards or with thier own meal. If they stare at me and drool while I'm eating then they leave the room!! I don't allow it.
One thing you could try if you do want to leave food about is to set a booby trap in the kitchen. Get a piece of meat, or something tasty and tie a can half filled with pebbles or some dog training discs to it. Leave it accessible but up a height so he has to reach up to steal it. When he pulls on it the can falls to the floor making a crash and giving him a fright. Make sure that you are close by to take it off him before he eats it!! That's the theory! :) I've never actually used this method myself. I would prefer to not leave food about in the first place.
You could also show him that accessible food is not his for the taking by using a water spray. Put some food on a plate and put the plate on the floor near you. When he goes to take the food then give him a good fast squirt. Try not to let him see that it came from you so keep the spray concealed.
Good Luck :)

If you haven't got your eye on Max he nips up and steals toast from the toaster :rolleyes:

Banger ha ha I just knew you would have a story Freddie Pinched a banana this morning and I got the blame :):) they just love fruit

Pat xx

Your Dane sounds suspiciously like a Malamute :D

Hudson will steal ANYTHING edible that isn't nailed down ....we have to put all food high enough for him not to reach.

He will even nick food if he has some of his own dinner left!

MElody

Hi.The trouble is cause he's so big he can reach anything.He has his bed in the kitchen so is often in there with the other dogs when i'm not.Also with kids aswell ,things are always getting left out ( probably easier to train the kids :) )
Plus my husband cooks an awfull lot and if he's in the middle of rolling pastry or something and has to pop out for a moment he never thinks to shut the dog out of the room especially if he looks blistfully asleep.It's funny cause my GSD wouldn't dream of taking anything.
I think I'll give the tin can set up ago.
I'll let you know how I get on.
Thanks Rach

Have to agree with you there Melody, :)
Malamutes are very good at pinching food, especially Steak!!! While having Bar-B-Cues. :D Storm is the correct height to just walk up, and put his head straight on my kitchen table,Especially After we have just finished dinner, I have to remove all the plates straight away before he goes round and helps himself to whatever is left.:D
So the answer to this, is remove everything within reach!!!! :D
I've learnt the hard way!:(
My Gsd used to pinch things from the worktops when she was younger too,at night when we went to bed, I stopped her by putting baking sheets full of water, just hanging over slightly. She stopped doing it.:D
Jane :)

I am sure that people think poor Hudson is starved as he follows the children around when they have biscuits ...comes into the house the moment he sees or hears ANYONE going into the kitchen ....etc etc. He doesn't have to jump up now either ..his head is the same height as the dining room table and the kitchen tops :)

I have taught him *OUT!* which results in him doing a fancy backwards dance out of the kitchen , then I make him sit and stay (ha! ha!) in the doorway.

Tcha! malamutes ...who'd have 'em?

:D

As previously suggested the best way is to ensure that there is never food lying around and if you have to leave the kitchen in the middle of preparing something put in in the oven or fridge out of the way.

I can leave food around most of the time (seasons and phantom pregnancy times are always dodgy) but try not to as I feel once they have started stealing it will make life more difficult for me afterwards.

Pups are told "NO" right from the start, older dogs (rescues/returnees/sometimes visiting dogs) are invited in to be beside me with a plate of biscuits (not chocolate as I won't risk those) on a low table and the moment they move towards the biscuits they are told "No". If they do grab one it is immediately taken back out of their mouths and put back on the table. It takes patience and consistancy but can be taught.

Children in my home are always told to sit down to eat and the dogs told to leave them alone. If a child wanders around eating then I don't stop the dogs removing the food from their hands as it is generally at their nose level - this teaches the child to listen to me as well :-)

Christine

Children in my home are always told to sit down to eat and the dogs told to leave them alone. If a child wanders around eating then I don't stop the dogs removing the food from their hands as it is generally at their nose level - this teaches the child to listen to me as well

Well that told me!

:D

I will write out 100 times ...I am a bad mother .... :)

Mind you ..making my Grandson who is 1 year old sit down would result in him being lower than Hudson .....and NO! doesn't seem (at the moment) to work on H ....Jacquie ..does it work on any of your Mals? Consistant training happens in our house but I sometimes get the feeling it is us thats being trained ;)

Melody

'No' is not a word you will find in the Malamute dictionary Melody. In fact probably the only word you will find is 'Food' :D

LOL

Ah well ......that explains the blank look he gives me when I say it. What makes us laugh is the *Oh grief , she's talking Chinese again* look he gives us

:D

Who'd have 'em when they eat your fairly new electric kettle then proceed to eat the brand new replacement? :rolleyes:

(Dave's in for it tonight when I remind him he was meant to put the kettle out of Kaani's reach after he used it this morning! - info on location of any 'husband trainers' would be welcomed) :D

I trust my Border Collie around food but not my Labrador many a times I have been making a sarnie gone to answer phone/door not pushed sarnie out way come back to find Lab licking her lips and no sarnie in sight.

Karen

Re "husband trainer"

Think, although I am not entirely sure, that these are generally obtained at the marriage cermony and called w.i.f.e

Prior to this all training should have been carried out by m.o.t.h.e.r. but this is frequently unreliable due to winding and little fingers

Many bad habits can be picked up between these two stages by m.a.t.e.s. and g.i.r.l.f.r.i.e.n.d.s. these can be very difficult to eradicate - especially selective deafness and selective memory loss

Christine

hahahaha :D :D @ Christine........

This is why we get on so well............

Many thanks for the very useful information Christine.
I think I can see where things began to go wrong now, it was the m.o.t.h.e.r. trainer's first attempt at the extremely difficult task of training a future husband (and she had two from the same litter!). I'm afraid to say that I have so far made little progress but I have every confidence that given the opportunity to carry out a further twentysix years of consistant, firm but kind corrective training I will overcome some of the behaviour problems - hopefully before he really becomes deaf and loses his memory :D

LOL

Hudson hasn't discovered (yet) the delights of kettles ....please do NOT let his sister anywhere near him at future shows in case she passes on this valuable piece of information :)

Poor Dave ( :D )

Melody

I've been lucky only ever had one food pincher and even putting cayenne, hot curry powder etc. didn't cure him just had an upset tummy for a couple of days,, he also destroyed a pine table I had borrowed from a friend, moved the freezer and chewed the grill at the back, moved the fridge & chewed the wire into inch long pieces, ( I could carry on forever) survived it all and sudddenly at the age of 14 months grew out of it all.
Friends are amazed when I go out and leave meat defrosting in the kitchen, considering 2 are rescue dogs I reckon I've been really lucky.
Ingrid

Melody & Jacqui, are Mals destructive ? just wondering as my akita is terribly destructive although she is never on her own, her mum was the same (sofas were her forte !) we have the same problem with food and clothes theft !, out of the kitchen bin, washing basket, you name it and she will even go into my son when he is asleep and steal his cuddly toy out of his arms. Curious with the similarity of breeds.

Lorraine

All sounds very familiar to me Lorraine :D They do grow out of it though - well, most of it. In fact Blaze, my five year old (Kaani's uncle) got a bit peckish today and ate the leather label (along with half the pocket) off a pair of my jeans. Unfortunately eating anything leather is something he has never grown out of. Most of the time we remember to keep all leather items well out of his way, but on the odd ocassion we forget he takes full advantage :rolleyes: I wonder how he's survived after some of the things he's eaten, as well as labels off a few pairs of jeans, a couple of purses and a bumbag or two he's also consumed a two timberland collars, including the metal nameplates, and a dozen or so metal eyelets along with my daughter's shoes that they were attached to! He just thinks that anything made from dead animals must be food, a throwback to his ancestors I suppose when, in times of food shortage, the eskimos would feed the harnesses to their dogs. Thankfully my bitches don't possess this trait. :)

Hudson shreds things ....toys , paper , library books (sigh!) ....but that apart he hasn't been too bad (yet). He will steal ...socks , knickers , underpants are the favourite ..then he races around and around with them like a banshee.

Food is another thing entirely ....Hudson is a foody ....ANYTHING edible and in reach gets taken and devoured immediately (but with a very guilty look)

:)

Melody

Sounds very familiar ! annie opened ma-in-laws travel bag yesterday and took all her clothes out, spread them all over lounge and then slept on them, ma-in-law so busy watching Rikki Lake she didn't notice for ages, now all her clothes have lovely long white hairs everywhere. Annie,s mum was 2 and a half when we lost her but she still loved eating the sofa, funny you should mention it but the sofas are leather !

Lorraine

Another book has bitten the dust :D

My new hardback copy of Tom Holt's Little People was sitting in the window sill yesterday and I forgot to move it. When we got home it was in a zillion pieces. *sigh*

What makes this harder to bear is that I am mentioned in the dedication at the front of the book ......hubby says he will buy me another one though

:D

Well I am on full alert this morning!! Zac has pinched a full cooked chicken leg and ate it :(
and the leg was right over the back of the sink waiting to be cut up for later for the dogs,
not a single sign left of it.Vet told me not to worry Zac a big dog but must watch him over the next 24 hours in case a bone gets stuck in stomach. Patxx

May be it's a spitz thing, Solli can't bear a label to remain on anything even if your wearing it at the time, and I use the word NO so often he thinks it's his name. Jackie H