Dog has started jumping on table to get food

[Anonymous]

How do I deal with this? She is almost 5 years old and is a lab/hound mix. She only started doing this in the past year or so -- never used to do it, and we've had her for 3 years. She has always had a habit of occasionally chewing up a kids' toy if it's left on the floor while we're gone, but she's learned remarkably well since we got her which are her toys and which are the kids'. In the past year, she began to occasionally start jumping up and eating things off the table while we were gone if we left anything there (like, if we left a bowl of pretzels on the table while we were out, or if we didn't fully finish cleaning up dinner before going upstairs to put our kids to bed). I always yelled at her for this, but we mostly just changed our behavior to try to prevent it, and it hasn't happened much as a result.

However, most recently she's begun actually jumping up and eating things while I'm not far away. It doesn't happen often, but today, the doorbell rang while I was giving my toddler lunch, and I got up with him in my arms to sign for a package. The front door is within steps of the dining table, but I did step outside to sign for it. When I came back maybe 30 seconds later, she had eaten the chicken nuggets off the table.

Whenever this happens, I yell at her, and she looks remorseful. I try to point and show her what I'm upset about, and she obviously understands. I also often put her outside right after yelling at her, although this is not really a "punishment" because she loves being in the yard and just goes out and has fun chasing squirrels. She's very high energy and loves to play. She follows commands well when I have treats for her but not particularly well when she wants to do something else and I don't have food. What else can I do? I have no idea how to train her not to do this, and she is obviously not getting the point from me yelling at her. I pretty much never catch her in the act of doing it, so that makes it even harder.

[Anonymous]

OP here again. I think it may be partially related to the fact that our youngest is now a toddler and is dropping food on the floor regularly while we eat. She's gotten very excited about laying under the table during meals and will also jump up and try to "clean off" his chair after meals, which I try to discourage but not as strongly as perhaps I should.

[Anonymous]

That seems like typical lab behavior to me. I'm actually really surprised that she showed such great restraint for her first 5 years. My golden is terrible about swiping food off the table and counter tops. Once they start doing it, it is a hard habit to break.

My golden is 10 and still swiping.

[Anonymous]

It is a self-rewarding behavior, pretty difficult to change without some kind of immediate negative reinforcement. You might try a scat mat or something similar on the table / counter to make it unpleasant to jump up and take food. The consequence needs to be associated with the behavior, not your presence. Dogs do not tend to think really far into the future or the past, so yelling at the dog afterwards isn't really going to do much.

[Anonymous]

Do you feed your dog the same dog food day after day? If yes, I would understand why the dog wants different food.

We supplement our dog's food with boiled chicken tenders, cheese, broccoli, eggs, etc. No problems with him trying to take food off the counter or table.

[Anonymous]

My food oriented, 25 pound mix has started doing this since the toddler started throwing food too. We block access to the kitchen so she can't counter surf, but I've pretty much given up trying to keep her off the table.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the comments. I'm glad I'm not alone, but this is definitely frustrating. We had a dog before this that never did this, and I grew up with dogs and never had one of those do this regularly (except one who would do it when we were gone and only occasionally).

Interestingly, I actually think it's gotten worse since she's had more variety in food, so I don't see the suggestion of giving her more table scraps in her dish to work. She does get some already (although not much), but that doesn't seem to matter to her. I have been working more on getting her to follow commands in general, though, and I'm hopeful that may help somewhat.

I've never heard of a "scat mat" but will look into it. I think the idea of making it unpleasant to get on the table might be the key. I wouldn't do it because I'd be afraid it might hurt her, but putting a hot chile pepper up there might do the trick...

[Anonymous]

Something like this :
https://www.amazon.com/HopCentury-Electronic-Training-Scat-Shock/dp/B01GYK66HA/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1491413651&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=scat+mat&psc=1

[Anonymous]

Try training her to sit in a specific spot while you're eating. If she is under the table waiting for scraps during meals, it's easy to move up to jumping on chairs, then onto the table in search of food. You need more of a clear separation, so she knows she is not allowed to hang around begging/lurking during meals, and the chairs and table are off-limits.

[Anonymous]

We trained our lab to "out" while we were in the kitchen or eating. He knew this meant he had to be in the hallway or family room.

[Sherriscott]

It's not a problem. We keep our dog with us while having dinner e we keep his food in the dining room so he eat his food and we eat ours.

[Anonymous]

My lab doesn't do this so I wouldn't consider it a lab problem. It's just a training problem. You should spray the dog with water in the face each time she does it (if you can catch her) or throw something loud & clanging on the ground near her everytime she does it. It's hard to catch them in the act, but you could "set her up."

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I would crate up the dog while you are eating. And then I second the suggestion to "set her up" so you can catch her in the act and correct her then.

[Anonymous]

Our dog was not allowed near the table during meal time. She had to be on her bed, which was close but not stealing distance. Then once my son left the table, she was allowed to eat was was on the floor. This actually only took a few days to teach. But you have to be facing the dog so you can correct the second they move off the bed.