Puppy stealing food!

[Khalessi]

Hiya, my nearly 5 month old puppy is awful around human food, a terrible thief! She seems to target my 3 year old and is especially bad when he's eating a snack on the sofa. Meals are at the table which is better, although if we leave a chair untucked she will jump up.
Any tips on training her to be obedient around food please?

[CMOTDibbler]

We don't let the puppy around when ds is eating as its too much temptation for pup, and ds doesn't pay enough attention.
If adults are eating, we are slowly working on it to just reinforce and reinforce not jumping up and begging

[MostAmused]

We've had our 11week old pup for 3 weeks and we always eat on our lap as the table is always covered in junk. He's usually fine if we're eating anything other than chicken but because most of his treats are chicken or chicken flavoured I think it's more of a temptation and he jumps up and doesn't leave us alone as easily. Last night we put some long lasting treats (denta stick etc) in his bed when we had dinner and he seemed satisfied with those. From now on I think I'll stuff a kong at tea time and he can have that in his bed so he builds up an association. Fingers crossed it works, but it might be worth trying for you! :)

[Jammygal]

If you have a crate put puppy in it at mealtimes... We did this with out boy and he has little interest

[MothershipG]

You cannot realistically expect a puppy not to try and take food, especially from an easy target like a 3 year old!

So firstly you have to remove the temptation, the puppy needs to be in its crate or another room when you are eating.

Secondly you have to work really hard on a sit/down stay and leave it. Those are both really challenging for impulsive puppies and won't happen over night but will be worth it.

You also need a rule for all the humans in the house that the dog is never to be fed from the table or given a treat unless it is in a sit. So basically you need to train your 3 year old as well as the dog.

[Khalessi]

Thanks for the replies and advice, I think I've got to persevere with the training and crate her more often.