What is the correct way to teach a dog not to pinch food?

[Marne]

I know labs are well known for their love of food and eating everything, i have seen several threads this week about dogs pinching food.

My lab x is 18 weeks old, has loved his food from day one but up until today he has not pinched anything, he has worked out how to jump up onto things and is getting bigger making it easier to get to things.

Today he pinched a bread roll from my dd's plate as she went to open the stair gate, i told him off, removed what was left of the bread roll from his mouth and put him in his crate until the dd's had eaten, then this evening he has managed to climb onto a chair, onto the table to get some cake that dd2 had left (whilst we were not looking).

My other dog has never snatched anything, she will sit by your feet making you feel guilty but would never grab from a plate or climb up to get anything.

Help, how can i stop him? he seems to have selective hearing as soon as theres food around, other than this he is quite well behaved.

(watching with interest....mum to a 9mo retriever dustbin)

apart from not leaving food out ime, my previous dog could climb on the table!
so, no,

oh and apparently never feed him from the table etc., while you are eating. do not encourage scrounging.

Alpha roll it when it looks at food then shout "I am the leader do not dominate me or try and take over the world". Grab the food your self and eat it in front of the dog whilst walking through a door before the dog. It works every time

lol

We have never fed him tit bits (he only eats his own food) due to his dodgy tummy, i'm not looking forward to later as he's bound to have the runs after eating bread and cake.

He's quite bad when we are walking too, will pick up everything (leaves, horse poo, stones).

Teach a leave it command like BeerTricks says. Start with leaving easy things and build up to more difficult ones. Also you could train him to go to a mat or his crate/bed on command (e.g. while you are eating); again start easy by only having him stay a short while and build up the amount of time. Both of these will also help with impulse control.

I prefer to teach leave it using two different kinds of treat, i.e. the one that has to be left and the one that will be used as a reward. It's closer to how it works in real life (i.e. I usually want them to leave the thing, not wait before eating it). But some people teach it using the same treat to be left and as reward.

It also helps not to leave temptation in his way, obviously. Hope your DD wasn't too upset at losing part of her dinner.

Dd was devistated , she cried and then ate her other bread roll as fast as she could so the dog couldn't get it.

I will try with the 'leave it', we have given it a little go as he tend to grap and will even grab his food bowl out of my hand as i'm sorting out his food.

I was tempted to muzzle him the other week as we were trying to work out what was making him poorly which is tricky when he's eating everything on his walk.

Teach impulse control excellent for food control. This makes the dogs think and more likely to work when you are out of the room.

although my previous dog climbed on the table to eat, when we weren't there, she knew not to take from hands, this despite the toddler waving biscuit habit
but agree, in your bed command, when you are eating or at other times.

lolly started to do this when she got big enough to reach up to the table and counters

she is getting better but only from us never giving her food other than in her bowl...apart from training treats obviously
making her go to her bed when we are eating
never letting her sniff our food or nose us when eating
and the kids aren't allowed to interact with her if they are eating