Help with my dog's behaviour

[lily8514]

Hi, I have a Labrador, who is 4, had him for 2 years, he was already trained and has been very good. We have a 1 year old daughter (in case that's relevant) in the last week our Labrador, has started jumping on chairs to get to the table which has food on, and jumping on the counters to also get food! Does anyone have any suggestions to stop this? Man thanks

[missbattenburg]

Stop leaving food about. Not being facetious, that is literally the best way.

Any time he manages to get food the behaviour is reinforced and because of the way these random, never-know-when-it'll-work rewards act on dog's brains (and humans, for that matter) he'll never give up hoping that next time he'll get away with it.

Stop the jumping up EVER being rewarded and it will stop.

Make it so that it is not rewarded 10x but works on the 11th attempt because you were not watching and it'll stick around until the end of days.

[thesnapandfartisinfallible]

They're very greedy dogs but luckily also complete tarts. Food and attention, that's all they want.

Does he know Leave It? If he does, watch him and the second he shows interest in the food, tell him sharply to leave it. If he does, give him a treat from your pocket. Something high value like chicken or ham.

If he doesn't and tries to get it catch him by the collar and shut him out of the room until you've finished eating. Don't speak to him or make eye contact with him, don't tell him off, just remove him. Don't acknowledge him when you let him back in after the meal either. To him, any attention is good attention. The idea is to reward good behaviour with what he wants (food and attention) and to reinforce that bad behaviour not only doesn't get him what he wants but also results in him being shut away from the family until he can be trusted. They're smart dogs, he'll catch on.