Eating Food off the Table

**tlawson** · 04-10-2010, 02:27 PM

I need help!! My dog won't stop eating food off of our table or counters. Last week she ate half a box of chocolates, and today she ate 2 bags worth of hershey's kisses. We try to not leave food out but we forget every once in awhile. I live with my family so they get frustrated sometimes because she'll even jump onto the table even if there isn't any food there.
Any suggestions?

**Jrm1985Ohio** · 04-10-2010, 02:29 PM

Has she had any obedience classes? Also, that is alot of chocolate she has been eating, please be careful!

**magdalena** · 04-10-2010, 02:32 PM

Keep a leash on her when you can watch her or crate train her when you can't. Obedience classes are a must.

**tlawson** · 04-10-2010, 03:13 PM

She's had obedience classes, but they got really expensive. And because I live with alot of people it's hard to be consistent. I'll try keeping her on a leash though, it's just hard when we're not home. We crate her when we're not home, but she hates it. She has really bad separation anxiety.

**LilianaLove** · 04-10-2010, 04:24 PM

If you live with roommates, tell them they can't take her out of her crate when you're not home, PERIOD. That's what I have to do with my roommate. I come home to a living room full of destroyed things, and she goes "I only left her alone for 15 minutes". She also thinks its ok to leave all 3 dogs together unsupervised. It's YOUR dog, and it's YOUR rules. Whatever you say goes.

**Jazzy** · 04-11-2010, 05:07 PM

The best case scenario would have been to never let the dog have the experience of getting something yummy off the counters. Now that it has, and has had this behavior strongly reinforced...you're kind of screwed.

The only thing that I would think would work would be 100% consistency...no more leaving yummy goodies out for the dog to enjoy when no one is looking. Eventually over an extremely long period of time (like maybe a year or so) the dog will stop looking.

You can obviously train the dog to not jump on the table/counters right in front of you...but the behavior is going to be so ingrained because the dog has had so many opportunities for successful rehearsal of the behavior, and because the behavior is so rewarding and reinforcing to the dog...that when you aren't around and goodies are out...all bets are off.