# How do I get her to STOP stealing the baby's food?



## N2Mischief (Dec 3, 2012)

Lol, my dogs are a lot smaller so less damage! The biggest is around 7 pounds and the smallest 3.5 pounds. But they follow our toddler around and take her pretzels and crackers right out of her hand, but only if I'm not looking!


----------



## Menelly (Jan 21, 2011)

Same! Ruby just swipes the food right out of toddler's hands while she's in her chair, walking around, anything. And... not OK. Toddler food is toddler food. (Just like I don't let toddler eat the dog food. For more than one reason... yuck!) 

Just need some ideas with how to get her to stop!


----------



## N2Mischief (Dec 3, 2012)

I put up baby gates and put the dogs on the other side when she is eating


----------



## Menelly (Jan 21, 2011)

Ah, so my "leashing her 2' out of range" isn't exactly a bad way of doing it, huh? 

I'm hoping as she gets older, less excitable, and better with a down/stay (cause right now, we can barely get a "down" let alone a stay!) we might be able to get her to do what Scarlet does, but she's still a baby (10-12 months is the estimate I got) and doesn't get the house rules yet.


----------



## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

catching her in the act and immediately putting her on the deck or in her crate might work if you can catch her more than she can get away with stealing. you could also try setting things up so that she tries to steal and you catch her every time and crate her for a few seconds. i kind of like the idea of leashing her to you, putting her in a down stay and rewarding her for staying down. if the leash is short enough and keeps her close to you, you will know when she moves (doubtless to try to steal) and can put her back in the down stay with a reward. not that i've ever tried this, mind you, but managing to steal food is so rewarding in itself that i suspect isolation won't work and, as you said, just keeping her away won't teach her there's an alternative way to get something good to eat.


----------



## N2Mischief (Dec 3, 2012)

On this one I have a hard time because half the time the toddler feeds the dogs. She is autistic and non verbal so hard to stop. Hard to discipline the dogs when they are rewarded for it..so for me it is just easier to separate.


----------



## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

N2Mischief said:


> On this one I have a hard time because half the time the toddler feeds the dogs. She is autistic and non verbal so hard to stop. Hard to discipline the dogs when they are rewarded for it..so for me it is just easier to separate.


makes sense to me. we gotta do what we gotta do. anyway, when kids are a certain age, i suspect they all tend to feed the dog from their plates at some point. there's a big kid in my household (me) who does that too... when i had two dogs, the female used to stamp her foot and heavy breathe like a stalker to get me to hand over some of that good stuff. now in his old age, my male has developed the habit of bouncing on his right forepaw to send the same message. i am pretty sure dogs spend time thinking of ways to train us, too.


----------



## Menelly (Jan 21, 2011)

Yeah, my toddler is only 20 month and is severely communications delayed. (She tested in the second percentile today, so...) Yeah, I can't exactly convince her not to share with the dogs either. I don't mind her sharing, I mind the swiping before she's ready to share! LOL

I think I'll go for the leash and down/stay outside range and reward for a sit/down/stay outside range. And make sure she gets to help "clean up". It may not seem such a horrible chore to wait if she knows she gets to clean up later.

ETA: maybe I need to learn the sign for "wait"...


----------



## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

it's ruby who needs to learn the sign for wait! :smile:


----------



## PoodlePaws (May 28, 2013)

My 2 toys harass my 4 year old when she eats. They gang up on her and knock food out of her hand all the time. When dh is home and we eat, both dogs are crated. Or just Ash is crated. Missy will leave him alone if she sees Ash in the crate 


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

You really need to train the 'Down & STAY' commands, at least that is what I did when Molly started doing the same thing to my G-Kids............ not hard to do, you just have to be consistent in using the command each and every time food is around. I no longer have even tell her anymore, she automatically goes into the down position because she knows if she lays quietly, she'll get the last bite! I call it 'begging politely' LOL!


----------



## N2Mischief (Dec 3, 2012)

My grand daughter is 2 1/2...sounds like we have a bit in common! She has no language, verbal or receptive, though receptive is starting to form some. She sure gets us to do her bidding though! lol


----------



## Maggie B (Jul 8, 2013)

patk said:


> i kind of like the idea of leashing her to you, putting her in a down stay and rewarding her for staying down. if the leash is short enough and keeps her close to you, you will know when she moves (doubtless to try to steal) and can put her back in the down stay with a reward.


This is how we taught Mila to down/stay for long periods of time. We kept the leash short and each time she got up we would put her back into a down/stay. We started with short amounts of time, but worked up to longer amounts of time. Once she was reliable with the leash on, we transitioned to no leash. We would do this while we ate dinner, and now she is in a down stay while we eat and clean up after dinner, or any other time we need her to stay away (I use it any time I need to open the dishwasher for more than a second, she loves to lick the plates-clean or dirty--yuck!). You can also give her a toy or bone to chew on while she's in her down/stay to keep her entertained.


----------



## Menelly (Jan 21, 2011)

Since I only got her a few days ago, her down isn't very reliable yet, and her stay is not reliable at all. Her sit is still only a few seconds long. We're working on it though!

I'll keep working at it, and rewarding her when she's doing the right thing (down/away from baby food). Thanks all.


----------



## Maggie B (Jul 8, 2013)

When we first started with Mila, she would get up every 5 seconds or so! It was annoying in the beginning and lot of work to get her where she is now, but I think its worth it in the long run. All of the sudden one day you could tell that she just suddenly "got it". Good luck!


----------



## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

When I lived in Idaho, before I moved here, I taught my Chihuahuas, Doberman and Lab to stay on their rug away from the kitchen table when people were eating and it became a default type behavior where I gave no specific cue other than sitting down to eat a meal at the table. That was the cue. I didn't mind them milling around while eating because they didn't bother me, but I thought guests might not like it. So, it was cute. People would sit down at the kitchen table and they'd promptly go to their rug on their own.

What I did was place them in a down, which they already knew pretty well and jumped up from the table every few seconds to reinforce them with a bite of food. I wanted to catch it BEFORE they got up. That's important. They soon found out that they WILL get food by _not _trying to get food and staying put. 

So, first teach your dog to lie down and stay for just a bit at times when all that meal eating isn't going on and then when it's pretty good, try it with meal time. Remember to reinforce at a high rate of delivery to prevent the dog from getting up and moving in.

Otherwise, either keep them separated or some other way to block access.


----------



## msminnamouse (Nov 4, 2010)

You have several options, including the ones already mentioned but I'll recap because I'm long winded like that!

It's good to set her up for success. It's best to prevent the behavior from being practiced. Management is NOT a bad way to go.

You can occupy her elsewhere when the toddler is eating. You can save her meals for when the toddler is eating but put them in a food distributing toy so that she's spending her time and focus on getting her own food. 

You can teach her to stay out of the kitchen. First put up a baby gate and reward her for staying in front of it calmly and quietly. If she whines or paws at it, treats stop until she stops. After she gets the idea, remove the gate and body block the line so she can't cross over. Eventually she'll get the idea and settle down to sulk. Reward her. Every so often, get up and reward her for not crossing over. If she does cross over, take her back over the line and try again. It might take a while but she'll learn. A larger distance from your toddler (completely out of the kitchen) will make staying away easier than her being closer to temptation.

Or, you can teach a solid "leave it" and cue it if you see her about to steal, but this may set up a behavior chain of stealing and then going away. Or her ignoring you because stealing pays off more.


----------



## Menelly (Jan 21, 2011)

She's a SMART doggy! Fed Toddler today and she went quietly to the stairs and laid down. OK, so she tried to swipe when I turned away, but when I'm looking she already knows what to do. So it's a matter of getting her to do it all the time. Which is an improvement already. (She did get handsomely rewarded for laying down immediately.)


----------

