Caught Her on the kitchen table

[evader]

Kali is 9 months old now. All in all she has been a great puppy. She's crate trained and we now leave her out of her crate when no one is home and she sleeps beside our bed at night.

Problem we are having right now however is...last week, my wife was in the living room with our kids and she heard Kali eating something in the kitchen. She went to see what she had only to find her on the kitchen table eating the remainder of a strawberry my daughter hadn't finished.
The next day the kids where sitting at the table eating lunch and my wife went upstairs to get something...while she was upstairs the kids both decided they had to go to the bathroom...kids being kids, it was a race and they both took off at the same time. My wife came back downstairs less than a minute after they left the table to find the dog on the table eating their lunches. Needless to say she let the dog know that what she was doing was wrong. However, last night it happened again.

I will admit, I'm a bit "old school" when it comes to reacting to things done wrong like this and I'm really trying the whole "reward for good behavior rather than punish bad behavior" but how do you deal with something like this.
I know we will have to try and make sure there isn't any food left out...but that's not the solution I'm looking for here. If my kids get up to use the bathroom I don't think I'm asking too much to expect their food to be there when they get back.

So, my question is without punishing bad behavior how do we correct this problem?

[tessybear]

My cav was a devil for stealing food- he could climb on the kitchen chair and then onto the table. He once gobbled down the babysitters dinner when she got up to answer the phone! I'm afraid I think the answer is to never leave food within her reach.

[Jedicrazy]

I would either crate the dog or put in in another room until the meal is finished. I have young kids who are always dropping food on the floor so for me it's the only way. I don't want my puppy to learn to hang around under the table or beg.

[MillieDog]

One of the other owners at my training class was asking a similar question, ie the dog was reaching up and taking food of of the counter.

She suggested that you need to set a trap. It needs to be something that gives her a fright but not harm. She said, try balancing saucepans and their lids, so that when the dog jumps up the all clatter to the floor.

Do that a couple of times and Kali will hopefully get the message.

I think she said the 'punishment' needed to come from the saucepans etc rather than you.

[JoJo]

I love my dogs but I don't like begging dogs or them around the dining table when we eat.. so mine are not allowed near the dining table when we eat.. create her is my advice then there is no temptation to jump on the table or to steal food... you can nip this in the bud with no punishment required :)

Also our dogs have their own treat when we eat dinner ... so they would rather be out of our way anyway ..no punishment needed as no naughty behaviour can be started.

[kendal]

Inca started this since we got our new table which is lower than out last one.


mouse traps work, i left liver cake on the table with mouce traps, the traps dont actualy get the dog they bounce back and away. it was the one time they never touched the liver cake.


other than that never leave the chairs out, thats the oly way my lot seem to get on the table.

[weez74]

Inca started this since we got our new table which is lower than out last one.


mouse traps work, i left liver cake on the table with mouce traps, the traps dont actualy get the dog they bounce back and away. it was the one time they never touched the liver cake.


other than that never leave the chairs out, thats the oly way my lot seem to get on the table.

Yes, that's how Rosie gets up too. We have a mixture of approaches, but somehow, she always manages it. Like yesterday when the phone rang as I was making myself some cheese and biscuits for lunch and I thought I'd pushed the plate back far enough. When I came back I realised I hadn't put any butter on my plate. Until I noticed a guilty looking Rosie licking the butter off her whiskers. She hadn't bothered with the old, stinky camembert!