How to stop a food thief?

Hi! my art proffesor has a problem with his dog.

She's a one year old poodle/maltese/x mix , the thing is that one month ago his neightbours went to live to Venezuela, and they could't take the dog with them so they gave her to my professor.

It appears the dog was poorly sociolized, she's very shy, with the help of a magazine I have I told him what it say about socioliazing a dog, and she's a lot better.

But the other problem she has is that she is a food thief and she begs a lot.

When my proffesor or another person is eathing she comes and sit near the person and whine begging for foor, my proffesor say they don't give her anything but she continue with the begging.

It looks like her former owners gave her food while they where eating.

My proffesor says that last week when he has eating the dog was begging like always, and a person came to visit him at the moment before he finnished his meal, and when he came back from outside the dog was ON the table eating his dinner :yikes: it appears she jumped into the chair and then on the table.

She eats one meal in all the day (in my opinion she will be less hungry if the meal was dibed in two meals)

What are the possible solutions to this problems?

I'm goin to send the repplies to my proffesor.

He could start setting boundaries of where she is allowed to be and when. For instance, if they eat in the dining room, then they can start NOT allowing her in there when it's meal time, or not allowed in that room at all.

Perhaps if he made her meal time at the same time they eat it would help. She gets her bowl in whatever room and isn't allowed to enter the dining room.

Our dogs know when the table is set they must split. Orson normally goes to the couch, and Phoebe goes in the kitchen or back room on THEIR own because from day one they aren't allowed at the table during meals.

And I agree that perhaps she needs her meals divided into two servings.

Thanks for the suggestions ACooper, they are very usefull.

I notice I made a mistake in to my first post.

In the "It looks like her former owners gave her food while they where eating"

It was" It looks like her former owners gave her food from they own plate while they where eating"


I remember that in my Grandma's house they used to do this with the dogs (the dogs are death now, it was years ago) , while they where eating they toss a part or they food to the dogs , mostly bones and leftovers.

But this later becomes a big problem the dogs stared to jump on people's laps or lick the hands/ arms.

They did it to me many times

I think I will move this to the training forum since it's really a training issue. You will probably get some more advice from people who have dealt with a dog already in the habit, I have no experience in BREAKING the habit once it's been started, LOL

It's no suprise that the dog's begging seems to be getting worse - she's learned that sitting by the table gets her food (her owners taught her this), and while sitting and waiting is not working at this new house, she's going to try harder and harder and be more and more annoying, hoping that soon they'll give in and give her some food. It's just like the kid at the grocery store asking his mom for candy - she says no, but he continues to beg, usually louder and louder, until mom finally gives in. Although in this case, of course, the people didn't give in, but through an unfortunate incident she got the food anyway.

So, I agree with ACooper, that they will have to make sure the dog stays physically away from the table. If she is only temporarily staying with them, I'd think the quickest thing to do is just close the dog in a seperate room or crate, or leash her on the other side of the room so she can't get to the table. And of course, completely ignore all whining/barking/other annoying behavior.

My kids are bad for throwing food on the floor at dinner time and thus, the begging begins.
I seperate the dogs from the family while we eat...maybe not the best way to "make it stop" but it does keep them from being annoying and keeps my kids from feeding them from the table (my 2 yr old is the worst). So, when dinner is cooking, they are put out in the yard or garage with some toys/things to chew on, until we are finished eating.
Feeding them at the same time as we eat didn't work so swell, because they'd rather have the table scraps and ignored their bowls of food to beg...so I don't think that's the best way to fix the problem because it's more likely that the dog will beg and THEN go eat their food when everyone else is done.
So maybe when everyone sits down to eat and as soon as the dog starts begging, to correct verbally and remove the dog from the room...perhaps that will make the dog associate "If I beg and whine I am removed from the family" ? Just my 2cents on it.

My family was terrible about feeding the dog from the table. I found it easier to train the dog to stay out of the kitchen than to get my father to stop feeding her :lol-sign:

lol, is amazing how often dogs are easier to train than humans.