[Django_the_Heeler]

First time on these forums:wave: and a new dog owner. i've decided to go all or nothing with an australian cattle dog puppy. I have a fairly simple question i think...
My household has one older dog, around 8 years, who is fed pedigree. my puppy is currently eating diamond puppy food. the puppy is obsessed with stealing kibbles from the older dogs bowl... he knows it is wrong or frowned upon and it is clear from his actions. he will approach the bowl when he thinks nobody is looking and grab a piece and as soon as he does he hightails it out of there and tries to eat it before somebody can catch him.
i'm sure this is a fun and exhilarating game for him to be chased and i don't know how to avoid that. how do i correct the action while avoiding him seeing it as a game?
i don't want to just remove the bowl from his reach, i believe it is a problem that can be corrected and not just avoided.
any help out there??

sorry if this is a confusing post, i'm a bit nervous to ask for help:redface:
and thank you in advance!!:clap2:

 

[Jmc1985]

Feed them in separate rooms or put him in an x-pen while he's eating, then pick up the food when they're done.

 

[cookieface]

Welcome to Dog Forum! Don't ever be nervous about asking questions - it's how we learn. I've asked plenty of questions and learned tons from the folks here.

Feed them in separate rooms or put him in an x-pen while he's eating, then pick up the food when they're done.

This ^^^ Do you free feed (i.e., leave food out all the time)? For a variety of reasons, that's not always the best option and could be contributing to your problem.

Don't chase him - you're right, it's a fun game for him and the solution is to make stealing food (or anything else) boring. You may also want to work on cues like leave it, drop it, and give. Kikopup has videos for leave it, and there's a nice Domesticated Manners video for teaching drop it.

Also, dogs don't understand "right" and "wrong" the way humans do. They may know that certain behaviors result in good things happening to them and other behaviors result in scary things happening, but they don't have a moral code.

 

[Jen2010]

Welcome!

You could try to teach him the "leave it" command. Until he learns it though, you'll probably have to do as the others suggested

 

[elrohwen]

Feed them in separate rooms or put him in an x-pen while he's eating, then pick up the food when they're done.

Yep. This.

Sure, you can teach a leave it, and the puppy might learn to leave it alone eventually, but there is no guarantee when you are not there. Once you're out of sight, the majority of dogs are just going to eat it anyway.

Feed them both at set meal times in crates or separate rooms. It may be possible to feed them in the same room at the same time someday in the future, but I don't think it will ever be possible to free feed one dog and have the other not steal the food when you're not around.

 

[Hambonez]

We don't want the dog eating cat food, and he knows the cat food disappears and/or he is removed any time he gets near it, so you'd better bet when he gets access to cat food, he wolfs it down as fast as possible! I think the fact that he isn't allowed to have it makes him even more frantic to get it. You may be experiencing the same. Around here, all pets are fed in different rooms, and they aren't released until the food is gone. Yes, three cats and a dog are fed at the same time while being kept separate twice a day. It isn't that hard. If, for some bizarre reason, someone does not finish his meal, it is picked up and given back at the next meal time. You're going to be fighting an uphill battle trying to keep the puppy away from the junky dog food. Just take preventative measures. Don't leave food down and separate them when they eat.

 

[Canyx]

i don't want to just remove the bowl from his reach, i believe it is a problem that can be corrected and not just avoided.

Often times the best way to solve a behavioral problem with dogs is just to set up the situation so that the dog doesn't have a chance to do anything wrong. At the very least, make sure the puppy doesn't have access to the other dog's food WHILE you are working on "Leave it." If you are just hoping to catch him in the act and correct him, then you are setting him up to fail.
Also, are you leaving the older dog's food out all day or is this just during feeding time? The "he will approach when he thinks nobody is looking" part is what confuses me. If he already knows to try and hide that behavior from you then he's already been corrected in the past. It'll make training him to willingly leave the food bowl alone a bit more difficult. I was going to suggest having the puppy on a leash while the older dog is eating, then rewarding the puppy for focusing on you instead of the other dog's food. That way the puppy is effectively 'teaching itself' that nothing can be gained by going for the bowl of dog food but that all the good things come from you. You could also randomly reward with something super tasty like hotdog. That plain old bowl of dog food might just start to look boring But yeah, depends on what your feeding situation is and how much the puppy will let you 'watch' its reactions.

 

[PatriciafromCO]

always start off puppies eating in their crate as they have not learned any self restraint... Being in a crate with no opportunity to go bother the other dogs while they are eating in the same area,, they learn to focus and eat their own food only , and also stops bad habits from being learned. Having a group I am still present no matter how old they and that they all have good manners during meal times, guess it is just habit for me after 20+ years. 10 minutes the dogs are done to pick up their pans