Help: Our Dog Steals Food from People On and Off Leash!

Dear Jubilee:

Our dog has become outrageous on leash and off: on leash, he has taken sandwiches out of peoples hands and has learned that ripping plastic bags means food falls out, such as chicken cacciatore. We have resorted to putting on a muzzle when walking the streets.

Off-leash is just as bad: People leave sandwiches and stuff on the bench at the off-leash park. He’s even grabbed grocery bags with raw steak. This has not helped his behavior problems because by the time I get to him, he has eaten his reward. Now, he is even grabbing what people are carrying and won’t let go, even dragging one person to her feet and scaring her.

While we do the obvious things that training books say to maintain dominance such as make sure we enter a doorway first, he must work for treats, has to wait for permission to eat, we have also taken him to two obedience courses, my daughter does agility with him informally in the back yard. None of this has worked: He seems to think he was the right to take the food off a total stranger. His recall is inconsistent when he is distracted or is very playful and wants to be chased. He was the "pick of the litter" and was considered to be the alpha, so I don't know whether this is part of the problem. He has not been aggressive with other dogs and is very social with people.

At Our Wit’s End


Dear Wit’s End,

Training a dog doesn't stop with courses or with good manners around the house. You have to train your dog for every situation you want him to be in. And in this case, you need to train and reinforce two very important commands: "Come!" and "Leave
It!" These are two commands that I teach our dogs as early in their lives as possible; these are also commands that can be taught at any time in their lives; and these are commands that can save their lives.

You can teach "Leave It!" with just about anything. The first dog I trained to leave it was in a class with other dogs, and we used paper plates on the floor, each plate containing an attractive treat. The object was to walk with our dogs on leash from one end of the training facility to the other, passing the plates, and as you approached and the dog was eyeing it, you said "Leave It!" and kept walking past. This was repeated several times, each time getting closer to the plates. By the time the dog finished doing this exercise, even with giving no treats or rewards other than "good girl" or "good boy" or "good!" walking back past the items was a breeze: All you had to do was say "leave it!" and the dog ignored the "it" item as you kept walking.

I consider the "leave it!" command as important as come! Both commands can save your dog's life; both can spare you a lot of problems and issues. With dog laws becoming tougher and tougher, the incidents you describe could get you and your dog in a lot of trouble. And the problem is that you have not trained your dog to be out and about with you in public.

You can use "Leave it!" to stop a dog from jumping on someone, snatching something that could be dangerous, grabbing something you or someone else has dropped on the floor, something on the floor that could harm the dog, counter surfing, and more. I am sure that you could use it in the situations that you describe.

Until your dog has a reliable "leave it!" and "come!", I would not let him off lead in dog parks or anywhere else given his predilection for snatching stuff from people or stuff left laying around. And I wouldn't use anything longer than a six-foot lead, a lead that you can gather up to keep him on a short lead when necessary. Whatever you do, do not use a retractable-lead to train or exercise your dog.

If I am in a large field with no other dogs around, I will work with a long lead (I use a 20 foot lead if I am training in an open area), and at home in the house, I don't use any lead: I just say "come!" enthusiastically, and I make coming to me the most wonderful thing the dog can do. Nothing is more attractive to my dog when I say come than coming to me and sitting right in front of me looking at my face. "You called? Here I am. What do you want me to do? Or do you just want me to sit here in front of you? Up to you."

Recently, one of my dogs went out a door that had accidentally been left open. All the gates to our yard were open because we had contractors fixing a bunch of stuff on our house. I saw the dog go out the door, walked quickly out the same door, called her name, and said firmly and enthusiastically, "Come!" She looked at the open gates, looked at me, and came running to me and sat down in front of me. I praised her as I took her collar in my hand and we walked easily back into the house.

You want your dog to come when you call no matter what he is doing, and no matter where you are. When you say come, you can stop incidents like you describe with one enthusiastic word, one that has been trained in as a fun game with lots of rewards. "Come!" makes coming to you the most exciting thing in his life. I can call the same dog away from squirrels and birds or anything else that catches her interest because she knows "come!" means good things.

"Leave it!" is a firm voice, loud in the beginning, softer when the dog understands what I mean. I can say "leave it!" so softly that others around me do not hear it, but my dog will leave it.

You cannot shame your dog in the incidents you describe because your dog is doing what an untrained, uncontrolled dog will do. So use a happy but firm voice, and teach come and leave it. I think you will see a difference.

Until your dog is trained, don't put him where he can get in trouble. That means don't take him to the dog parks or out on long walks with a long lead until he knows what you expect him to do and does it. You have to work up to these places slowly, one step at a time. You cannot expect him to do something he doesn't know he is supposed to do. You have to show him, and you have to take the time to do this in a positive fun way.

Keep in mind that it took 18 or 20 years for you to master being on your own in the world, and you had lots of educators, parents, and trainers telling you what you could and could not do. You cannot expect your dog to do it in a few months or even a year if you are not giving him continuous good training.

Good luck,

Jubilee