What’s the worst thing your dog’s ever stolen, then eaten or destroyed? I asked that question of dog owners and dog professionals last week, and their answers were impressive—check them out if you haven’t already! I’ve since heard even more stories about dogs who successfully counter-surfed, stole, and ran away with food, and about dogs who helped themselves to valuable and/or sentimental treasures that could not be replaced (or that could be replaced, but only at great expense).
Several of the stories were of a more serious nature, although luckily none of the dogs involved suffered life-ending illnesses or injuries because of their misbehavior. Discomfort, surgery, and long recoveries, yes, but no deaths. Dogs are not always that lucky, nor are their owners.
I have a golden retriever friend, an inveterate counter-surfer since puppyhood, who recently nabbed off the kitchen counter a container of a medication prescribed for an older dog in her household. She managed to consume almost all the pills and part of the container by the time her humans stopped her. Had they not been home (and awake) at the time, that amount of the particular medication could very likely have killed the dog. Instead, she was rushed to a pet emergency clinic where she was induced to vomit up what she’d ingested. The pills were mostly whole still, thank goodness. The dog was kept for observation and blood tests to check for possible damage to her organs but, fortunately, the intervention had come in time. My dog friend seems to have fully recovered.
But yes, that emergency visit and the follow-up were expensive. The humans had to replace the older dog’s medication, too, and even it was not cheap. Plus, of course, the humans had to go through the emotional turmoil of not knowing if their dog was going to live, much less if she’d completely recover!
Then there’s the guilt. You, the dog’s human, know darn well it’s not the dog’s fault she got hold of something that could’ve killed her. The fault is yours. I honestly cannot imagine how people must feel when the dog does not recover. That would be heartbreaking.
You don’t want that to happen to your dog.
You don’t want that to happen to you.
Photo by Carol Byrnes
Why do dogs steal food and destroy objects?
Dogs are opportunists. Dogs are scavengers.
Why do dogs counter-surf and chew up shoes?
Dogs counter-surf and steal because they can.
Dogs do what works.
Puppies pursue that mobile milk bar, their mother dog, as soon as they are able. They practice the “jumping up” behavior when mom walks by. They’re instinctively driven to try to nurse. It’s the ultimate reward!
We think it’s cute when puppies new to our homes nose at us and lick us to solicit attention, indicating their interest in any food we might be eating. We react to their baby faces and behavior by acting a lot like their mom: we feed them, whether it’s a bit of what we’re eating or their own meal in a bowl. We might expect a Sit before that food is offered, but often, if they’re cute enough, we forget.
And puppies learn quickly. When they jump up, mouthing at your hands, pawing at their bowl, you might “forget” that Sit just to hurry them up, to get the bowl on the floor, their nose in the meal instead of on you. The smaller the puppy, the more you may tolerate—which is why many small dogs have horrible manners that would not be tolerated in a much bigger dog. (A jumping-up Yorkie, full grown, is likely to be far less physically intimidating than a jumping-up full-grown Great Dane.)
Smaller dogs, when full grown, may not be able to “jump up” as high as larger dogs, but their size does give them an advantage if they’re agile and tenacious. I’m sure you’ve seen the videos online of tiny dogs standing on the shoulders of larger dogs to reach something they want. Yes, usually food on a counter! Smaller dogs also learn to manipulate their physical environments to their own advantage—moving chairs, for example, to gain access to a higher level . . . of thievery!
Larger dogs may have it better when it comes to counter-surfing. When they first come into your home at two months old or so, they may be too short to be considered at risk of reaching anything on a kitchen counter. You may laugh at their puppyish attempts. They may learn to hang out near you when you’re prepping or cooking. You may come to appreciate their ability to keep your floors clean, no matter how sloppy you are in the kitchen. It’s all fun and games until the puppy grows up!
Make no mistake, the day will come when your puppy jumps up and—uh-oh!—successfully steals something off your kitchen counter. Whatever the puppy steals, the puppy swallows immediately. You may not even see it happen. Or you may see it happen and you may make a big fuss about it, but the stolen food is in the puppy’s mouth and down the puppy’s throat. It’s too late to take it back! Even better, from a training-a-puppy-to-steal-food point of view, you may chase the puppy around, laughingly reprimanding him, secretly cheering him for his cheeky behavior. “That’s my boy,” you think.
Sigh . . .
Your dog is smarter than that.
The dog finds the food he stole rewarding.
He will definitely try to counter-surf again.
Every time the dog successfully steals food, every time the dog finds that behavior rewarding (which he will as he swallows the food), it increases the chances he will try that behavior again. The behavior could be counter-surfing (jumping up for food on a counter), stealing from grocery bags, garbage cans, wastebaskets, even opening cabinets, sealed containers, refrigerator doors.
How do you raise a puppy without allowing her to be rewarded by successfully stealing food? What about adult dogs who’ve experienced repeated success at counter-surfing and otherwise stealing food? They’ve been rewarded for food-stealing behavior so many times! How long does it take to eliminate counter-surfing and stealing food from the repertoire of a repeat offender?
Next week—how to prevent and how to discourage food-stealing behavior.
