If you have a dog that steals food from your toddler, pls come in

tbone_bride

I can't take it anymore!  My dog, who is old & arthritic, lives for food.  She begs like crazy.  I can take the begging, but when she takes food from my DD's hand, I lose it.  I try not to yell at the dog in front of my DD but I can't help it!  I am at my wits end.  We don't have a basement, so I can't leave the dog there.  Our downstairs is hard to gate, but I can do it to separate my DD & dog.  it's a royal pain in the a@@ for me though since I have to constantly walk over gates.  It's especially hard lately b/c my poor dog is having trouble with the stairs so I have to carry her sometimes.  She's 60 lbs.  I'm also 8 1/2 weeks preggo.  About to lose my mind.

This is the worst, I love my dog, love dogs - but a toddler & a dog just aren't mixing for me now! 

Just wanted to vent, but please share any ideas if you have them.   

vlagrl29

my DD gives our dog her food, so i have the opposite problem.  I end up putting the dog in her kenel during our meal times.

tbone_bride

My DD gives food to the dog too, which only complicates the issue.  I will have to put the gates back up.  Thx for letting me vent

[Deleted User]

Is your dog being aggressive about it?  Can you put your kid in a high chair for eating so it's a non-issue?

tbone_bride

My dog isn't aggressive, thank god!  And my DD only has snacks out of the high chair - all of her meals are in the high chair.  I miss the days when DD was only drinking milk & my dog didn't care at all.  

ABizzity

Sounds like its time for another round of dog training!  Seriously, my dog needed it too.  Its a lot of work but needed to be done because she was constantly following DS around when he had a snack.  We trained her to go lay in her bed and stay until he was done.  Positive reinforcement and redirection!  Its the only way to break them of bad habits and make them listen.  A dog's training is never ending!  I should have listened to my Dad when he told me that 4 yrs ago when we brought the puppy home.  LOL!

kaydee77

Sounds exactly like my dog - he is 11 years old and deaf, but spends as much time as possible under and around her high chair.  And we can't yell at him obviously, so we either put him outside if it's nice (he won't go anywhere) or down in the basement.  The only problem with the basement, is that he will sniff and sniff and sniff at the dang door which also drives us crazy!! Sorry I'm not much help but I can empathize with you.  DD will also sometimes try to feed that dog, which I say "no" to but she doesn't always listen.  And he has snatched food out of her hand which makes me really angry.

jlthompson19

We have gates that have a little door in them that you press down on and they open. This way you don't have to climb over them.  DD thinks it's hilarious when she just so happens to have a piece of food dangling from her hand off the side of her tray and the great dane grabs it.  Honestly, it makes me laugh too. 

celiabwatson

My son feeds the dog too so I really can't blame her. She only takes food from him at the table if he offers (or if his hands go below table height, which looks a lot like offering). We don't do any wandering snacks in our house because of this. We have a kitchen helper and I put out snacks on the counter and he can climb up and eat and climb back down, but not bring food with him. He learned pretty quickly.

Now, if anyone knows how to get him to stop stealing the dog's food .... 

vlagrl29

once i started giving DD milk in the sippy, my dog got a taste and now she is crazy psycho about milk.  I will have a glass for myself next to the couch and if i get up from the couch she is putting her nose in MY glass and drinking it.  She ruined 2 of DD's nipples for the bottle because she was trying to get the formula out of it.  I try my best to keep stuff off the floor but sometimes you just miss it

tbone_bride

I guess I'm not alone.  I can try training her again, it's just so hard since she's old. But I know you CAN teach an old dog new tricks  Sigh.....  OK, here we go!!