Food obsession

[Gustavo]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone had experience with extreme food stealing behaviour?!

I have a 4 year old neutered female GSD who is otherwise healthy and up to date with flea and working treatment and vaccinations. I have to have child locks on all kitchen cupboards and drawers so she doesn't open them and eat the contents. I have locks on the oven and microwave, and also on the door to the utility where the bin is left. If ever she is in the kitchen/dining room - which is open plan, then she will try to get into these cupboards etc to get food. I have locks on the fridge and freezer too and today she chewed the locks off and ate the contents of both!

I can't shut her in the living room as my neighbours are very loud and even with the tv on the dogs still ark. She lives with 3 other dogs and it's none of the, because I have cameras set up and know it's her!

She jumps baby gates, I've tried a fabric one on top of a metal one and she squeezes through the gap in order to get to the kitchen.

Any thoughts on how to deal with this? She won't tolerate being in a crate....

 

[gypsysmum2]

How difficult for you.

Dogs are scavengers. It is how they came to be domesticated in the first place.

If scavenging is rewarded with the dog finding food then the dog will continue to do what is, after all, natural behaviour. It is difficult to see what more you can do! If she has found that chewing off the locks is a successful strategy then no amount of locks are going to stop her.

In mild cases you can booby trap the worktops with empty tin cans tied together with cotton. The dog jumps up and the cans fall, harmlessly, on top of them.

In the case of cupboards the only thing I can think of is to empty them completely and leave them open. In theory she should, eventually, give up searching for food that is not available. This, I would imagine, is impractical?

It is just a possibility that she is doing it because she is bored, frustrated etc rather than searching for food but now that food has been found she would probably continue even if the boredom, frustration etc were addressed.

It would not hurt, anyway, to make sure that she gets plenty of exercise, mental stimulation, relaxation etc.

Could she go to doggy day care?