Why does my dog obsess over food?

[boomkablamo]

As we all know, most any dog has no problem taking a scrap or bowl of food. Although, my 6 year old yellow lab I believe has some kind of obsessive compulsive issue over food. For all his life, he has gone to any length, no matter what pain or obstacle is involved, to obtain any kind of edible material. He'll jump onto stove tops in order to get the cooking food, he will steal stronger dogs food, knowing it will end up with him getting attacked. We recently adopted a pit bull/german shephard mix, and he is a very sweet dog who loves our lab(buddy) to death. Buddy eats his food whole. No joke. I have never seen the dog chew his food, which means during feeding time he finishes long before our pit bull mix(brady). Buddy then stalks brady as he's eating, and moves in at any opportunity to swallow his food whole as fast as he can. Brady will obviously defend his food, which i don't blame him for at all, and has actually caused us to have to take buddy to the vet several times because of a cut neck/almost removed ear.

But these reasons alone are not the only things that lead me to believe buddy is obsessive compulsive. After a meal, buddy goes on "hunts" around the house, lasting several hours sometimes, where he sniffs around every baseboard, in every nook and cranny, hoping to find a crumb of food.

We have never had the option of leaving food on our counters. Despite efforts to stop the behavior, buddy will wait for you to leave and drag the food off the counter. He has broken many bowls, plates, stoneware, anything imaginable. Because of this, we know he knows the behavior is bad, he just doesn't care.

I love my dog, despite his flaws, but honestly, if it came between the dog saving my life, or having a small morsel of rotting meat, the dog would allow me to die in a heartbeat, I'm sure of it.

We've tried everything over the years, from attempts to distract him from food when he shows attention to it. We've even put a shock collar on him, and shocked him everytime he jumps on the counters. I think the dog is blind to pain, or thinks the pain is worth the small reward.

I have NEVER seen a dog so obsessive over food, and I believe without a doubt that if buddy had a large enough supply of food, he would literally eat himself to death the first chance he got

Does anyone know WHY he does this, or HOW i can fix it?

thanks for reading