how can i make him listen to me?

A "don't" or "no" type command may only stops the dog from the action at the time but does not train the dog what to do. You will need to show him what you would rather him do instead.

You don't have to take my advice but this is how I train my dog. One common command I alwasy give my dog instead of "no" is the "back" command. This tells my dog to back away from whatever she is doing. It means "back away from what you are doing untill I say it is alright". If she is standing near the door to go out I say back and she move back about 3 feet then waites for me to say "ok" which means it's safe for her to go out the door. I do the same with food, I tell her "back" away from the food and when I give the food command she is allowed to eat the food.

When I had two dog I could not feed them at the same time, neither one was food agreassive but with one overweight dog I could not allow her to eat the other dog's food. I feed them seperatly and gave each about 10-15 min to finish the bowl. They both knew that if they did not eat all the food within that time the bowl would be taken away and they would not get the food untill the next feeding time, for them it was twice a day. For the health of my overweight dog I never fee fed them or allowed them to see each others food.

I do the same as Xebby (Marlowe is similarily food-obsessed) but with "down" instead of "back." I don't care where Marlowe lays down, becuase if he's laying down he can't have his head in my face trying to score a crumb. The room we normally eat dinner in is a little weird in that it has sloping ceilings (finished attic) and our "couch" is just some upholstered pallets on the floor. We are right at dog level. I tell Marlowe "down" and he'll lay in front of me and stare longingly into my eyes and drool, but I then do some judicious ingoring. I totally ignore him (unless he gets up in which case he'll get another "down" command). And after a couple minutes he'll get more comfortable in his down, which generally morphs into him curling up and falling asleep by the time we're done eating.
 
I'm amazed he's still persisiting, frankly, becuase he has really never gotten food off my plate. When he first came home I could see how into food he was and, while we always allowed Conrad to lick plates when we were done or have a couple morsels, I thought that might be a bad precedent to set with Marlowe. But he still sits there expectantly as if it's totally bizarre that he's not getting anything. But as long as he's not in my face and is laying down quietly, I'm okay with that.

Russell is VERY food obsessed (cocker spaniel) and still young so not in possession of a lot of self-control. What I do you may not want to try, since it does encourage "begging" - but from my perspective quiet begging is a lot better than having a dog's face in my plate. I taught Russell that if he lays quietly by me throughout my meal, he has a decent chance of getting a couple of morsels of whatever I'm eating, when I'm done or almost done. If he's jumping on me or table-surfing he gets nothing and if he's really bad he gets to sit in the crate until I'm done. He caught on to this really quickly and it took just a couple of days before he learned not to bother me while I'm eating. I don't really mind him laying there staring at me if he's quiet and still.

ORIGINAL: RidgebackGermansShep

Wyatt's a well behaved dog for the most part. Unfortuantely, i have a really big problem with him not learning what's not okay. He's a little obsessive over food, and he constantly sticks his big head on the coffee table and sniffs for crumbs...i yell at him every single time, and he'll stop. The next time i eat, he'll do it again. It's a vicious cycle. He also will run over and gobble up the rest of Kaiser's food every day. I'm not really sure how to punish him, because fussing at him and making him lie down in the other room obviously isn't sinking in...

If you train "wait", "back", or "leave it", you at least have a way to tell the dog what you DO want, instead of simply interrupting his behavior.  I never punish a dog, I simply instruct him what to do instead - but in order to do that, those behaviors must be trained first, before the dog is introduced to distractions (like crumbs on the table).

I pro-actively train the dogs to not touch food on the table or counters. Put something the dog doesn't really like, say lettuce, on the table and click and treat for ignoring it. Then gradually increase the value of the food. So your dog learns that not-table-surfing gives him better stuff than than table-surfing. Once the dogs are trained to ignore food left on the table, because they are convinced it is worth their while to not touch it, you can leave a beef roast on the table and leave the room for twenty minutes and be sure it will be there when you come back. Course you'll have to mop up puddles of drowl and reward dogs profusely when you do come back.
You should also work on self-control around food-- dog should learn to be able to hold a sit-stay while you pile chunks of meat in front of him (of course you have to gradually work towards this), only eating the meat when you release him. In fact, for these food-driven dogs, you should never ever let them eat anything without working for it-- sit before eating dinner, do a trick before getting a treat.