Accept the staring, plan around the stealing
A truly food-obsessed dog does not need to misbehave at a dinner party; he only needs one unattended plate, one soft-hearted guest, and one dropped roast potato. Willpower-based plans fail, so design the evening so opportunity never arrives: he is exercised, fed, settled, and physically separated from the table before the first guest sits down. Decide his arrangement in advance, whether that is resting behind a gate within sight of the party, settled in another room with the door closed, or on his bed beside the table on a lead for the rare dog who can genuinely hold a settle amid serving dishes. Hope is not one of the options.
Run his evening before yours begins
Walk him properly earlier in the day so he arrives at the evening pleasantly tired, then feed him his own dinner in his separate area shortly before guests eat, because a dog digesting his own meal in his own space has far less urgency about yours. Settle him with a long-lasting chew or a stuffed food toy where he will be spending the evening, and let him get absorbed before the food smells peak. If he is joining the room on a bed, practise the settle with a chew at ordinary family dinners first, since a party is the worst possible debut for the skill.
Brief the guests like it matters, because it does
Tell every guest, warmly but plainly, that nobody feeds the dog anything at all, including the guest who believes one small piece cannot hurt. Human party food can be far too rich for a dog, and some common ingredients, such as cooked bones that splinter, onions, and rich fatty scraps, can make a dog seriously unwell, quite apart from rewarding the begging you are trying to extinguish. Agree a dropped-food protocol: the nearest person picks it up immediately, without a fuss or a chase, and serving dishes, platters, and the kitchen bin stay behind the gate line or behind closed doors all evening. Put tempting rubbish straight into an outside bin.
Give supervision a name, and check the aftermath
Rotating goodwill is not supervision, so name one person, ideally not the cook or host mid-service, who watches the dog, refreshes his chew, handles toilet breaks, and notices the moment he is getting overstimulated and needs a quieter room. After guests leave, do a floor sweep for dropped food, dropped medication from handbags, and anything else the party scattered before he gets free run of the room again. Put the pre-party walk, the gate setup, and the named watcher into KinsLe Care Teams, where each job sits visibly with its owner and completed tasks are timestamped, so his party-night plan survives even a host who is busy plating dessert.