how to question and excercise question

Question
I have a 9 month old golden retriever.  She is crated all day until I get home from work.  I have done the initial obeidiance training to get her to walk, sit, stay etc.  I have two questions, the first is I can't seem to break her of jumping onto the counter and stealing food, also stealing from my children's food.  I have tried using her choke collar, shaking a can of pennies, water spray etc.  Nothing works.
Also, I am taking her for runs with my bike every night about one mile.  She does well with this however, I have heard that short sprints are better than long runs.  Can you comment on this?
Thanks.
Lori

Answer
A mousetrap is very effective in making a dog leave something alone.  Most
dogs will stay away from anywhere they were surprised by a snap.  The best
part is that it is not you that is correcting the dog.  It works whether you
are around or not.  The mousetrap is very patient and is always on task as
long as you reset it.  Of course, it can't tell the difference between dogs and children.   

Some dogs learn to cope with mousetraps.  Lucky became very good at getting food and leaving the mousetrap.  I tied a mousetrap to a cracker, and left the cracker on the corner of the table.  After the snap, we came back into the room, and found a very upset dog.

Long or short, don't run her too hard.  Her growth plates may still be open and the joints need more time to develop.
Switch to an adult chow now.  That may delay growth, but again, help develop stronger joints.