For your first scenario, the only thing that will work, imo, is to never ever let the dogs have a chance to get at food on counters, sinks, etc. If they only get lucky once a month, the fact that they do is extremely reinforcing and, you can bet they will keep trying (sort of how people get addicted to gambling). If they
never find food over a long period of time, the behavior will extinguish. You can teach a 'leave it' but, it really wouldn't help for those times you can't supervise. Penny doesn't take food but Lucky might on the odd occasion. We now put food in the oven to thaw. You can use a pantry, the microwave, a cupboard, etc..
We've definately been doing all this...especially since Chase got sick from the rishness of the prok chops and we caught Kailey with steak knives 
It's even more of a challenge having an open concept house. I suppose I've been stuck on thinking "but he used to be fine"....but you are very right about how reinforcing even getting the food is. Hadn't thought about it like that.
For your second issue, which is obviously serious, both management and training are what's needed. I'll let you know what we do here at the moment.
Neither dogs are ever out in the yard unsupervised...and that doesn't mean we watch them through a window.
Good point.
So, what's working for us so far is that we try prevent her from getting to that point at all (but she's a little loopy so sometimes it can just be a bird in a tree that'll turn her into Cujo). If there's a dog, horse, people walking by, we try to re-direct her attention to us or even physically block her and then give her something else to do.
I can try this....it will take some trial and error I think. Chase has that Border Collie intesity so when he fixates, good luck! But I'll play around with it.
In your case with the Bassets, is there anyway you can block the visual access into their yard? Do the Bassets come right to the fence?
I think DH could rig up something.....our yards meet corner to corner. And yep, they come to the fence too. They are rather aggressive as well.
So, although stressful at times, the management is the easy part. The training part not so easy for me but, we have noticed improvement. We do a lot more recalls and, slowly try to build up Penny's tolerance to stressors and that's by reconditioning her to see them as positive things, not things she has to be afraid of or aggressive towards. I think in Chase's case this is what he needs too.
I'm going to pm stinkycat and millitntanimist as I believe they can explain the "how-to's" much better than I can.
I agree with the reconditioning......we lapsed on hsi socialization when Kailey came into our lives with all her issues, and this is what we get for our lack of attention to it. But I know he is capable. I just don't really know what the approach :looks" like exactly, so I'd love the others' input.
One thing we tried that
didn't work, actually made the situation worse, was set down a whole bunch of new rules all at one time (we too thought that perhaps they were too spoiled). So suddenly
everything was NILIF, no dogs on the bed, furniture, etc. I can't tell you what a mistake that was as it only increased the stress and anxiety Penny was feeling. However, our issue was that Penny started attacking Lucky and Nukka whereas that's not the case between Chase and Kailey, thank dog.
So true! This is always DH's reaction! It's all of a sudden: "They're too spoiled. No more couches or on the bed" That lasts all of two days and all we get is two dogs slinking around, confused and trying to figure out what exactly they did wrong.
Does Chase lunge after other animals/people when you're walking with him?
He sometimes gets excited by other dogs, but is never aggressive on leash and is pretty easily redirected. He has never shown an ounce of aggression towards a person.
Is your dh able to cycle with him (using an appropriate attachment of course) for about 20-30 mins. per day?
He used to rollerblade with him sometimes and I know Chase loved that....I'll ask him to try that. And although not the same as a walk, I can at least spend more time with them playing feach and such in the yard.
Oh, another thing, we no longer feed our guys out of bowls
at all. Everything gets stuffed into their Kongs and is frozen/semi-frozen so that it takes them between 30mins. - 2 hours to eat each meal. It keeps them super busy and prevents them from getting into trouble out of boredom.
I like this....they're rarely alone more than two hours at a time....but it would be great for mental stimulation regardless and would certainly slow down Kailey the Inhaler.
I hope some of this helps you. I know too well what it's like to have everything suddenly go to hell in a handbasket
.