# counter surfing



## Onyx11 (Jan 8, 2012)

I need some help with Onyx and counter surfing. How do I get him to stop it's all the time I can be standing right there and he is up trying to get things.He is very food driven and will eat just about anything. When he is up there I have tried clapping hands and saying NO,Banging pots and pan he just looked at me,Doing the pennies in the can that worked for about five times. I don't want to close him out of the kitchen that's where the back door is and he still goes potty on the floor sometimes. Any help would be great


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

Don't leave food on the counter, place it higher, put it all in cupboards. Block him from the kitchen, crate when you're not home. I think you said earlier you didn't want to crate him when you're not around? But if he's doing bad things like that I think that you SHOULD regardless. What if he gets chocolate? Or grapes? Counter surfing is a self-rewarding behavior, dog does bad thing, gets reward, no one around to stop dog.

Vegas did this a couple times, but I just stopped leaving food within reach, or pulled the cutting board out so getting to the counter where the food was is harder. He also garbage dug a couple times, but we just got a garbage with a lid. I now leave my standards home alone free range, and I have no problem.

Now I have a problem with the cats getting up on the counter and shredding bags to get to food.. (bread, really kitties, really?!) Luckily, Scat Mats were on sale this week.


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## Indiana (Sep 11, 2011)

I too have this problem, and saying "no" has no effect. I have to physically go in and haul them off,...like Fluffyspoos said, counter surfing is its own reward because sometimes they find food. But not ONLY food! My two are so incredibly obsessed with food that some great swag could include the washcloth, crumbs, licking out a dish in the sink, soap (yes! soap!), or...you get the picture. Advantage: my house has never been so clutter-free! But of course I haven't given up, I keep trying to enforce the no-kitchen rule and am now trying clicker training. I think that as they get older they'll lose a bit of that food focus too (I hope!).


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## Poodle Head (Sep 12, 2011)

I have the same issue - she is at the point now where she won't do it in front of me, but if I am relaxing on the couch, she'll quietly wander off and look around to see if there is anything interesting up there. I found the thing that worked best for us was to spray her in the face with water (like she was a cat). Not sure why, but it seemed to help. I now leave the bottle on the counter as a reminder for her. She's not great, but much better than she was. My trainer said it is one of the hardest habits to break because it's self-rewarding... jump up, get some food.


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## Onyx11 (Jan 8, 2012)

O No Fluffyspoos I put him in a cage while gone I was saying I did not want to lock him out of the kitchen when I am home because he needs to go in there to get to the back door to ask to go out I do crate him while I am gone or he can not be watched. 

Indiana,Thats how Onyx is I have to remove him from the counter even if there is no food up there he still likes to look around lol..He too will lick dishes w soap on them. I will make sure there is nothing on there that he can get to not even a crumb we will see if that will work.

Poodle Head,Thats one thing I have not tried I think I may have to try it.


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## Poodle Head (Sep 12, 2011)

I really didn't want to spray her in the face, but after she ate the soap and I had to stay home from work because she had explosive diarrhea - something had to be done!
The other thing we did, which helps when I'm cooking and she is putting her beak all over the counter trying to have a look at things, is put a mat in the kitchen and trained her to go to it. When I say "magic mat" she goes into a down/settle (hips to the side) on her mat. We call it magic mat because eveyone and a while a treat will magically fall onto it


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## tortoise (Feb 5, 2012)

Bell train your dog for going potty. One he "gets it", move the bell to the other side of the kitchen. He can "tell you" that he needs to go out and you can have a kitchen-free dog.

Other options are babygate to keep dogs out, keeping the counter perfectly clear of everything, scat pads, baited food that has something yucky in it, the ecollar that keeps a dog out of a certain radius of space - it works like an underground fence. You could do all of these.


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

I honestly think that unfortunately the most effective solution is to just not leave food out and/or not allow your dog in the kitchen when food is out. I've got a BAD counter surfer. She eats sticks of butter, and anything that might be sitting out. She even sticks her head down into the sink! She's been caught all the way up on the kitchen island - all four feet! Frankly, counter surfing is so rewarding to her there is very little as far as correction that I could do retrain her. In order for any correction to be effective, it would have to be so harsh and severe she would feel in real danger. Of course, I'd never even consider this. And it would be similarly impossible to use positive reinforcement to train her to to replace that undesirable behavior with a more desirable one, because very little is more desirable and thus motivating to _her_ than eating! So, in order to keep her safe I have had to change my habits and gate her away from the kitchen if food will be left out OR put food away if she will have free roam.


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## apriljean80 (Aug 23, 2010)

I'm sort of ashamed to admit this, but I'm so glad there others with this issue and its not just my house! Biscuit will also counter serf but has been scolded enough to know its a no-no. Does this stop him? No, it just makes him sneaky. We have had to train ourselves not to leave food out or the trash can open(tricky when you have younger kids) 

Interestingly enough Biscuit's favorite item to steal is sticks of butter too. There was a streak when every time I had set a stick of butter out to soften he was swiping it behind my back. Now we ban him from the kitchen when food is our or just put it up.


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## PoodlePowerBC (Feb 25, 2011)

Afraid I totally agree with CM here  Our last spoo was a counter surfer, and the reward was TOO great. He was a thief till the day he died, and we tried it all, believe me!


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## oceanrose (Sep 10, 2011)

You have a dog that has found a great self rewarding behavior. To solve the problem is a 2 step process.

First, when you can''t be there, no food on the counter. Put it in the cupboards or away.

When you are working in the kitchen and preparing food, pick a behavior to reward. Personally I would choose to reward laying on a mat in a quiet corner of the kitchen. 

Start working by having no food out but a clicker and a high value treat in your pocket. Throw a treat on the mat, click and praise when he goes to get the treat. Once he's running over to get the treat tell him to place when you throw the treat. After he's going over there willingly (this should be 1-2 sessions), start telling him to place and then down (if he knows down), and toss him the treat. Work on the time of the down, reminding him to wait on the mat. Toss him random treats while he's on the mat and laying down. If he gets up off the mat calmly redirect him and remind him to down again (no correction, just a reminder). Start working on walking away, and keeping him on the mat at a distance. After a couple weeks of short daily sessions, you should be able to cook with him on the mat, getting treats randomly. He can't grab food from your counters but can watch and participate. 

My dogs are trained to stay out of the kitchen when I'm cooking, and to lay right next to it instead. But none of them are counter surfers, probably since we never do keep food out, as I've had them in the past .


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

Oooh, that's a good idea Tortise, boobie trapped food. I've used this on Cairo already by 'accidentally' dropping food while cooking, which he used to bolt for. Suddenly it's not as fun when it's a jalapeno, or a hot dog with tobasco inside the hollowed out section.


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## sulamk (Nov 5, 2011)

My lab cured himself when he acidently knocked a stack of pots and potlids down that were waiting to be put away! the noise was horrendous! He hasn't counter surfed since and that was 2 years ago.


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## DivinityPoodles (Jan 23, 2012)

We are still working on Autumn but she is only 4 months old. I have trained 'off' to both dogs so that's a non issue. Autumn has impulse control issues (go figure at 4 months lol) and will counter surf so.... 
First is the off
Second is they both know out of the kitchen thus if we are cooking they tend to lay right at the entrance 
Third is letting her know that she really really is not allowed and does not want to self reward that way. Had 1 instance last week where I had just had her grooming session so the treats in the tea cup were still on the counter (very low counter for a telephone) and there was a stool that I had sat on, she climbs on the tool and gave herself her treats. I come upstairs, look at her and growl. Down she got, tucked her tail & walked to her bed. Then came back all wiggly about 5 seconds later.
She also stole chicken off the counter about 2 weeks ago, no idea how she got that but I came in the kitchen and before I even realized what she had she was out of there. I threw the frozen chicken in the sink to make a lot of noise, so far no issues with her repeating that behaviour. 
Fourth I train her to stay off the counter by training her to wait to have her dinner until she's told ok. I fix both their dinners and leave the bowls on the counter, purposely walk away (even out of the room) and return in my own time to feed them. At first Autumn would jump & jump & each time told off & rewarded as soon as she was off & or sitting calmly. 

Hope some of that helps.


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## Indiana (Sep 11, 2011)

apriljean80 said:


> I'm sort of ashamed to admit this, but I'm so glad there others with this issue and its not just my house! Biscuit will also counter serf but has been scolded enough to know its a no-no. Does this stop him? No, it just makes him sneaky. We have had to train ourselves not to leave food out or the trash can open(tricky when you have younger kids)
> 
> Interestingly enough Biscuit's favorite item to steal is sticks of butter too. There was a streak when every time I had set a stick of butter out to soften he was swiping it behind my back. Now we ban him from the kitchen when food is our or just put it up.


Totally!!! Teaching them to wait at the kitchen doorway (which they do like angels while they know we're around, teaching them that it's never okay to jump up on the counter, easy peasy. While we're in the kitchen, we say "mat" and the dogs hit their mat at the entryway like they were trained in the army. Believe me, they KNOW they're not allowed in there, and they know how to work the clicker angle (treats for staying at the entryway). But with such high potential rewards, it's just so worth the sneakery. I think the only solution for me is to keep everything put away, all the time. Including sink sponges, every single buttery knife, and every crumb. Like fjm said on another thread, if you have a cat box in your house, you'll never win the battle of keeping a dog out of it...it's like having a chilled bottle of your favorite wine and a chocolate cake on the coffee table and not taking a little nibble  Dogs are different, and my two girls are so easy to train not to jump up and other good manners, but they just have such a crazy focus on food! Which you know, I work with in obedience and dog sports, it makes them easy to motivate. But not so good in the kitchen


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## tokipoke (Sep 3, 2011)

Leroy has counter surfed to eat the cat food. He's done it twice and he got a good reprimand. Part of it was my fault cause I'd scoop out the cat food with a spoon and then let him lick the spoon. He then learned it was okay to eat the wet cat food. So I don't do that anymore.

Also, my husband and I are trained very well to never leave food out (no matter what it is), on the counter. We put everything in the microwave or oven just to store it till I can put it in the fridge. My friend's dog would be left out in my house and he'd sneak hamburger buns off the counters and eat them when no one was there. I wasn't too concerned with that cause he wasn't my dog and those hamburger buns were stale anyway. He is very well behaved at his own house when left out, but he always does this at our house. Maybe he's acting out some stress. SO, even packaged things should be a no-no with pro counter-surfers. The plus side to putting all food items away is that your kitchen will look really clean!


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