# He's a Kitchen Savage!



## twyla (Apr 28, 2010)

Counter surfing is a reward in and of itself, crating Marley while you eat seems the best solution. It's not a punishment, its just they way it is, part of his training. My poodles are bottomless pits, so I feed them an allotted amount, but you would think they never been fed.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I assume that your house is open plan, so that shutting him out of the kitchen or away from the table while you eat is not an option? If this is the case, then I think you need to do two things. The first is ensure that he cannot continue to reward himself by stealing food, which means being being very disciplined yourselves and crating him if there is any possibility of him grabbing stuff - a good Kong or other chew will make it a pleasurable time for him rather than a punishment. 

The second is to teach him that staying away from you while you are preparing and eating food is more rewarding than stealing. I would teach a place cue, giving him a comfy place to lie down a reasonable distance from where you work and eat. How good is his Down Stay? Work on improving it without the distraction of human food around if necessary - lots of praise and treats at first, gradually building up the time between treats. Then ask him to stay while you prepare something boring for dogs, like salad or vegetables, and go back to very frequent treats until he settles happily. Don't push too far too soon, and crate him with something good if you need to concentrate on cooking or guests rather than dog training - or if your visitors cannot be relied upon to keep to the rules. I have one friend who the dogs know will almost unconsciously pass over chunks of the good stuff to any dog that waits long enough...


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## Sammy the spoo (Jul 7, 2016)

We have our crate in the eat-in kitchen, and Sammy has his own way of begging. . He smells something really good, and he dashes into his crate to beg with a perfect sit. . Of course he is "begging" but we allow it and follow it up with a piece of our meal. We give him a tiny bit and shut the door. He also finds some pieces of food fly into the crate if he is quiet and being well-mannered in the crate. I totally know he is begging, but I think we have conditioned him that begging can happen in his crate.  He is ever so hopeful in the crate. What I'm trying to get at is, you can make the crate a good place "beg" during dinner time too 

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

I never had a dog large enough to countersurf until Buck. I am vigilant about what is within reach of Poodle snout and paws, so no accidental jackpots for him. He will look. Buck only begs from my husband at the table. He will put his head on DH's lap, and my husband feels so sorry for him that he will put something in his dish. I have been training my husband to wait until after dinner, as fjm suggests. Buck thinks DH is perfectly trained already.


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## Laumau (Dec 17, 2016)

Benji is the same age as Marley and he likes to counter surf as well. We manage it by keeping stuff at the back of the counter (telling him "off!" When he jumps up) but during meals I give him a chewy treat- two if necessary and he's fine. He just sits on the kitchen floor and relaxes. I can also put him in his ex pen. We have an open floor plan.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Laumau (and others with this issue) be careful about thinking things are out of reach if at the back of the counter! I have done that and thought nobody could reach only to find said item gone. I swear Lily must stand on the back of whichever boy she is with to get to what she has managed to steal.


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

Lol! I can see her doing that! So far my "Buck Line" has held. If he learns how to drag over a chair - game over!


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

I trained Noelle and Francis that my food is always my food and never theirs. 

This is how I trained it. 






It wasn't until they were eight-months-old until this fully clicked in their heads, though, so some of your problem could be a maturity issue. But this training method worked. Now, I can set a bowl of popcorn beside them and they won't sniff it. Leave it is a default behavior. So, I can leave a plate of food on the coffee table, leave the room, return, and my food is where I left it. 

I hope this helps.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Click-N-Treat I can sit on the sofa with a bowl of popcorn and not be bothered. I can put a pieve of pp[corn on my knee and tell whoever wants it to wait and they wait. What happens when I am not looking in the kitchen has never been pretty. I will check out your method when I get home.


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Lily,

This method worked for my dogs. I hope it helps you, too. Noelle is now tall enough to reach the counter with her paws, so I had to work hard at this. Really, Noelle and Francis were horrible monsters during meal times until they were 8 months. Then a switch went off and they are much better. 

Practicing leaving food out where they could get it, and rewarding for ignoring it when my back was turned, helped a lot. And, as you already know, training in tiny steps is how we got there. Turn my back for one second. Reward them for leaving it. Turn my back for two seconds. Leave the room for one second... Raise the value of the food on the table, return to one second with my back turned.


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## MyNYPoodle (Mar 18, 2017)

Thank you ladies. At least I know I'm not alone. I'll try to answer as many of your questions as I can. 

His sit and stay? The sit, lay down, etc. is awesome. The stay...not at all. We are strongly working on that. 

I'm scrupulous about not letting anyone feed him from the table and I tell everyone that walks in the door not to. But its hard having a number of people not used to not being able to put something down on the table and having to worry about a scavenger stealing it. When we had our Siberian he actually grabbed a whole London Broil off the grill while it was cooking and took off running with it! He also burned his tongue and that was kind of the beginning of learning not to jump up.

He is getting tall enough now that even putting things towards the back of the counter, he has learned to use his paw to drag the plate or whatever it is to him. Nobody can ever say poodles are stupid! :act-up:

The crate is what is going to have to work for right now. I'm hoping this too is a maturity issue and will work itself out in time with being vigilant on the training. 

I'm considering a personal trainer for him in the next few months if we can't get this under control by than. He's also being neutered in May, so that too might help. Other than this behavioral issue he is awesome!

For now I'm just going to start eating in the bathroom late at night with the door closed for some peace! LOL


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## MyNYPoodle (Mar 18, 2017)

Sorry Sara, I missed that post. I'm going to absolutely look into the training you shared!

Thank you.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

The crate can be your best friend during puppy and adolescent days!


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## Caddy (Nov 23, 2014)

I have not been successful of curing Abbey of counter surfing, it's been too rewarding for her in the past and I've resorted to not leaving any temptations. On the other hand its not something Dolly has ever tried. The girls like to hang around with me while I prepare dinner and I often give them veggies as I'm chopping, but as soon as we sit down they go and lay down without being told and stay there until we're finished. I've left traps for Abbey with siracha sauce inside, but it doesn't seem to bother her. I've also left traps which included empty pop/beer cans around the food which go clanging to the floor (worked for my old lab), but that doesn't bother her either. Good luck!


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

I strongly recommend watching that video Click 'n Treat posted. It's the only way to fly. My Doberman use to counter surf but not while I was in there. Your dog sounds very bold. And it's important to not let him be successful one more time. You can lock him up if he's so bold as to get stuff while you're cooking, as it was suggested. But work on those exercises shown on the video.

One thing she stressed and it's something I'm always mentioning, then getting accused of accusing people of being harsh is not to say "eh eh" or "No" or "leave it." It has nothing to do with being harsh. It has to do with the fall out of suppression. It makes dogs only behave in your presence. In this example, the dog may not leave the food alone on his own, only if you're present. So teaching him to use his own self control because it pays off BIG TIME is the only way to fly. 

Good luck. 

Thank you Click 'n Treat for posting that video. I love Kiko Pup. She's a terrific trainer and she has loads of videos for free. Excellent!!!


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## PuffDaddy (Aug 24, 2016)

I have had this issue with my dog quite a bit. You can expect some improvement with good training, but you have to be realistic. 

If you are able to set up a barrier, please do so as mentioned, because once the dog makes a few awesome scores while surfing, the reward is FAR too good to be true. You have essentially got a crack addict for life on your hands once they make a few extraordinary counter kills. 

Unfortunately, I have an open floor plan and I cannot barricade my kitchen. If you are in the same boat, then all you can do is train as suggested above using the kiko pup video. Train, train, train!

I used this video and still do. It did help me to an extent with my now 11 month old spoo's counter surfing (we started this training about 5 months ago and regularly go over these behaviors). He nailed it all quickly. Oh, life seemed easy back then! 

However, there is a limit to this training. Technically, you have to be present in order to do the training, and there is no physical way around it (unless you have invented some sort of particle beaming device that we are not privy to, and in this case I suggest a career as a celebrity physicist.). Even if your dog becomes very fluent in all of the behaviors she goes over, and is able to come to you instead of going for some delicious food on the counter without a cue (as mine can with ease these days) Do not get too confident. A junkie is a junkie. A true addict knows the difference between a turned back VS someone who is on the toilet or using the computer in the office. The latter two are just not around, however brief it may be!

The minute you go to the bathroom or are truly out of the room, there is a good chance your dog will make this association with your total lack of presence, and still go for food on the counter. Mine learned that if I am present or near by that he shall never touch a bite, and will defer to me instead. He is incredibly poised, self controlled and polite when I am in the kitchen, dining room etc! But in his deepest heart of hearts he is a junkie and a scavenger, and this is a truth that I live with.

And he is a clever beast who knows how to work the world to get a hit (as any good junkie should know). If I were to leave a hunk of cheddar in his grasp and run to the loo (as I admit that I foolishly have in an absent minded moments) The dog WILL go for it no matter how well he does with his lessons. And he is an absolute ninja, doing this in totally undetectable utter silence (he does nothing else in this fashion, I can assure you). Bottom line, he knows how the game is played, and he is the star athlete. If this sort of cheese stealing ever happens to you while you are innocently on the toilet etc, you will come to that shameful moment in life where your brand new giant hunk of cheese is full of dog teeth marks, and you honestly consider whether you will salvage it or not. This is a dark path, do not become that person. Keep the dog away from the food!

Some of Puff Daddy's scores in our momentary absence have included the entirety of the Christmas gravy just before serving (ruinous), a kilo of cheddar (dangerous) and an entire pound of butter (no comment). No, I am not referring to the rapper.

The dog is very well trained with positive training methods, but do you really think he will ever forget just how amazing it was to score the entire tub of fresh gravy on Christmas. No, he will not. And thus we can never, ever leave anything out, no matter how much we have trained him. He knows that sneaking food from the counter while I am held up on the toilet means BIG REWARDS. As a side note, I must say my dog has always enjoyed taking advantage of me when I am unable to react, and this includes things like stealing the toilet paper from me when I am using the bathroom. He is a master of practical jokery. I believe he may find the whole thing funny. 

Keep in mind, he is a true food addict and will take all sorts of desperate measures to score a snack. That is his nature. Not every dog is like that. 

But in general, simply never leave food out if you are not around. I have full faith that you can train the dog not to steal food if you are anywhere near by. Absence is the problem. 

You may see great improvement with the listed techniques, it is certainly good for impulse control and I agree that you should utilize the methods mentioned in the video and practice them often. You might also do some research about what is called 'premack recall'. All of these things help with impulse control. 

However, no matter how well your dog does, Don't leave food where your dog can access it. 

This is easier said than done. I have become very good at it, only because I Have learned the hard way. Once you are burned enough over the course of the months, you will probably become very well trained by your dog, and will thus become and expert manager of ensuring that he can't counter surf anymore.


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