Counter surfing

[LauraD]

Hi there,
Berkeley is nearly 11 months old now and over the past month he has started counter-surfing and stealing food off the table. I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to how we can stop this?
He doesn't hide his food stealing as he will jump up right infront of me to take something off the counter.
Any suggestions are really appreciated!

 

[charlieinnj]

The only suggestion I have is to not have those temptatations on the counters, table or stove. When I prepare food in the kitchen, I send Oliver to the next room (where he can still see me) and I'll lean a baby gate across the opening, if necessary.

 

[AngusMcDubhsMom]

Let's see: there's the startle effect: a loud noise or shout No from you. Some people use a tin can with some pennies in it. We used these Mouse trap things they sold at pet supply stores that spring up and scare the dicken out of them...no harm, just scared. Of course you could have a super clever boy like Angus, who barked at them and then figured out how to put his paws between them so they wouldn't jump and he could still reach to the back burner of the stove. :!rolling: or just remove every temptation...good luck!

 

[R Taft]

I do the opposite. We leave food out ' where they can reach, whilst we sit in our lounge room and we reprimand and correct them. We often leave our plates out on purpose. We even walk away. Katy thinks we have eyes in the back of our head. We do watch and we reprimand "off". If they are caught, we just walk them out to our bathroom with a "off" and they sit alone for five to ten minutes. We can walk out with them and everything stays. We have Bar-b-q's and leave stuff out. It is initially constant watching. We just train all the time. At present we can just leave them out with food now. We have been strict from day one at whatever age they come in. They know the rules.
But we do feed tit-bits and they know that that is different. When i eat Pizza I do give the dogs treats whilst I eat. And that has had no effect. it is all about control. I have some friends who will never feed whilst eating, but we believe as long as they do not beg and we choose to give them something it is fine. When we say "off you go". they leave the area. We leave meat out to defrost all the time in our sink when we are away and the dogs are in............That is the ultimate test.

To add if you ever want to do therapy with your dogs, they have to be able to be around food and people eating, without causing hassles or taking food. They often end up at events like parties where there is a lot of food and they have to be able to not take food. At the same time, sometimes a disabled child gets a great thrill out of being able to feed the newf, so we have taught ours on permission from us to take gently. One little boy feeds Annabelle an Icecream every time she goes to his school. It makes his day and definitely hers

 

[Kelridge]

I do the same thing as Ronnie and Mike........I actually 'set up' a situation where they would think of taking food off a table or countertop or on the nightstand - etc....and then correct them if they try and touch it. To never have food on the counters or tables was NEVER an option in my house - so I found teaching them that it was NOT acceptable was far easier!

Luci will stare at the food, sort of 'willing' it towards her mouth :whistling: but she knows not to touch it! Roman started out trying to counter surf - but he has been REALLY good about it now.......Now its Cody's turn! The first two days he jumped up and tried to grab breakfast off the Island, but since then, he sits and gives me the 'pathetic....I'm STARVING' look like the others all do - :lol: LOL!!!!!!!!

Good Luck!

 

[jane]

Merlin doesn't care if you say "leave it". If I'm not there, and he's got enough time to grab it, he will. I keep the counter's clear of any temptation. When there is cooking and eating going on, Merlin is not allowed in the kitchen. He get's put in a down stay at the kitchen line and is not allowed to move until I release him from the command. He knows the routine and listens very well.
Now when Dan is hom alone with the dogs, that is a completely different story. That's when most of Merlin's food stealing is done

 

[LauraD]

Thanks very much for all of your suggestions. I'm starting to think that Berkeley only steals food for attention. For example, yesterday Berk and I were watching tv in bed and I had a bag of crackers laying on the bed, he didn't even look up at me to beg for food let alone try to steal some. But when we have company over he's climbing all over the counter trying to lick plates and eat napkins etc. I'm going to work more on the leave it command but I'm also going to try not to make a big fuss when he jumps on the counter, hopefully if he doesn't get the exitable reaction he's hoping for he will lose interest.

 

[Garden_girl]

It may be that he doesn't beg food from you while you are eating because he knows that he won't get any, he's learned that lesson.

When dogs counter surf-they get an immediate reward and it's not just food-it's HUMAN food-what could be better than that? Unless you've got something better in your hands to offer your counter surfer, he's not going to give that up easily. I believe that training starts when they are very young.
It's not that you can't train it out of them once they start, it's just much easier when you can nip it it the bud from the git-go. Lesson learned (by me).

I have two older Newfs that will counter surf and two younger ones that would not dream of taking anything off the cupboard. The younger two were trained not to counter surf, much the same way that Ronnie teaches it.

I also don't leave any food out, so the older two think.....why bother-there's nothing up there for me, lol.

 

[Bär]

I never had a counter surfer yet. Have to say "yet" because I always expect the unexpected after I think it was Murphy that stole some meat at the age of 5, but had never been a counter surfer before. We do however train the same way as Ronnie from a very young age. So far it has worked. I always have baked goods on the counter or table, cookies on the end tables. Bär's treats are on the kitchen table within easy reach & he knows it.
Good luck, keep working with your baby, consistency is the key.

 

[Mr.King]

We found that an airhorn, like the kind used at sporting events works to stop Gracie's counter surfing. We set up situations with food on the counter then blow the horn when she jumps up. It took about a week to break her...she almost never does it now. Also, we tried to hide the fact that it was us making the noise.

We also used the same method to keep her out of the dishwasher while we were loading it. I would load and my wife would hide and blow the horn everytime Gracie tried to lick the plates.

 

[kimewest]

I had a very well trained lab years ago that still counter surfed. We watched and reprimanded and did everything we could and he could never be trusted in this area. A trainer told me to put some pennies in a can, tap the hole and attach it to some food. We cooked a nice steak and tied the cans to it. The steak was on the edge of the counter and the cans in the back where he could not see them. When he pulled the steak the cans came down on top of him making a lot of noise and frightening him. The food corrected him in a way we never could. He never surfed again.

 

[new_2_newf]

oooohhhh....I LIKE that last one....it might not work for every dog, i can see some just thinking 'man, that is one noisy steak!', but that might be a different avenue to take if other training wasn't working, especially if the dog is startled easily.

 

[4ondafloor]

Merlin doesn't care if you say "leave it". If I'm not there, and he's got enough time to grab it, he will. I keep the counter's clear of any temptation. When there is cooking and eating going on, Merlin is not allowed in the kitchen. He get's put in a down stay at the kitchen line and is not allowed to move until I release him from the command. He knows the routine and listens very well.
Now when Dan is hom alone with the dogs, that is a completely different story. That's when most of Merlin's food stealing is done

To add: Merlin can be counted on to be the life of any gathering and he considers himself the Official Taste Tester of all things.:lol:

Pae counter surfs. Gojie is too lazy to try. He just waits for it to accidentally fall off when Pae is surfing. Syd doesn't need to surf. He just walks over and snarfs it. His head towers above the counter.
I don't leave things out usually but I'm not perfect and there have been times when things have magically disappeared. Since nobody owns up to it..:whistling: I just try to remember to put things away.:bear:

 

[tux]

tux does this fantastic new thing where he steals bills off the counter and shreds them. with the visa bill that was fantastic but when its something i actually need i will be pretty upset.

 

[Garden_girl]

Can I send some paperwork your way? :lol: :lol: