How to prevent counter surfing

[CosMonster]

So, now I have a real house instead of an itty bitty barn apartment. I have 4 dogs, 3 blue heelers and a GSD. The old apartment was so small I worried about them fighting in it (because they kind of had to be right on top of each other) plus there was no way to store food except in an open pantry right at dog level, so the dogs were left out in their large run when I was gone.

I’d like to be able to leave my dogs alone in the new house, but we are having a big problem with them getting up on the counters and opening cabinets. I’m also having problems with them climbing on my office desk to look out the window it sits in front of. I can just close the door to the office if need be, though I like to leave it open so it doesn’t get too cold in there.

How do I train the dogs not to do this? They don’t when I’m home, but as soon as I leave it’s fair game. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Simkie]

The easy answer is to not leave the dogs loose in the house when you’re gone. They don’t have to be crated–I leave my dog in a large xpen full of beds and toys.

If that just won’t work for you, there are a couple things I’d try: upside down mouse or rat traps. They’ll snap and make a lot of noise, but they won’t hurt. A scat mat will also keeps dogs off your desk or counters. I’d also not leave ANYTHING of interest on the counters, and perhaps install baby locks on the cabinets. You could also use a baby gate to keep them out of the office, instead of closing the door.

Something else to try, which could work GREAT if you are sitting in front of a computer while you’re out, would be to set up a camera with two way audio. You watch the dogs, when they do something naughty, you yell at them through the cam. I set one up to watch my dog with anxiety issues, so I could figure out exactly what she was doing, and it is fabulous. Now if I see her starting something silly, I tell her to knock it off. Really works, and is also hugely entertaining!

[Canaqua]

I was just talking to my dog trainer about this last night! Our BC puppy has discovered that she is now tall enough to check out what’s on the counter…she stole a piece of roast beef off it on Sunday night (pushed way to the back of the counter!).

Trainer said that supervision is the #1 solution and that I should not allow her to be in the kitchen unattended and to reward her when she is quietly lying on the floor while I cook and not under my feet or eyeing the counter. Now that she’s got someting really good off the counter, she’s been rewarded for it, so I’m now behind the eightball :(.

Keeping counters clear of food is important, to avoid the “self rewarding” nature of counter surfing.

Can you gate your kitchen off when you are not home? Ours has no doors, so keeping her out when I’m in the other room (we still don’t leave her home alone yet, she’s too young and rowdy) will require baby gates.

The other suggestion he had was one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Snappy-Trainer-Pet/dp/B000WP4R52

BC pup is sensitive and easily startled, so a “snap” from that plastic thing when she put her paws on the counter might work for her.

[onelanerode]

It is way easier to prevent these behaviors than it is to address them once they’ve started, because as you are finding out, the dog gets a reward for doing them, and so he keeps doing them, and they become a habit.

We crated ours for several years every time we left, and we never let them get into the habit of counter surfing or climbing on furniture. Now we can leave them out when we’re gone and the worst thing that happens is a dog toy gets mauled. Otherwise, they are usually passed out in their crates or looking out the windows. (We have an animal cam, so we can spy on them while we’re gone, haha.)

[GoForAGallop]

@Simkie;6008167

The easy answer is to not leave the dogs loose in the house when you’re gone. They don’t have to be crated–I leave my dog in a large xpen full of beds and toys.

This. I was just reading an old “BARK” magazine, and there was a reader question about a dog who countersurfed during the holidays, when the owners were entertaining. The trainer who answered had a great quote: Put a buffet of your favorite foods in easy reach, with no one watching you, when you’re starving…are you going to have the self-control to not touch it?

I don’t think it’s fair to expect dogs to resist, honestly. Do I expect them to not do it in FRONT of me? Absolutely. But I can’t control them when I’m gone.

My kitchen doesn’t have a door, but we just bought one of those nice wood baby gates and put it up. It looks decent for every day use, and has a walk through swinging door, so we don’t have to climb over it/take it down. The dogs have the run of the rest of the house all day, but stay away from the temptations of the kitchen counters/trash. It also happens to work out great because we can keep the cat food dish in there, as the cat can hop over.

[wendy]

confinement is a fine training tool, but when you substitute permanent confinement for training you’ve gone beyond it being a “tool” to using it as a crutch.
A properly house-trained dog should be able to be left alone in a house without destroying things or stealing food or getting into things the dog shouldn’t be getting into. A bit of “dog proofing” is only fair- don’t leave tempting food lying around easy to access, latch cabinets shut, keep the garbage in a container the dog can’t easily open, etc.

First step is the dog is confined when you’re not supervising so the dog can’t learn/ or practice bad habits- you spend a few weeks carefully guiding the dog to practice only GOOD habits in the new environment.
Then you gradually extend the amount of freedom the dog has. For example, at first you never let the dog into the kitchen unless you are standing right there watching and encouraging the dog to be on the floor. Then, after carefully removing all food-like items from the counters and locking the cabinets shut, you might allow access into the kitchen while you’re home but not standing right there watching. Then you might extend this to an hour or so when you just run out for an errand. And so on. It’s just a matter of building habitual behavior. Once it becomes a habit to ignore the top of the kitchen counters, this will carry over.

If you have inherited a dog with a bad habit or accidentally let your dog develop one, technology is your friend. If your dog figured out that it’s fun and rewarding to climb up on the counters when and only when no one is home, you obviously can’t use any deterrant that requires someone to be present. So you go to things like scat mats, Zones systems, etc. that you add in to your dog-proofing and supervision/building habits.

[Mara]

Someone here has a dog she taught to open the refrigerator and bring her a beer. It backfired once the light went on in the dog’s head: “Hey, there are OTHER THINGS, TASTY THINGS in here besides beer!”

I had a counter surfer but he only ever did it when something tempting was in sight. Amazing how they learn to wait until you leave to even so much as GLANCE in the direction of the food they covet. “Don’t want to tip her off!”

Crate confinement for the day would be a bit much, but I like Simkie’s x-pen.

[CosMonster]

Thanks for all the tips. Unfortunately there is no way to close the kitchen off from the rest of the house (it’s a very open design) but I can figure things out. I don’t leave food on the counters but it never occurred to me to put child latches on the cabinets…will head to the store tomorrow for those.

They have only gotten into things once, because 3 of them (everyone except Hector the GSD, who I shouldn’t really have counted because he does have a crate, though we’re still working up to long periods of time–though I work from home so they’re rarely alone for more than a couple of hours) have been able to be in the house before without problems, and I didn’t expect there to be an issue this time. It’s been a few years though and I guess they forgot. :lol:

Anyway, I’m using your tips to devise a plan of attack on this, plus Hector and I had a meeting with a trainer today for other issues so I spoke to her about it as well. I think we’ve got a good plan of attack down.

[Horsegal984]

FLAME SUIT ON

This is one of the times I really liked having my dogs e-collar trained. They are ACD’s too, so as you know, smart as a whip! Anytime I’m home I could leave a entire turkey out and the dogs won’t touch it(now the cats on the other hand…) but the minute they hear the deadbolt everything becomes fair game. And when I would try to catch them in the act, they quit when they heard the key back in the lock. Jerks. So I would act like I normally did, leave the house, and spied on them trough the back window. Sure enough not 30 seconds after I locked the door they jumped up to see what was on the counter. A quick buzz from the collar, and I suddenly have two dogs back on their bed. I use my e-collars like a scat mat type tool, to correct and reinforce the idea that even when momma’s not home, counter surfing is a bad idea.

Oh, and in the mean time, I have learned to LOVE basket muzzles. We got them to help with some interdog aggression issues, but have found they are great tools for stopping counter surfing or anyother random distructive behaviors they might decide to try. Plus I figure if somebody tries to break in, two 50lb barking dogs in hannibal lector muzzles are a pretty darn good security system!

Oh, and yes, I work with a really awesome trainer, the aggression has been resolved. And they get plenty of exercise, my boy goes to work with me almost everyday to play/treadmill, but anytime I need or decide to leave him home he gets passive aggressive and chews something up. Hence why I love my basket muzzles still!!
Katherine
Vet Tech

[threedogpack]

You can teach a zen behavior, or a request behavior and that may help. Victoria Farrington teaches each of her dogs to leave things alone on the coffee table by lying to them.

She gets an empty pizza box (because it still smells like there is pizza in it), sets it on the floor and has chicken in her hand. Never says a word, allows the dogs to explore the empty box, then when they pick up their head, marks it and rewards with real food from her hand.

[AKB]

Keep all of the goodies off of the counters. Usually, if there is no food on the counters, they get tired of jumping on them. One of our retrievers used to jump onto the kitchen counter to bark at people who came near the house. She was afraid to jump down. After about 20 episodes of being stuck on the counter waiting for us to come home and lift her down, it finally occurred to her that jumping onto the counter was not a good idea. She hasn’t jumped onto the counter for years now.

[Foxtrot_s]

Greyhounds - masters at counter-surfing. Answer - put the roast beef at the back of the counter. Harmony maintained.

[CosMonster]

I guess “counter surfing” wasn’t really the best term for my problem…the issue is that I keep food in the high cabinets and the dogs were getting onto the counters and from there getting into the cabinets. :lol: Ah, dogs…can’t live with 'em, can’t live without 'em!

[Foxtrot_s]

I think a video of that might well earn you $10,000 on America’s Funniest Videos…or at the very least go viral on YouTube.

[IFG]

You can get gates that will fit very wide expanses. When my twins were little, we had a gate that fit across the living room. Here is one:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=extra+wide+baby+gates&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=8073682507101852498&sa=X&ei=daPgTregFOHb0QGPvrCkBw&ved=0CIoBEPICMAI

We kept the kids out of the kitchen for the same reason that we now keep the dogs out of the kitchen–safety. We have used gates for both.

[timoftelaur]

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[2tempe]

Invisible Fence has a product line called “Avoidance Solutions”
I’ve (thankfully) never had a dog that got ON the counter, only the front paws up routine. If mine were all four feet and more, I’d sure look into this:

http://www.invisiblefence.com/solutions/avoidance-solutions

[khall]

I have a counter surfer but he is so big he can see and get things off the counter without jumping up on them, ugh. We have to be very diligent about stuff on the counter, sometimes in our household (DH and DS) things get left out and Tucker gets them. We have just learned to deal with it now. Tried the towel with mouse traps on it, he never would take the bait, but would pull another towel down in a heart beat. Thankfully he does not know how to open cabinet doors.

Now this is a smart dog and one I am glad I don’t have to deal with!

http://youtu.be/sU7MjcvI9JM