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I have a 7 month old lab mix and he likes to take food off the counter. We have tried to attach a can with marbles in it to bait him but it did not work. Yesterday I turned my back for a second and he was able to grab some raw hamburger of the counter, the hamburger was in the middle of the counter. So me and my wife decied to keep him out of the kitchen all together, but today we were sitting out side the kitchen about to eat at the counter and my wife got up to get something with me right next to her plate he jumped up and grabbed her food, the second he did me and my wife grabed him. We do not know what to do, we are thinking of putting him in a long down when we are cooking and eating but that will not stop the counter surfing. Does any one have any other ways to stop this behaviour? This is not just a recent occurance, we have been catching him up on(all 4 paws) on the counter and even taking more food than just what was mentioned above.

Oddly my minpins (possibly with the cats assistance?)were counter surfing this morning while I was at work. How the heck they got up there I have no idea. But what a frigging mess when I went home at lunch. They got a good talking to that continued until I was certain they took me seriously, kicked outside while I cleaned up the mess and then crated for the afternoon until I get home from work.

What consequences do you have in place when your pup is counter surfing? This is the first time mine have ever done the counter surfing thing and I would really like to know HOW THEY GOT UP THERE!! I didn't have a clue what to do really but didn't want them thinking that they could go up and clean the rest of the stuff off the counters this afternoon so I crated them.

Some consequences that come to mind from Brad's book is to put the pup in jail when he counter surfs. Other ones I could think of would be to tie the pup up out of the kitchen when food is out; tie him up away from you when you are eating.

Just my 2 cents worth.

you need to set yourselfs up as alpha, and i would stop the dog going into the kitchen, but not by blocking the doorway with anything but by setting him bounderies

I've never had the counter surfing problem before but I have been afraid to leave my dinnerplate unattended. I agree with setting a no kitchen boundry if you think that would work for you, or if you would like to have the kitchen as a doggie-free place. I have never felt that way myself - I just want them away from my food!

My fiance and I have been working diligently with our dogs over the past few months in a couple of areas:
1) Nose near food, or even sniffing close to countertops and tables = nose slapped and stern LEAVE IT
2) We actually offer the dogs human food, then smack their noses if they try to go for it. Brad did this in one of his classes with a cookie. Some of the class thought it was pretty mean - baiting the dog and then punishing him for trying to take it. Brad had a good explanation - imagine you have a child who is walking around with a cookie in her hand. How does the dog know the cookie isn't for them? This is especially true if you allow your child to hand-feed your dog. His suggestion is to teach the dogs right away to leave the human food alone, even if it is easily accessible. I believe one of his episodes had him put down meat on the floor in front of the dog and the dog wouldn't touch it. That would be the ultimate goal.

My advice then is to teach your dog that human food is a no-no. Start with the baiting&disciplining technique, correct if they have already gotten the food (take it away, correction, stern LEAVE IT). I also need to stress this: YOU CANNOT GIVE YOUR DOG HUMAN FOOD AT ALL! I used to give my dogs the odd piece of chicken (always in their bowl, not as a treat) but even this is confusing (i.e. the dog wonders why sometimes they can have people food and sometimes they can't). If you are raw-food feeding your dog then this applies to any human food they don't get in their raw food. No human food means no human food, regardless of where it is.

As a testimonial, my fiance left his burger and fries on the coffee table and went to see the neighbours. He was gone ~20 min and his food was still there. It can be done!

Hope this helps,

Sherry

I have a cat who can open all of the kitchen cupboards and then my dog would go in and haul out whatever food they could find and have a feast on the living room floor. They got into a bag of white sugar one night and the cat was zooming up and down the hallway and the dog was barfing... big vet bill later because the cat ended up quite ill.

I put toddler safety locks on all the cupboards that are down low. Ella's never tried to get in them that i know of, but it did stop the tag team efforts of the cats and my last dog!

Sometimes I toss the cat in the front coat closet for a challenge. He can get out of there too. Takes him several minutes, but he's a busy cat and I think he likes the challenge.

Bayley doesn't counter surf..no doubt my cats do, but other than a little milk once in awhile, they don't like people food. I guess I'm lucky with that.

Some people try putting aluminum foil along the edge of the counter, supposedly cats don't like it I doubt that would work with a dog though.

My cat is an expert at opening cupboard doors, but he doesn't do anything and the cupboards he can open don't have food in them. I have elastics on the doors and I swear he just loves to bug me by grabbing the cupboard door and then letting it bang shut over and over

My dog did this when he was about 4 months old. The way that I stopped him was I put cardboard on the counter to extend over the edge of the counter. Then I stacked not one, but about 3 dozen empty pop cans on the cardboard. Then I put some tempting meat on the edge of the cardboard and waited. When my dog went for the meat, he put his paws on the cardboard and brought all 3 dozen cans down on him. It scared the HELL out of him, but he NEVER did it again.

Oh Gosh - people with cats AND dogs have extra challenges - don't we?

Even harder when you are doing the "no talking part"

My dog, as a short, puppy would see the cat on the counter and figure - why can't I?
So as soon as he was big enough, he started jumping, two paws onto the counter.
We'd yell (to scare him) then YANNNNK him off and yell " 4 on the floor ! " and walk away.

This seems to have worked - although the cat DOES entice him by laying on the edge of the counter with one paw dangling off - HE gets scolded for jumping up

The same now goes for the sofa, chair, etc.

I guess he's finally learning that - just because that darn cat can do it, doesn't mean that I can.

Cats ? They're a TOTALLY other kind of test on dog brains !

Our dog Jackson isn't allowed in our kitchen or around our table. I have two young kids that often drop food on the floor. Brad had told us to set up boundaries and he has learnt to not go past them. Take your dog away from the kitchen each time it goes in- my dogs ball could roll in the kitchen and he will not go get it. He knows better- with us at least. My husband and I were away and my mother in law watched my kids and dog. My dog ate off the counters and table and was a real handful. He dined on chocolate chip cookies, waffles and cinnamon buns. I guess he had a really great time. When we got home he stole food off the counter once. We scolded him and then put him in a time out and he has yet to do it again... I guess what I'm saying is stick with the method you choose. Your dogs a puppy and will probably test you again. Just be sure to follow through with discipline. It took my dog two days to realize the boss was back....

Arent kids the greatest of helpers.. Although having a dog around with young messy eaters is the best dam vacuum I have ever owned.. The dogs arent allowed in the dining room but they sit and wait for us to leave and wait for the command "Clean Up."... While holy by gees.. The dogs scour the floor and then its done.. I have been lucky when it comes to the coffee table and not touching the food on it.. But nobody mentioned the candy dish on the side tables..I found out that Marcus likes M&M's..the only reason I found out was the coloured spots on his white legs..LOL But in all seriousness.. setting bounderies is a really great thing to do...Good luck..