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Counter Surfing


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T bone counter surfs my kitchen at every opportunity. He wouldn't dare do it while I am looking but he sneaks in them while I'm doing other stuff and grabs things off the bench. Last week I found him in the loungeroom with a carton of eggs :rolleyes:

I am not happy with the level of hygiene in my kitchen when doggy paws are on the benches. I am also not happy with him helping himself to stuff when I'm not there (the pack principles of that I mean) AND the fact that he keeps stealing stuff that I need or want to use.

He's a pretty smart dog - highly trainable and eager to please. He definitely has a sly streak though - as hard as I've tried to get inside his head.

He doesn't have access to the kitchen when I'm not there. Only when I am in the house.

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Yep - T bone can stand on his hind legs for ages. He is muscled like a greyhound!

I do catch him in the act - constantly. As soon as I hear cutlery move on a plate etc I am right there giving him a dressing down. Unfortunately the prize of getting food from the bench seems to be worth it for him :rolleyes:

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One option is to set him up, and to reward him with like (eg food) for not jumping up (eg just like food refusal training). Time left alone by counter would be a short time to begin with, then extend the time and trying to avoid any self rewarding by pre-empting them jumping on the counter.

Doing seperate training with the food bowl (dinner time) and getting your dog to leave it until you say ok will help with this as well.

Good luck.

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He is great at food refusal. He knows he has to work for his bowl of food and he'll do his full repetoire of tricks in order to be allowed to eat.

He licks plates after meals etc. It's not always about leaving actual unwrapped food. You'd think a carton of eggs would be safe!! He has stolen a couple of wrapped chocolate bars too (he won't do that again when I've got PMT!!) He will steal the cardboard box that has had food in it and chew it up. He's a NUTCASE for FOOD!!!

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(he won't do that again when I've got PMT!!)

;) :D

Our Wei stole two boxes of after-dinner mints from under the Xmas tree one year - unwrapped them, got through the sealed celophane, opened the boxes, then pulled each mint out of it's indivdual wrapper. Confetti all over the countryside.

I caught her as she started on the second box. :p

My eggs are in the fridge - never have trusted a dog in the kitchen with food out.

:rolleyes:

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You could try setting him up to have a few bad experiences and see if he can figure out for himself it's no fun. Leave only hot chilli sauce or similar hot or repungent tastes on the bench while still verbally reprimanding him when caught. Some dogs need a non-owner reprimand to learn self-control.

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Guest Clover

Thanks for posting about this BL i have been having the same problems. One of the dogs stole an unopened tin of cat food a few nights back and chewed it to pieces just to get a bit of fish and because i was not in the room at the time i could not reprimand them.

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My Dobermann (Tegan) used to surf the top of a 5' fridge!!!!! it was the only place that I could put fruit cakes to cool safely and even then they had to be right at the back, because somehow she could reach halfway back...and she wasn't a big bitch either!!

Tango counter surfs the bench in the garage and takes great delight in looking me in the eye & scaring me witless as I walk out the door from the house......all started because that's where I put his breakfast - have told him (in English) that if I find him on any table or desk or bench inside the house I will kill him...so far, it seems that his command of english is pretty good..... :rolleyes:

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OK apparently hot chilli paste is the yummiest thing going. He's scoffed three teeny bits of mince lathered with chilli paste (Sambal Olek) and he is back out there looking for more.

*there was more chilli paste than meat there*

Kobi was the same when i was trying to get him to stop digging BL :dropjaw: He absolutley loved the stuff and i was left scratching my head. I found curry paste worked well (red) or powder and maybe some Wasabi??

Edited by Gottalovealab
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