# Counter Surfing....



## AvaLaRue (Apr 4, 2010)

How to you break your dog from counter surfing. It's been a long time since I had a dog that would jump up and put her nose and paws on the counter!! It's driving me mad!!

We tell Ava "OFF" but she doesn't listen. She wants whatever she can possible reach off the counter. I make sure there is nothing in her reach but she still is relentless about the counters!! 

:help: I have got to break this problem!!


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## Cardinal Von Crossbones (Mar 29, 2010)

Our golden used to be really, really bad about counters (plates of deviled eggs, whole cheesecakes, pumpkin pies on thanksgiving, brownies, anything) until we got to be pro's at pushing things far back on the counter and putting something tall in front of whatever food was there, like a couple of heavy napkin holders or rolls of paper towels. 

I think it was a combination of her eventually just kind of growing out of it, and realizing she wasn't going to find anything there that she could get to. Of course, she's still pretty bad about hand towels (as a puppy she would find them and chew holes right in the middles) and still pulls them off the oven door when they're there. lol

Good luck!


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## Veronica1 (Jun 22, 2010)

We had our first session with a trainer this past week. He said you have to correct immediately when it's happening - if you catch her after the deed is done, you can't effectively correct. He suggested that you put a leash on the pup in the house & let her drag it. If you catch her on the counter, grab the leash for a corrective pop.

If the surfing occurs when you're not seeing her do it, you might want to booby trap the counter (or trash can, etc). You could try mouse traps - he said it doesn't hurt a human or a dog like it does a mouse. Or you could try tape - like packing tape or book tape - the dog won't like getting her paws on something sticky. Either method would allow for instant correction while she's committing the offense.


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## BlackPuppy (Mar 29, 2007)

It's a self-rewarding act, and because of that it's hard to cure unless you have a counter that is absolutely clean of food-stuff. Mine never is. I can hear my female in the kitchen when she stands to snarf crumbs off the counter. I just say, "Ciana, get down", she hears me and gets down, but only because there's not much up there to get to. 

She's snagged some real prizes from the counter over the years, that's why she keeps doing it. She's gotten a stick of butter, some raw chicken, oh, she likes the knives that I used to cut up meat, too. I can always tell when she hit the jackpot, she goes running out into the yard like a bullet.


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## cshepherd9 (Feb 11, 2010)

I had the same problem with Willow and tried MULTIPLE things. I agree that you have to catch her in the act but even then some of the things I tried didn't phase her until........ the air horn! At times I tried cans with coins, double-sided sticky tape, spraying her with a water bottle (I got the "whatever" look from her with this!). Then I saw a segment on "It's Me or The Dog" on Animal Planet and she used noise as a deterent. So I went to Walmart and back in the camping section I found a little air horn. I watched her real close and sometimes hid around the corner and she thought she was alone and the second she lifted her feet off the floor I would give a little beep of the horn (not a big blast) and told her off! It worked really well. I don't have any issues with this now and Willow is going on a year old.


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## Andaka (Jun 29, 2003)

I have had good luck with this trick -- tie a hot dog to a string of aluminum cans. When the dog pulls at the hot dog, he pulls the cans down on him, making lots of noise. Make sure that the cans are empty so that they don't hurt the dog. You may have to repeat this trick a couple of times, or even change the bait to make sure that the dog won't be tempted again.


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## codmaster (Aug 5, 2009)

Andaka said:


> I have had good luck with this trick -- tie a hot dog to a string of aluminum cans. When the dog pulls at the hot dog, he pulls the cans down on him, making lots of noise. Make sure that the cans are empty so that they don't hurt the dog. You may have to repeat this trick a couple of times, or even change the bait to make sure that the dog won't be tempted again.


Sounds like a great idea. I will have to try it.


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## AvaLaRue (Apr 4, 2010)

Thanks for all of the ideas. I'm going to try a few and see what works. 

90% of the time we see her do it and correct her immediatly with an OFF. However, she's a stubborn 5 month old who refuses to learn what that word means. So I have to push her paws off the counter and tell her OFF at the same time. Then reward her with a GOOD GIRL once all 4 paws are on the floor.

It's very frustrating but I appreciate all of these suggestions and I hope one of them works!!!


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