# Counter Surfing



## cassadee7 (Nov 26, 2009)

Did your GSD ever start counter surfing? If so, how did you stop them?

Saber is JUST tall enough now to get her paws on the counter, we discovered. What I am doing so far:

Not allowing her into the kitchen alone.
Keeping food off the counters.
When I am in there and she puts her paws up, I tell her "off" and enforce if needed. 
When she is in there and sitting nicely, right before we exit the kitchen I tell her good girl and give her a treat.

She still tries to get up there a lot, though. Anything else I should be doing?


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## ValleyGirl (Dec 31, 2010)

I have the same problem with my almost 6 month old Greta. My counters are extra high but she can still reach almost anything up there. I posted a recent tread about her eating an entire bowl of bread dough and ending up at the vet getting purged. 

Most of the remedies I have read -- such as attach a bowl of spoons to a bagel -- would not phase Greta as she has pulled off a huge iron chicken roast pan heavy enough to gouge an oak floor and was not deterred at all from licking it or from counter surfing again. We have three interior doorways into the kitchen without any doors so its a real sticky wicket. We supervise, correct and so forth but so far I have not found a way to get her to stop herself from doing it. I will be interested in the responses you get.


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## Caitydid255 (Aug 28, 2010)

Fortunately for us we have a low TV table where we eat dinner on the weekends, so Freyja learned from a pup that if it's not handed to you, you don't touch it. Our counter surfing problem comes from my cat Panzer. He gets into everything, and if the food is in a package he can't open, he knocks it off the counter so my mom's dog can open the package for him...little S***! We have tried double sided tape, tinfoil, etc. He knows not to go up when we're there, but soon as someone leaves the room he's at it. ARGH!


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## Mary&Stella (Jan 1, 2011)

OMG we just spent nearly 10 minutes chasing Stella around the yard she had a butter knife in her mouth !! I am right here beside the kitchen and did not even see her going in, and then she knows ( I know she knows) that it is bad and not a good thing to have. When in the kitchen we always say down and put her down so she is very good while we are watching!! Every day it is something new!!!


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## cshepherd9 (Feb 11, 2010)

I also had a big problem with counter surfing when Willow was younger. I got all kinds of advice from trainers and did the typical stuff they suggest: coins in cans, spray bottle with water, sticky tape, put her on leash and correct when she jumps up, etc, etc, etc., none of that worked. The only thing I found that worked for me was something I saw on "It's Me or the Dog" and that was a noise deterrent. Victoria used a bike horn but I found a small air horn at Walmart. My kitchen and living room are one great room with no wall separating them so keeping Willow out of the kitchen was not really an option so this worked real well. She would sneak in there if I was sitting in the living room and I would watch her out of the corner of my eye. When she started to jump up, one small squeek of the horn (You don't need a full out blast!!) and she would stop mid jump and look at me. I would say off and she would move on. Then she would get a good girl from me. I imagine this wouldn't work for all dogs but it worked for us. Might not be good for dogs that are scared of loud noises or sounds.


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## gsdheeler (Apr 12, 2010)

Chili is 14 months old and still counter surfs. She makes sure I see her doing it, takes something and runs. The point is I'm expected to chase her, It's one of her games. Silly Silly Girl Dog...


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Shawn, I did pretty much what you're doing. Keefer had horrid manner around food, so when he was younger I put him away when I was in the kitchen cooking because the second I turned away from the counter towards the stove he'd have his paws up there, and I couldn't watch him every second and get anything done at the same time. In the meantime I worked on training "leave it" and "off", which is my all purpose command for paws off the counter, getting off the furniture, not jumping on people, stop humping his sister..... 

Once he was more inclined to listen to me, I started having him around while I was in the kitchen, and if he put his paws up there I said "off" and bumped him off with a hip check. If he got close to the edge and looked like he might be thinking about putting his paws up there, I'd tell him "leave it" and praise him when he backed away.

Amazingly, he's now great in the kitchen. He will go so far as to stretch out his neck to sniff what's up there, (and if there were anything close enough to the edge that he could lick it, he would probably stick his tongue out!) but he wouldn't dream of actually putting his paws up there and trying to get it. He's my shadow, so if I leave a room he follows, so I could actually leave food there and he wouldn't steal it. Halo is another story though, she's pretty good about not counter surfing when I'm right there, but would have no trouble going up there if I weren't around. I know better than to leave food on the counter, but I have left a used knife on the cutting board:










Another thing you could do is introduce a "place" command, and teach her to lay down on a mat or rug right outside the doorway unless invited into the kitchen.


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## cassadee7 (Nov 26, 2009)

Thanks Debbie! I am ROFL at the knife picture! Goodness!!

I just bought her a "place" rug and am working on the "place" command. Right now she thinks "place" means "eat the rug" though.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

cassadee7 said:


> Right now she thinks "place" means "eat the rug" though.


:rofl: :wub: Yeah, I've had that problem with Halo too!


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