Counter surfing is when a pet steals food off the counter. Counter surfing is self rewarding & we & pets repeat what is rewarding. This can be an annoying problem, but there is hope.
The first thing you need to do if you have a pet who counter surfs is to manage the pet’s environment & be sure that there is nothing on the counters that your pet can self reward with. Keep your kitchen counters free of anything edible, so nothing to tempt your pet. I highly recommend this becomes a habit for you before you bring home a pet. This will can help prevent the habit from ever forming. This habit formed because they had the opportunity to find & steal something they enjoyed from a counter, so self rewarded. I fostered adult dogs, so I learned early on to not have things on my counters & to wipe them often so smells weren’t there to tempt the pets. Don’t set them up to fail, leaving temptation on the counter is unfair to an untrained animal. My dogs are pretty good, but weren’t always & I still manage their environment. Some people thaw meat out on their counter, I recommend you use the microwave (not on, just as a safe place to thaw meat behind a closed door). Or you can plan your meals a few days in advance & thaw food out in your refrigerator. I did see a video where a very smart Aussie or Mini Australian Shepherd figured out how to open the microwave, it was funny, but honestly I don’t think the average dog could figure it out. You just need to be more clever than your pet.
Some helpful ideas:
1.Teaching your dog the command “leave it” or “off” can make all the difference in the world.
2. If your dog doesn’t know how to sit on command, be sure & teach this command.
3. Teach your dog to sit when in the kitchen, the dog can’t reach to the counter & steal food if they are sitting. I have a favorite You-Tube trainer & I am going to link her channel here where she teaches a dog alternative behaviors to counter surfing. She also has a blog as well. https://youtu.be/qJ-FGREOlrQ?si=XgNqLoRcKAHdLoQF On this video she is teaching a dog (she trains) not to counter surf. Stephanie is easy to follow & gives great info, her training business is called Happy Hounds Dog Training.
4. Consistency & Clarity are the keys, the pet will be confused if you don’t stay consistent & let them know what is acceptable, or they are more likely to fail.
5. Reward your dog when they sit or lay as an alternative to jumping up to steal food. We all prefer praise over correction.
6. A very crucial step is to remove all food & tempting items from counter tops, so pet isn’t rewarded for jumping up.
7. If you can’t monitor your pet, don’t allow it in the kitchen unless supervised or monitored. Have kitchen boundaries by using baby gates. Baby gates or x-pens can be opened up & be stretched across a good sized area. Another option is to use a long leash & let your dog drag it around & if it tries to go in the kitchen you can pick up the leash & bring it back to you. Setting a boundary so the pet understands where it is allowed. Again the goal is not to allow the dog to self reinforce behavior that is not desirable in our home. You can use a leash while you’re in the kitchen with your dog, you can keep him sitting or laying next to you if you desire & step on the leash (not a taunt leash) so if it jumps up it can’t get anything off the counter. This a management tool to use while you’re teaching the dog not to counter surf.
8. Teach “place” which is a command used to signal the dog to go to its dog bed or mat. I taught this to my dog Sydney & when I cooked I could tell her to “go to her place” & she’d go lay on her bed. At first this is taught by rewarding the dog for laying on, or even just smelling the bed. I would toss a treat on the bed when she wasn’t in the room & sometimes call her, but not say anything else & she’d find the treat. I may have said sit or lay at that point or simply toss another treat on the bed. It didn’t take long before she figured out the bed was a rewarding spot. Next when she was near I’d toss a treat & when she would go to get it & step on the bed I would say “go to your place.” You don’t want to name a command till they are doing it on their own. Some trainers recommend not having the bed in the kitchen, but just outside of the kitchen. I live in a small house that is not an open concept, so this is not an option where I am at because my dogs couldn’t see me & that would be very stressful & probably not make training very successful.
9. Don’t feed your dog what you’re preparing or eating or they may think it is for them & steal food, beg or jump up to get “their” portion.
10. Make sure your dog gets plenty of exercise, mental exercises thru games or physical by walks or playing fetch, etc…
11. Wear a treat pouch when training your dog not to counter surf, so you can reward the dog immediately for choosing an alternative desirable behavior. Remember dogs repeat what is rewarded.
Teaching an animal an alternative desirable behavior to counter surfing takes time & management, especially if the dogs has a history of self reinforcement. We need to control the environment to prevent rehearsals of unwanted behavior. Dogs do what is rewarding. Rewarding meaning if the dog jumps up on the counter & gets a stick of butter or a roast, it has something yummy & it was rewarded for jumping up, so to a dog this is a rewarding behavior why wouldn’t it want to repeat it.
Teach the dog this game which will help them to see that the floor is rewarding. When your dog is in the kitchen with you, take a treat & toss it into another area or room & the dog will go get it, when the dog returns to the kitchen,ask for a sit, reward & toss a treat again. Stephanie in the You-Tube video I added a link above to, she explains this game in more detail & you can see how she uses it to teach an alternative behavior to jumping on the counter. I would love to be able to write out all the instructions to help teach your dog not to counter surf, but I truly believe if you watch the recommended you tube video you better understand the training. If by chance the link doesn’t work then you can search You-Tube Happy Hounds Training Counter surfing. Stephanie has long strawberry blonde hair & is probably in her early 30’s & she has a Corgi mix dog.
Our dogs do the best they can with the education they have. Try to get away from saying “no” & use “off”, “leave it”, or give them an alternative acceptable behavior your dog knows such as “lay” or “sit”.
Dogs give signs that they may counter surf or steal food by smelling the air or smelling towards your counter. If they start this give them something else to do, redirect & don’t correct.
Give your dog something to chew on while you cook, or eat. Things such as a frozen kong filled with yummy dog safe & healthy items on a bully stick, or raw bone. I again recommend this is given to the dog on a dog bed 10-15 feet away. The chew item is a reward for good behavior, which we need to acknowledge & reward what we want, so our pets will repeat it.
Try & redirect & not correct. I saw a trainer on a video setting a dog up to counter surf, she actually waved the turkey in front of the dog & then corrected it for going to the counter & smelling where she put it. She was so proud of herself & I was so upset. That was completely unfair, she never taught the dog what was expected by giving it an alternative acceptable behavior. That would be like your boss taking you to a room with some real interesting items & not showing or telling you what was expected or wanted from you & then yelling at you when you did what came naturally to you. Animals are instinctual & they need to be taught what we want with compassion & patience, we need to remember they don’t speak our human language & dogs are about as smart as a toddler.
There are a variety of trainers out there for in person training & trainers on You-Tube you can learn from. You need to be careful & listen for things they say. I don’t like it when a trainer says to correct a dog, or uses force or pain to train a dog. I did a series on the types of training & how to find the right trainer, These were post #’s 97, 99,100,& 101. Post #45 was about ‘how would I want to be trained if I was a dog’.
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Echoing Great Pet Care 