[cadkids]

Brandi Brat that she is has taken counter surfing to a whole new level and I need suggestions on how to stop her spray bottle = fun scoldings ha she could care less time out that's where she takes the stuff she steals!! arrughhhhh I am at my wits end she has stolen and eaten the grand-kids dinner/ lunch at least 6 times in the last week off the dinning room table with them sitting there! she has stolen 2 yes 2lbs of butter off the counter and or the Micro and eaten those stick by stick in the last three days and four loaves of bread in the last three days to go with the butter! she used to be an occasional counter surfer if she was sure she wouldn't get caught but in the last two weeks she has taken it to an art form she stole one stick of butter that I just took out of the fridge while I was grabbing a can of beans out of the cupboard in the same room!! yelling and scolding used to work but now nothing seems to she has the same dog food she has always loved and eats that too and I free feed so it's not a hunger issue I have no clue what has caused this to escalate like this any ideas/suggestions?? and most important how do I make it STOP????

[Stiflersmom]

LOL...sorry, it's not funny...don't really have any counter surfers so really have no advice for ya...but wow..all those sticks of butter...pretty soon she's gonna be too fat to counter surf...

[boxerduo]

Im going through the same kind of thing.. Lola gets on my table {when Im not in the room} and steals whatever food might have been left on it.. She doesnt do this daily, or even weekly.. basically when ever she thinks there is something worth getting up there for.. I have no idea why, because with a 2 yr old, a fair share of the food ends up on the floor anyways.. As soon as she sees me tho she knows she has done wrong. But I have no idea why she does it {other then she wants to eat what is left up there} And I really have no clue how to make her stop... ?
Sorry, not much help..!

[2wildboxers]

Buster is a huge counter surfer! Really, it is one of the hardest things to stop because even if they get scolded and yelled at, they still got their reward for doing it so they just continue and deal with getting in trouble. They only way to truely stop it is to not leave food on the counter for them to get to. I totally understand that is not possible all the time. That is why I put up a swinging gate into the kitchen. When I'm cooking or we are eating and I want him to stay out I close the gate and keep him in the other room. It is so hard, I know. Just keep scolding and kick him out. One way is to teach him he is not allowed in the kitchen, but for me that is not an option because that is where they are fed but many people do not allow their dogs in the kitchen. Sorry there is no set solution to this problem. One thing that was suggested, buy some of those plastic mats that go under desks and chairs on carpet. They have those prong things on the other side that keep it from sliding. Place it on your counter top prong side up so when they put their paws on it, it will kind of hurt them but not do any damage. Do this for a while and they will associate putting paws on the counter with getting "pronged". Also, if you dog is afraid of loud noises, tie some tin cans together on a string, attach it to a goody that is on the counter and when they pull it down, the cans come with it and make a loud scarey noise. If you do that a few times they might be afraid to pull something off. Just a couple of suggestions that might help other than the gate. I just opted for the gate myself and we leave it up all the time because we can leave the door to the gate open if we want. Good luck and I know how you feel!! :icon_wall:

[Willow]

I seem to remember that someone suggested wrapping aluminum foil around the counter edges, the rattling can scare them off..My sister was having this problem with her Golden puppy, Cody was just as bad as you are describing, I think he's gotten better, but still has his moments

[J Karim]

I'd like to know the remedy to this as well. We usually just push everything to the back of the counter and leave the kitchen island clear of anything.

[Lailabelle]

The scary noise advice may work. Laila counter surfed once. She was just a puppy, and tried to get to a bowl of olives on my kitchen table. She tugged on the table cloth, and the bowl of olives came down with such a crash, she NEVER did anything like that ever again.

A friend of mine had a golden doodle that used to steal things off the table. She was told to slam a phone book down on the table to frighten her. I thought the advice seemed a bit cruel, but, it worked!!!

You could also go back to basics. Put a leash on her, and as she starts to surf, tug her away with the leash, have her sit and give her a toy/praise for sitting. Sometimes giving attention to the bad behavior just reinforces it.

[SuzyQsmom]

I was going to suggest some similar "cruel" tactics also. Put something out and watch and then make a big noise - slam a book on the counter - or something like that - it might startle her. Also a mouse trap can work wonders - it is sort of mean, but then her eating whatever she can steal and stuff in her face might end up in a bad situation sometime also. SuzyQ has never been a counter surfer, I guess we've been lucky that way. But when she was little and in the kitchen she had to sit on an area rug that was about 3 feet away from me and she was never allowed to get even close to the counter. That took a while before she would sit and stay, I used to put her leash on and loop it on the door knob till she knew to stay. She got very stern nos anytime she tried to get up and really, really loud nos if her nose started to wander to a countertop - ever. But we were lucky, some of them are so hard to train not to do that, sometimes you just have to keep everything under lock and key and that isn't easy either.

[boxerpal]

I was going to suggest a solution similiar to the rug tactic. Teach your dog to go to his/her 'rug'. We taught Rudy to do that when he was a puppy and I could take him anywhere and put that rug down and he would go to it. It's a handy thing to teach a dog for many situations.

[Zhanna]

Well, we have it easy. Our counters are "custom" made, so they are a good 4 - 6 inches higher than normal counters! :)

Plus, Henry really responds to scolding! All I have to do is make that weird "ack" kinda sound and he leaves things alone.

Something I heard from somebody else once: their dog was a huge counter surfer. He would take and eat anything he could get off the counter. Well one time the dog got some fresh-from-the-garden hot peppers! The poor dog was so traumatized by the hot peppers that he never counter surfed again! :lol:

[owlsnest]

It is dog-abuse, but get a gate, or two so there is no access to the kitchen. A counter surfer could also get his/her paws burned on a hot stove burner if they jump up. You can throw a few treats over the gate to help with the guilt. The other option is to buy fast food and eat in the car in the driveway. :AddEmoticons0051:

[Zhanna]

Where's the "like" button? ;)

[cadkids]

She actually has gotten her nose burned trying to stick it in a still hot bread pan on the stove and she didn't learn a darn thing! it seems she only steals butter and bread I did rig a "trap" with a bunch of pop cans around a piece of meat ( steak at that) and she never even tried for it http://boxerforums.org/public/style_emoticons/default/AddEmoticons0051.gif

I have everyone putting the butter and bread up in the cupboard which is successful for the most part but she got the bread AGAIN yesterday p.m. for the most part I bake homemade bread weekly and bag it up for use through out the week I am seriously considering making her a loaf just for her to steal full of jalapenos but am afraid they wouldn't be good for her tummy anyone had any experance with dogs a jalapenos?