Bad Dog!!

[Artemis Fowl]

I have a 6 year old Black lab that is always getting in trouble, and by trouble I mean jumping up on the counter or table to steal some food. I've tried everything to try and stop her from catching her in the act and spraying her with a water bottle to blocking her out of the kitchen. Usually it works and she gives me the "puppy eyes" and behaves for a while, but first chance she gets she'll hop up there and do it again. My dad is kinda old school and said to put some peanut butter on bread and cover it with hot sauce, but I'm not going to try THAT!

Is there anything than can work in my situation?

AF

 

[Ukiah]

Stop leaving food on the counter and tables for one.. If theres no food, theres no interest

If she bothers you WHILE you and your family are eating, crate her or put her in another room. When
your finished eating, clean up all the dishes and wipe down the counter and tables. NO food should be
left behind what so ever, and this alone has stopped my own counter snooping dogs.

Another thing that worked for my border collie is the 'penny can'. Basically it's just a metal can (Like a empty soda can)
with a few pennies inside, or any kind of coin for that matter. Tape the top up good so that theres no sharp edges, and
whenever you catch her in the act, throw the can at her. NO, it does not hurt. Ofcaorse don't throw it as hard
as you can, just be sure it makes noise and hits her. Stopped my border collie, and all my dogs absolutely hate
the noise. I found the idea somewhere on the internet, can't remember, but it worked for me. For less hard headed
dogs, just shaking the can will help alot. Makes loud, scary noises. It'll get their attention, and my extremely hard
headed border collie cowers and runs for cover when I simply shake the can.

 

[boxermom]

2 things you can try. Blow up a few balloons and put them all over the counters and tables or where ever the dog is jumping up. Then pop a few balloons in his face so he is frightened of the sound and knows where the sound is coming from. It's kind of a pain having the balloons everywhere, but your house will look festive!

The other thing you can try is push a bunch of thumbtacks through poster board and put that on the counter. Make them close enough that he can't miss them when he steps up there. This is not my favorite deterrent, but sometimes dogs can be a little "bone headed". Hope this helps.

 

[Redyre Rotties]

PREVENTION is the way to deal with this, but for you it is too late for that. The ONLY thing to do is to make sure she never gets a chance to perform this behavior and get herself another reward. Each time a dog does something like this and gets a reward, it is exponentially more likely to do it again, and also many times harder to train NOT to do it.

 

[Artemis Fowl]

Quote:
I try to not leave any food on the counter but sometimes I have a lapse in memory, but when I do leave some it's always in the back and she actually jumps ON the counter or table. Three times she has stole food from the BARBECUE! It is if she is desperate for food even though I feed her plenty.

 

[Sherry]

I used to store my loaf of bread on the counter...then my boxer kept stealing it. So I put it on top of the fridge, she jumped onto the counter to reach the fridge.

I found a very moldy loaf of bread "buried" in the couch cushions.

I finally started keeping it in the cabinet, and any food I wasn't ready to put away, goes into the microwave.

 

[Kaitie09]

Thats what the microwave is for! We have a counter surfer too and have learned just to put all food in the microwave for protection.

 

[melodie_a]

We put all our stuff in the microwave or the oven when we leave. Riot wont go for it if we are here, but while we are away he will get into anything that is left out.

 

[melodie_a]

Quote:
Lol i posted at the same time that we use the microwave too!

 

[zzGypsy]

I used a scat mat for training one of our cats to stay off the kitchen counters. wonder if it would work for a dog.
same principle as an electric fence - but in a flexible mat. mat goes on the counter, animal puts it's paws on the mat, gets a little zing, doesn't do that again. we had to set the mat 3 or 4 times in different areas so the cat generalized it to kitchen counters.
best part is it works when you're out of the room so the critter thinks its the behavior that gets the zing, not you.

anyway, don't know if it works on dogs, but our cat took the lesson to heart for life.