Bailey is delightful puppy so far........ 17 weeks, But........... Has now realised that he can reach kitchen worktops! Constantly having a look if anything yummy is free, ( not helped by kids leaving baguette on the island and going to loo, Whilst back door open! So really enjoyed that in the garden!!!!!) As an aside when do they realise that trotting with tail like a mast says heheheheheh I've got something I shouldn't have!!!!!) So he responds to the off command, and if I see him just about to go for it will stop in mid jump if I call off! I praise for getting down ..... Do I click and treat for getting down? It's pretty constant! Thanking you in advancexxxxx
Re: Constantly putting paws on kitchen work tops! The best strategy is to prevent any reward for counter surfing and hope the behaviour dies out - it will if you can make sure he doesn't get any rewards. If he nicks tasty food though, it's tough to train them to stop once they have started (because the rewards can be massive).
Re: Constantly putting paws on kitchen work tops! Sounds a very familiar story ! We have a child gate on the kitchen door so to remove constant temptation give us chance to do what we need to do in a doggy free environment. She is calm behind the gate and has learnt manners when she is in the kitchen. She is allowed in but there will always be supervision. Emma and Meg (8m)
Re: Constantly putting paws on kitchen work tops! Baileys crate is in kitchen and it's the only room he's allowed in unsupervisedx
Re: Constantly putting paws on kitchen work tops! Think I'm a little bit further on than you with the same problem (same name as well, maybe it's a Bailey 'thing' lol). My Bailey is 7mths now and as he has found food in the past by jumping up he now does it whenever he can smell food in the kitchen, we've obviously learnt to move the food away but I think it's too late to change him now. He does get down immediately when told 'off' tho, it's something were just going to have to keep on with.
Re: Constantly putting paws on kitchen work tops! I think it will always be a challenge if he is allowed unsupervised in a kitchen. I guess you will have to never leave anything out that could tempt him until he is considerably older and he has got some manners proofed. Or move his crate but I guess that could be tricky as you must have thought about that already
Re: Constantly putting paws on kitchen work tops! Bouncer,s crate is also in the kitchen, its the only room we have big enough, so I have this to look forward to.
Re: Constantly putting paws on kitchen work tops! I haven't really had a problem with this........I do sometimes question if Harley is actually a lab : I taught 'down' and she realised very quickly what it meant. I even went to work a few months ago and accidentally left chicken breasts defrosting on the draining board......came home 3 hours later and she hadn't even touched them
We are pretty good at not leaving food on the worktops. We had one massive hiccup a few weeks ago when he earned himself a trip to the vets by reaching a box that was pushed right to the back which contained 3 mince pies! But he will take whatever he can get, Favourites are washing-up sponges and rubber gloves which he shreds, He responds well to 'off'. But the kitchen / utility area is where his crate has to be so exclusion is not an option.
Oh, and Post-It notes, car keys, mobile phones. Basically if it's not screwed to the worktop it's his. My wife's father lives with us and his mobile phone has a big panic button on it which sounds an alarm and goes through a cycle of text alerting and then calling a list of people in turn. One day that went off and we rushed to find out what he problem was. But the sound kept moving. Yep, Angus was trotting around with it in his mouth and had triggered the alarm. oh-angus.uk
When I've had young dogs start jumping up at kitchen counters I have responded by leaving baking trays along the edge of the counters if I am not able to be actually in there with them. The noise as the trays hit the floor brings me running to find a dog trying to look innocent at me and convincing me that said trays have jumped down by themselves.
Today's trophies from the kitchen worktops include: One set of car keys. One Teaspoon, One Fork. One Paring Knife with the new improved and patented Oh Angus roughened handle for extra grip. His best trick is to sneak up on me, carefully remove my hanky from my pocket without me noticing and then deliver it back to my lap in a slightly soggy state (the hanky that is), having lovingly masticated it for 20 minutes. This is when he is not busy trying to ingratiate himself with the cat who has recently returned from an extended holiday, having disappeared two weeks before Angus was born. The cat is used to dogs and treats Angus with utter disdain at one end of the scale, and a punch bag at the other. Actually he's remarkably tolerant of Angus but there're only so many times a 60lb Tigger can bounce up to the cat so we have had a couple of incidents where Angus has pushed his luck too far and been forced to flee for his life in the face of a sustained cat attack, his loss of dignity not being helped by the peals of laughter from the humans in the room. His latest tactic is to offer the cat his favourite toys, drop into play stance and bark. "How's that working out for you Angus?" we say as he flees for his life again. "You are such a dork!" The cat is also black, by the way, and was called Ron after the Harry Potter character to please our young grandsons. We're considering renaming him Voldemort
I'll probably get flamed for this, but I don't have any problem telling our dogs NO if they are doing something we don't want them to do, especially if it is something that is self-rewarding. We don't ever punish them beyond that, and we do give lots of treats for training. I believe in positive training, but it seems to me that the cat attacking the dog is a big negative, and it also works (mostly). It also seems like any pull on the leash is a negative, but we all do it some times.
Don't tell Homer it's possible to open the washing machine. I won't have any socks left. He loves picking them off the drying rack. All my socks have holes in them. Luckily Homer and I live with OCD hubby who likes the kitchen clear of clutter. Homer never steals from the counter but then there's nothing to steal, except for the packet of chocolate brownies and a box of eggs my Dad left out. We always give Homer the empty egg box to pay with so he saw the egg box and got a special treat! Trouble is it's so hard to undo something they've learnt by themselves, somehow self rewarding is far more exciting than any treat however tasty that you give them.
I was amazed how gently he gets the locking mechanism open. Just a gentle push with his nose. Cheeky dog Homer sounds a bit like that too
Spent this morning chasing him around the house with my jumper in his mouth and twice he picked up my socks, once from off the coffee table right in front of my nose, while I was drinking my morning tea after having to get out of bed to chase him the first time. No lie ins for me. Then went to curl up with hubby.
