Hi All. I hope everyone had a lovely day yesterday with their pups. Whilst I’ve got time off this Christmas I need to tackle a new habit that’s developing which is that Bailey jumps up to attempt to get things off the kitchen worktops. If I’m in the kitchen she knows that its usually time for food for her or the family. She can smell if her food is in the container on the worktop etc. Any ideas how to deter/train this habit away? Thank you
Firstly keep all food inaccessible. If they get no reward at all from the behaviour it will fade. If they get just one lick of food they will try again and again!
As @Boogie says keep all food out of reach so there is no opportunity of self rewarding . I would also train an incompatible behaviour like go sit on a mat or in her bed or even just paws on the floor
Harley done this when she was little. It was suggested on here that every time she jumped up, I stop what I was doing.......it worked. If I was preparing her food and she put her paws on the work top, I stood back and stopped ( I always made sure she couldn't reach anything). Once she got this, I trained her that when I was in the kitchen that she had to sit on the mat by the side door. Every time she done this she got lots of treats. This is now her default behaviour in the kitchen. It's also much safer as she used to always stand behind me and nearly had boiling water all over us a few times.
I second the “lie on your bed/mat” and get treats. However... you will probably never prepare food without having eyes on you at all times! We call it The Cooking Channel, and Snowie loves watching it! Snowie knows “go to your bed” said in the sweetest voice (I hate hearing these kinds of commands shouted—or any others for that matter—when they’re simply markers for such a useful behavior).
I second the "clear the decks" strategy. I'd never had a dog who could (or wanted to) get on kitchen counters until my little Bodeguero foster last spring. Boy, was that an eye-opener. But he learned fairly quickly that there was nothing interesting up there to nick (not even a tea towel) and also learned that if he sat on the kitchen threshold with "four on the floor", he'd get a bit of what I was cooking, otherwise, nada. Yes, he still bored holes into me with his eyes, but he got the gist of no counter surfing pretty darn quick.
Thanks for all your advice. I don’t give Bailey anything from the counter to encourage this behaviour. Occasionally I leave her food container on the worktop but then swiftly put it away. Quite often it’s after she’s finished her food, I may just be washing up and she’ll try and jump up. Often there’s nothing on the worktop to take anyway so it’s almost like opportunism!
I can attest to this. I'm not the tidiest and could do with a bigger kitchen and fridge. Monty can probably get something food related from counters 1 in 15 times he tries... this is enough for him to keep trying 4 years on, every day.
