I have a 1 year old female lab who is recently becoming quite fond of counter surfing. She will steal food of the counter if it is in reach, silverware, and an oven mit as of a couple days ago. I have been trying to keep the counters clear of things now that I see she has been able to grab things, but she has never had an interest in stuff up there before. She will also scavenge through the bathroom garbage but now we are keeping the door closed at all times. Has anyone had a problem with counter surfing that has found a good solution to nipping this in the bud? She just turned 1 year old and has become super defiant towards us and will try to get away with anything! I am afraid the teenage years have fast approached and we are slowly losing our patience with her and this behavior.
I'm afraid that, since she's already been rewarded for counter surfing - by finding food up there, she's going to continue to try. Your best bet is to deny her access to the counters when there are things on there (by closing doors, using gates etc), training her a strong "in your bed/wherever" cue for when that's not practical and, the rest of the time, keep the counters clear of food that she can reach, including any crumbs, spills or similar. I can assure you that she's not being "defiant", it's just not in a dog's vocabulary. All she is doing is working out the best ways to get the things she wants most. When she was younger, that would have been time with you, but as she gets older, her environment becomes more exciting than you, and you have to work hard to ensure she still sees interacting with you as a rewarding thing to do. It's very common to think "she already knows how to do XYZ, so she's ignoring me", but that's not how it works. She might have been able or willing to do <whatever> as a puppy, but now she's getting older, the environment is a lot more exciting to her, so you have to go back a few stages in your training. Start at the beginning with the things you need to. It won't take as long to train the same behaviours as when you did the first time around, but it's not reasonable to assume that she should still be able to do things to the same level as doing before adolescence, without going back to basics again. It's hard for us to understand, because, to us, the environment hasn't changed, but for her, it's like a black and white TV has suddenly been turned on to colour.
Vinegar worked for me. Offer a small bowl to drink. If you are already adding apple cider vinegar to your food then your dog may like the stuff and then this won't work. If she does gulp some a bit won't hurt. If she doesn't like it proceed to wipe the counters down with vinegar. Vinegar is a natural anti-bacterial and lots of people, even those without dogs, poor things, use it for this anyway. I left my counters a bit damp and I set out a couple of small bowls of vinegar and I rinsed my washcloth, an item Oban was fond of, in it too. Now everything up there smells like the stuff He doesn't like the taste of. I did this for a week, after every meal and I kept the counter scrupulously clean. Worked, and it worked even when I was not there. He relapsed about three months later but another stint of vinegar for a few days cured him for good. I do still clean with vinegar, I always did, so that probably helps.
I wish that would work for Cooper. She mostly surfs for small objects, (pens, screw drivers, etc) not food, but she is also a gourmet and likes balsamic and seasoned rice vinegar. I'm not sure about cider or white vinegar, we will have to test it.
The Kikopup channel on YouTube has a video on counter surfing. I've just started (as in one session this morning) her method. My 4 month old has just discovered that she can barely reach the bench, and even though she hasn't rewarded with anything better than a tea towel I want to nip it in the bud. My pup was a lot more stubborn than the one she uses in the video though lol.
I used Lemons on Dozer. I have a neighbor who has a lemon tree and one day I plucked one and threw it to him to see what he would do. He grabbed it, and bit in to it then instantly spit it out. I noticed one day he was placing his front paws on the counter so I went and got some really bitter ones (They were not quite ripe) cut them open and wiped the counter down. Broke that habit instantly.
Ah, remember that the videos only show the method, not the actual training - most of the time, these aren't videos of a dog's first go at whatever she's doing, and they're edited to remove the bad bits. That's not a criticism - the videos would be too long to show it all - but it can make you think that it should be a quick process and you're failing somehow. We also have to accept that we sadly don't all have Emily Larlham's skills!
We had a massive problem with this! We stopped it by keeping surfaces clear and clean of anything she could reward herself with. Our kitchen has never been so clean and tidy! It soon stopped when the behaviour ceased to be rewarded!
