Counter Surfing

By Gillian Ridgeway

Sitting in your living room, you start to become suspicious of the silence.  As you strain to listen closer, you hear the rustle of a bread bag and in a flash you realize that you have, once again, let your guard down.  You had hoped that your dog was starting to outgrow some of his puppy habits, but you now understand that in fact, the opposite was true.  Your dog was not growing out of bad habits.   He was in fact clearly starting to form new ones.

Counter surfing is one of the most frustrating behaviors that dog owners come across. The activity of clearing your counter of food in one foul swoop is considered entertainment to lots of family pets.  An ideal solution, of course, is to share your home with a dog that will not grow tall enough to follow his nose up onto your counters or furniture.  Baring that, a plan of action is necessary to teach your 4-legged pal that these areas are off limits to him.

There are many techniques that sound like they would do the trick.  Tying tin cans to some string, and then attaching them to tasty food on the counter is a method often suggested. As the food is stolen, the tin cans trail behind the dog, creating a racket that usually induces the dog to drop the food.   Not a bad solution, but it does involve a certain amount of preparation. Another trick is to use a shake can.  This is an empty tin can with about 15 pennies in it.  When shaken, it often startles your dog and interrupts his behavior.  You will find most dogs wait until you are out of the room to do any damage, so this method might entail you spending a lot of time lurking in the hall, watching your dog from afar.  There is nothing wrong with these methods, and if they work for you then, great.  You may find that after a while you are looking for a different strategy.

So, how do you stop your dog from managing to steal everything off your kitchen counters the minute your back is turned?  The obvious is…well, obvious.  Each and every time your dog manages to snag a snack, he has been rewarded.  Never mind the harassment he might experience from his people after the fact.  It is self-rewarding behavior.  There have been studies that suggest that dogs will do a behavior that gets him what he wants only once, to repeat that behavior another 200 times unsuccessfully, before he gives up.  What that means is that dog's seem to be incredibly persistent.  They seem to have stamina for their snack stealing, long after we are well worn out.
It may seem to oversimplify things to suggest that all your counters are to be kept clear at all times, but that is indeed a major part of your success.  If your dog goes up onto your counter and gets even a piece of bread, you can bet he will be on the hunt for days and weeks afterward. 

There are a few things you can do in order to help you with the task of teaching your dog that there is simply nothing worthwhile looking for on the counter.  Boundary training is a fabulous tool to put you on the road to success.  Boundary training means teaching your dog to respect a boundary, and not to cross it.  If you consider your whole kitchen out of bounds to your dog, his access to the counter in the first place is very much restricted.  By teaching them to respect a boundary, it is not necessary to start getting out the power tools to install baby gates around your home.  It is actually much easier to boundary train a dog than you would ever think possible.

Pick a line on the floor as your boundary.  This can be where carpet turns into tile, or where hardwood turns into ceramic.  If you have no change in the floor layout, you can simply put a piece of colored masking tape on the floor.  While this may seem far-fetched, it is very effective.  Have your dog wear a lightweight house lead at all times in the house while you are in this training phase.  Each and every time your dog steps over the line into the kitchen, guide him back.  Sound far-fetched?  Give it a try and you will be extremely surprised at how quickly your dog will catch on to what is expected. Don’t for one minute thing your dog does not see the colored tape.

There is no need to make a big deal of it.  It is important that he is guided back with the leash, and not be verbally instructed.  Also keep in mind that no praise is needed at this time.  The theory here is that you don’t want to set up any patterns.  One pattern could be that your dog gets attention every time he crosses the line. Another pattern he may catch onto is that if he does cross the line and is verbally told to get back, then praised for his actions, he may choose to cross it simply for the reward.  Just guide him back.  You will soon start to see him get clever.  Make it clear that any part of his body over that boundary will get him brought back.  Before long, you will start to see him lying at the line, looking fondly into the kitchen. 

If your dog has to cross through your kitchen to use a back door, then you start to teach him a release command, such as “okay” and this will become his signal to go into the kitchen. 

By boundary training your dog, you will be teaching him that the kitchen is off limits, and therefore it will be a lot easier for you to monitor his activities, especially the counter surfing.  You will find that this also has great side effects.  Food preparation and meal times become a lot easier without a dog underfoot.

Along with boundary training, and keeping your counters clear at all times, you can start to supervise your dog a lot more.  If he is a dog who is new to your home, consider keeping him on a house lead and tethering him in the room where you are settling for the night.  He can have his mat and chew toys with him.  By doing this, you are in fact teaching him that this is the place to be.

Gillian Ridgeway, AHT, has worked with dogs for over 33 years. She is director of Who’s Walking Who in Toronto and Ajax. A consultant for TorontoBarks.com, Gillian also writes for Dogs, Dogs, Dogs!, Dogs in Canada. She has appeared on Dogs in Canada TV, Global television, Q107 radio and in Toronto Life, and is co-author of the book, “Citizen Canine.” She travels with the Iams SuperDogs Performance team and teaches learning theory at University of Toronto. Gillian can be contacted at 416-465-3626; www.whoswalkingwho.net

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