Any advice for taming the counter surfing dog?

Darby (8 months) discovered the counters and tabletops a couple of months ago. We've never fed her from the table or given scraps from the counter, but she's not stupid. She knows there's food there.

We try to keep food cleared as soon as possible, but even in the absence of actual food there's probably something interesting for her. Other than commanding "off" and giving her praise when she four-on-the-floor, any suggestions for eliminating her counter surfing?

Dogs do what works. If she ever finds anything on the counter, chances are she's going to keep surfing. (In other words, keep the counter as clear as possible)

On the same note, make it work for her to be on the ground (not surfing). If she starts surfing and you say, "off", and she gets a treat, that is actually reinforcing the counter surfing. (She learns that if she jumps up on the counter, and then gets down she gets a treat)

If you are standing by the counter and she approaches you, play with her, get her riled up, pet her, etc. Have a quick training session if you want and use treats. (Keep some on the counter top) If she surfs, correct her by saying, "Ah ah" and have her follow you to another part of the room to practice some tricks. In other words, replace negative behaviors with positive.

Hope that helps.

I agree that you have to be careful not to train a "chain" of behaviors. Milo quickly learned that when he stopped nosing in the garbage, he got a treat. Then he started nosing in the garbage because he knew that the minute he stopped, he'd get a treat. You have to disassociate the treat completely from the incorrect behavior -- especially in these cases of trying to extinguish something.

I agree. Keep unsupervised food off the counters.

We never had a surfing problem with Gunnar, and Bruzer is simply too short to reach anything halfway to your knee. With Daisy, her height presents an entire new set of problems. Her head is higher than the counter height, so she can see what is there just by walking past. We can't trust her unsupervised in the kitchen, so the best way we've found is to just prevent her from being in the situation at all. She's not allowed in the kitchen if we are not in there, and if we're in there preparing food, if she starts getting to where she's sticking her nose into what you are prepping, she's banished.

Well that's pretty much where we're at right now. No amount of commanding "off" and praising when she's on the floor is enough to dissuade her from investigating those countertops and tabletops...whether there's actually food there or not. Can't say I blame her much. If a 4th dimension suddenly opened up to me that was occasionally filled with hot wings and beer, I'd have a hard time ignoring it. That's probably what the coutertops are to her...the dog version of a 4th dimension filled with hot wings and beer.

While you are actually working in the kitchen, try training a "place" or "mat" command. I've had enormous success with mat training just in general, but when we first started training it I found the most convenient time was to work on it while I was cooking. The dogs ain't stupid--they know that mommy drops food all the time when she's cooking. Beyond what's on the counters, what's on the floor in the kitchen also encourages them to come in and get all up in my business and start sticking their noses where they don't belong.

So, to TJ Maxx to get a couple cheap bath-mats. I lay these mats out in the dining room (our kitchen is open to the dining room, but if you have a larger kitchen maybe pick a corner of the kitchen that's far away from the action), and trained them to each lay down on a mat. They both have "down" commands so that was just a matter of positioning them and rewarding for a "down" in which at least most of their body is touching the mat. At first I tossed rewards on to their mats at a pretty high rate. I would keep a bowl of treats on the counter and while I was prepping dinner, every 30 seconds or so toss a couple over to the mats. I feel it's important for this exercise to toss the rewards on to the mats and not feed from my hand. I want the mat to be rewarding. They already know my hands are rewarding. As we kept this training up, I increased the time between rewards. For a while I kept my cell phone's stop watch running so I could be pretty precise about when to reward. Once we got up to every 5 minutes, stretching the time out longer and longer got a lot easier. It's different than a down-stay in that they can shift, put their heads on their paws (I actually encourage that posture as I want them to be relaxed when they are on their mats, not at attention), they don't have to be in an alert state or paying any attention to me at all. They just have to have their belly on a mat.

Frankly the dogs think this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. It is so easy for them to grasp the concept that they're like, omg I'm getting rewarded for this? Really?

For times when you can't be supervising what is going on in the kitchen though, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Keep those counters cleared off and do not allow access if you aren't home or can't be close by to hear any suspicious noises.

I do the same thing as Houndlove, except whenever we're eating... because my dogs are FILTHY beggars! Except, we just have 2 doggy beds in the living room, and they each go to their bed. It has worked out perfectly!

I have heard of people using scatmats on the counter, and leaving some food on or near it, to lure the dog up. That would obviously give the dog a very negative view of the counter... but that affect may or may not last.