Discover what motivates your dog to "counter surf" your kitchen benches and most importantly how to put a stop to this unwanted and potentially dangerous behavior.
Counter surfing and food stealing can be difficult habits to break as they are "self rewarding" behaviors to your dog, so it is important to be consistent and persevere.
Step 1
Keep your bench tops clean and free from any tempting items - prevention is always the best course of action.
Step 2
Supervise your dog at all times when in the kitchen area. Doing so you can provide instant feedback to your dog (positive and negative).
Step 3
Only ever feed your dog in his/her very own dinner bowl or as a reward when obedience training. Food only ever comes from these two places.
Step 4
Provide lots of physical and mental stimulation to your dog each day.
Step 5
Teach the "Leave It" obedience training command to your dog.
Step 6
Ask your dog for an alternate behavior in times when he/she is showing interest in an item on the bench top. This alternate behavior could be the "Go To Your Spot" command which sends your dog to his/her blanket.
Tips
- Never chase, yell, hit or give any attention to your dog when he/she succeeds in stealing an item - this is the response your dog wants from you. Any attention is good attention from your dog's point of view.
Warnings
- Don't let your dog's thieving habit continue without at least trying to rectify it. One day your dog may find something poisonous on the bench or knock some boiling water onto himself.
