Jumping on counters

[Holly Doodle]

Does anyone have advice on pups jumping on counters? Holly is 4 months now and has begun jumping up to the counter and table. It's been going on for about a week. We never feed her from the counter or table. We've tried spraying the edges with bitter apple, spraying her with a water bottle, blowing a whistle, and just saying no loudly. As soon as we get her down we praise her, but within a minute she's jumping up again. Right now it's not a huge deal because she can't really reach anything, but in a few months she'll be tall enough to get anything she wants. Any advice or ideas would be great, thank you!

Laci

[Adina P]

Most of what will help is management and obedience training:

1) Management essentially means dealing with it as it occurs (won't necessarily prevent future jumps) and prevention:

-- Keeping a leash on her while supervised in the house so you can quickly grab the leash and correct her (pull her down).
-- Crating her at meal time or when unsupervised
-- Making sure to keep ALL goodies (she decides what are goodies) OFF counters and out of reach because the one or two times she DOES find something rewarding she'll take the gamble that another one of those items will be found again.

2) Obedience training means teaching her commands and practicing those until she can obey them reliably:

-- Down stay is a great command you can use while you are eating at the table....but she'lll need lots of practice with this outside the heat of the moment.
-- Teaching her to go to her bed and stay there on command
-- Teaching her "OFF" to command her to get off of something or "Leave it"

And I would also do some practice exercises where you sort of "claim" the space of the dinner table as your own. When she attempts to jump, body block her away from there and hold your ground. Repetition of this along with some word like "OFF" or "not for Holly" (or supercalifragalistic! the word/term doesn't matter as long as you stand your ground and are consistent with the word).

Finally, do a search for the term "counters" "counter" and "surfing" in the main forum page using the search box and you'll find other past suggestions people have come up with.

[Ginny Nightingale]

I have heard of people putting a small can on the counter filled with small rocks. If she knocks it off, it will make a loud crash and scare the dog. Then they stay away from counters...maybe. i have no idea if this works--i have never tried it. I just thought I would throw it out there if you are really desperate. if you do try to correct her when she jumps up on the counter and she listens and comes to you, give her a really good treat immediately, so that coming to you is better than what she sees on the counter. You have to really reward the right behaviors, not just punish or correct her for the wrong behaviors.

[fergie11]

I really agree with this but the trouble with counter surfing is your not always there. Many times your gone at work or something. I think you need to have something works when your not home or in the other room.

[Karen & Lucy]

Lucy jumped on a chair and then onto the counter once. She was just about that age, and I was shocked to see her up there. Someone gave me a suggestion to place cookie sheets on the edge of the counter hanging over a little way and when jumps up to the counter her paws will hit them and they would fall on the floor scaring her. I kept the chairs pushed in and she, at the time, was a counter surfer also. This worked. One time and that was it. Worth a try.

[fergie11]

This does sound like it work. It's scarrier than a "zap".

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

My daughter just saw something you could order that makes a LOUD noise if they hit it when counter-surfing. I also heard of putting two-sided tape or taping sandpaper on the edges of the counters. I really like the cookie sheet idea; I think I might try that.

[fergie11]

I'll get a lot of opposition to this but it will work. I did use a zone collar for Fergie. Set the little tone/zapper thing on the counter and when she jumped up there she got a beep and then a light zap (and I mean light - I felt it). Taught her in 2 days and she's never done it again. Not having any problem with Lucy. I think Fergie warned Lucy - "Don't go up there - ever - yap-yap".

[Sandy]

I agree with Adina - the indoor leash worked for us. Leave the leash on, and then set the puppy up. Put something on the counter you know they'd like to have, and when they go to jump up, step on the leash and tell them "Off". Toby learned pretty quickly this way. The key is - there's no point in using the word "Off" if the dog doesn't know what it means. So teach the word, and then use the command.

[Stella]

This one worked for us. Place an empty pizza box on the edge of the counter (hanging off the edge) and behind it put a fresh piece of buttered toast as a lure. On top of the pizza box put two or three empty pop cans with pennies in them. Leave the room so you are not associated with what happens!! The dog will jump up to the counter and knock the box and the cans down. The cans won't hurt because they are empty, but they will make a lot of noise and startle the dog. We only had to do it twice and our LD never went up there again!!

[Debbie and Thomas]

All of these suggestions are fabulous. However, None of these worked for me and our doodle who started this at 4-5 mths old and HE was large enough to reach the counter. I tried everything except the zapper collar. He was relentless and had to be tied on a long leash so he could not reach me when I was preparing food. I posted this same question on this forum 6 mths ago and got dozens of replies trying to help me. I tried them all and my happy doodle just couldn't resist. The funny thing is that he almost never does this anymore at 11 1/2 mths old. (first bd is Sept. 30th) Until I read your post, I don't think I even realized this myself. At some point he just decided or realized that this was not allowed. He will come over to sniff once in awhile-but he doesn't jump up. I guess it is like everything else seems to be with these doods-just a phase that they will grow out of. (hopefully)I would like to add though that I never leave any food out on the counter that he could reach. Come to think of it, maybe I am the one who is trained!!

[Holly Doodle]

Thanks everyone for all of the good ideas! I really hope Debbie is right and it's a phase Holly just grows out of, it does seem like she's grown out of a lot of bad habits that I thought would never end like biting us and her leash. We will definitely try some of these tricks to see if we can speed up the process though. She's very smart, almost too smart for her own good :). We are in beginning obedience classes so her down and off aren't really reliable yet, but as we continue progressing I'm sure those will be helpful commands to help with the counter jumping. It seems like we have really good weeks and really bad weeks with her behavior, but the really good weeks keep us motivated because we see her potential and know what a good dog she can be. Thanks again for all of your help and support, it makes me feel so much better knowing other people have gone through this and came out just fine. Thanks again!
Laci

[Karen Gaffney]

My trainer says use double sided tabe along the edge of the counter. It is a sensation that dogs dislike on their pads and the counter becomes something to avoid. I think this is a cool and humane way to handle the problem.