Rooney has learned a new trick- and not the good kind!

[Lori, Rooney & Zuzu]

Mr. Rooney (yep, it's Mr. Rooney- so you know he's in trouble), has discovered the thrill of counter surfing.  Fortunately (I guess), for now his interest doesn't seem to be food but rather the stray dish towel or piece of paper.  He has shredded three different pieces of mail so far, thankfully nothing too critical, and is always delighted when he can snag an oven mitt.  I try to push things back as far as I can, but his reach is getting pretty impressive.  I honestly can't even figure out how he does it sometimes, I think he might be part kangaroo.

So, I have caught him a few times and immediately grabbed him mid-jump and told him "time out" and put him in his time spot for a few minutes.  All this seems to have accomplished is he has learned to make sure I am not looking when he makes his move.

Any suggestions? This is going to be very problematic if it continues because now it means I can't even leave him in the kitchen unsupervised and thus he will have to go back to being crated when I am gone. 

I realize that one solution is to always have the kitchen counters 100% clear but with a family of five that just isn't realistic.  If it were just me then no problem, but I'd like to keep my family so there is going to have to be another solution.

If anyone has the miracle cure, I'll pay big money for it!

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

The same reaction from Lucy the first tine I doused a hand towel with bitter apple. She didn't chew it to shreds, but it didn't deter her from grabbing it and playing with it.

If you do use pop cans as a deterrent, be sure to also add a few coins to each and tape the openings. That will increase the noise factor. You could even go one step further and set the cans on a lightweight cookie sheet and attach them with tape, so not only the pop cans come tumbling down, but a loud clanging cookie sheet. I wouldn't use the cookie sheet idea with hardwood floors, though. Good luck!

[Jeanine Bandini]

Good Luck! I staggered the cans to get the best noise. I also watched from the other room (couldn't help myself!) I wanted to be able to swoop in and give the command "no"at the right time. It totally worked, fast. I did it with a few different things (stuffed animals left on the table by my kids) cant wait to hear all about it. And yes, I did have a smile on my face when he was shocked and looked like "what happened here?!" They are so similar to kids!!

[Diane, Hurley and Sidney]

Funny how when Rooney is called Mr. Rooney he is in trouble.  When I call Hurley, Mr. Hurley, it is with deep affection.  I spray the apple bitters in his face.  

Well, my husband is in rehab and I can bring Hurley to the front lobby so I plan to do that soon as my hubby would like to see him.  

Found out Hurley is quite the water dog.  He is staying at our son's/daughter-in-law's house during the day while I go back and forth to the rehab center and he was there while I was going back and forth to the hospital.  They have a pool and yesterday my son decided Hurley should learn to swim should he ever fall into the pool.  Well, now we cannot keep him out of the water.  His swimming skills are not adequate so someone has to be ready to jump in and get him before he goes under but that doesn't seem to bother Hurley.  He was so anxious to get back in the water at one point that he jumped on to the back of one of their labs, who was standing on a wide step in the pool, to get to the water.  It was really funny to watch and was quite a surprise to us and the lab.  

Hurley sulked on the way home and didn't want to get out of the car. Guess their dogs and pool have taken precedence over being home.  We will have their doodle, Oakley, for 3 days over Memorial weekend so there will be another dog here for Hurley to play with.  

As for clean counters, having a puppy counter surf does make for clean counters.   With all the running a back and forth to the hospital I haven't been as diligent in keeping Hurley's 4 feet on the ground.  Hope things will slow down a bit so I can focus on his 'training' a bit more.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

You know it is funny in that I have always said (since about 8 months) that our girls don't countersurf and it wasn't really a problem.  Well, since DH retired in January Lucy has been doing a little counter surfing.  What I have realized is that it wasn't that they didn't counter surf, it was that I didn't cook so there wasn't anything to surf for.  Now that DH is home he likes to cook, so there is more stuff to get their attention.  So, we are working on this a little as well!  Good Luck.  At least our girls understand NO, so it seems we are going to get it under control pretty quickly.  But it was just today that I realized this is what it was! 

[Donna K & Quincy]

Quincy, who is not usually a counter surfer, recently helped himself to a tenderloin steak, guess that was just too good to pass up. Lucky for us he didn't seem to have a taste for corn as there were two cobs of corn on the same plate. I may try tying some cans to the sofa pillows which he does love to steal on a regular basis. :>) Quincy gets called Quincydoodle when he is in trouble.

[Donna K & Quincy]

I should add that Bitter Apple didn't work for us but I found a product called Bitter Lime, Quincy hates it so much that now all I have to do is show him the bottle and he will quit whatever he is doing.

[Becka]

"all I have to do is show him the bottle and he will quit whatever he is doing." LOL--Quincy's a smart pup! Sadie was the same way--I just had to show her the brass plate that she knocked to the ground and she'd cower.
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[Lori, Rooney & Zuzu]

Round 1 (and hopefully the only round) with the cans was a success! My daughter and I hid around the corner just knowing that the dish towel I left dangling on the edge of the counter would be too much for Mr. Rooney to resist.  Soon we heard the cans come crashing down and when we entered the kitchen Rooney was on the opposite side of the kitchen from the cans and towel looking at us like, "What just happened?!?!"  I'm going to hang onto my booby trap and try tempting him again in a day or so and see if he will take the bait or if he has decided those dish towels are just too risky.

I also have two aluminum trays saved if I decide I need to change the trap or to use with some other tempting item, like PAPER.  I really prefer not to have to piece my mail back together with scotch tape. It's kind of easier to read when it's all in one piece. :)

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Yay! I'm glad to hear the cans worked! I had always wanted to do that with Lucy, but with just my dh and I here it wasn't too big a chore to just keep the counters cleared. Eventually, as I stated earlier, Lucy simply grew out of counter cruising. I'm still using the crocheted top towel holders though. Maybe someday I'll lay a trap with kitchen towels to see if it works with Lucy.

[Pat and Traveler]

Trav only put paws up on the counter once, for sweet potato fries, which I get maybe three times a year and which he thinks I get just for him!  He went through a teenage stage when he would take anything from the coffee table or couch and run with it--and he got just what he wanted, a good chase.  He snatched a Visa card, a pillow, glasses and various other items.  Fortunately, that was a short-lived brat stage and he stopped doing it after a couple of weeks.