The dreaded counter surfing...

[Emily, Jace, & Maggie Devers]

Maggie is almost 6 mos. old and is a completely different dog than jace. She's actually more obedient in a lot of ways but my goodness does she counter surf! She has all her commands down and we have broke her out of jumping, also we have with jace too which has been a great achievement. Jace never even tried counter surfing but Maggie does all the time. Especially when my back is turned, I can't keep my eyes on her all the time and it typically happens when I take jace out and leave her alone for a few min. So I understand that she knows it's bad what she's doing, I hit my limit the other day when I walked in the house and she was on the counter. All four legs, standing up there. I don't leave food up there but she had got up there to get into a bag of my almonds that I had sealed...I scold her and she understands the command 'off' but I'm still worried about the sneaking.. *sigh* I would take her out with us but it's just chaos when I do and nothing gets accomplished. any tips would be appreciated.

[Gem's Jewel]

That is a tough one since it is so hard to catch her in the act. We put plastic cups upside down on our couch years ago for our German Shepherd who preferred to lounge on the couch when we were gone instead of his bed & that did break him of it after two weeks. Totally understand potty sifts, we do the same thing!

[Shanen Sadowski]

 I for one would love to see this caught on video! Do you remember the old clear plastic carpet runners that people used to have on stairs and in hallways?  You can still get them by the yard at Fleet Farm or similar stores.  I used this and put it upside down on my counters while gone.  The little plastic "spikes" that hold it in place over carpet aren't sharp enough to cut but they are NOT comfortable when paws hit them (or feet for that matter).  This broke my golden retriever of the bad habit.  Good luck!

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

I've never had this problem myself but can understand your concern as this behavior could have life threatening results depending on what she eats and how much.  I saw a video on Youtube that might be helpful.  I don't know if you use negative reinforcement training but if your positive training methods are not effective with her you might try something like this. Not painful just scary and teaches that something else will happen besides just getting a goody. Good luck!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I like this method.  The challenge would be to avoid any situations where the dog could get to food on the counter and NOT have this result, so you would have to keep the counter clear except for the times you were "setting him up".  I'm guessing it would only take a few times to end the behavior for most dogs.

[Jennifer & Truffle]

Our trainer recommended a similar ploy - using a cookie sheet and lots of noisy metal stuff.  Truffle has fallen for it a couple of times, but I think we need to reinforce it like the guy in the video says by entrapping him more frequently.  In fact, I've just set up another trap after watching the video!

[Emily, Jace, & Maggie Devers]

I think all the suggestions sound great! I guess the only way to stop the behavior is to teach her bad things happen if she counter surfs.. I really hope it works :) thanks you all!

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Emily I would love to hear how the training goes with Maggie and it would be helpful for others who are experiencing this problem (of whom there are many!) to know what works and doesn't too. Please update us when you can and good luck-I just know you can outsmart that doodle girl! :)