18/02/2025
Today was a good day to write my article since it's 4 degrees outside!
Counter Surfing
Last month I wrote a general article on managing your dog’s environment to stop problem behaviors. This month’s article is on counter or table surfing. That is what we call it when a dog takes things off of kitchen counters, tables, bedside tables, etc. They do it because they can, and they get rewarded for it. Dogs can grab food, paper, remotes, gloves, or anything else they think is interesting. When I first brought my dog Blake home, I didn’t think much about it since my other dogs didn’t counter surf. But one day I was sitting at the kitchen table and heard this clinking sound. I looked up and Blake had his front feet on the counter, happily licking the butter in the open container. His dog tags made the clinking sound as they hit the ceramic. Our smaller dog, Sully, will walk across the couch, put his feet on the armrest, stretch over the intervening space, and grab the remote off of the table. We had to replace four remotes before remembering to simply put the remote in the storage compartment in the couch. Besides the irritation of dogs taking things, there are some things that will harm your dogs. I’ve had clients lose dogs to suffocation by getting plastic bags stuck on their heads. They can also ingest something that is toxic like batteries. Here are management ideas to keep your dogs away from trouble. First, if possible, use barriers to keep your dog out of the kitchen or other rooms. Shut the doors, place gates up around the entrances, or move furniture around. If you have dogs that climb, put the cushions up or put spike mats down. Block their access. Second, you can tether them to something sturdy while you are in the kitchen cooking. Then you can freely move around but the dog won’t be trying to surf while the good stuff is on the counter. You could also set up a crate or pen in the kitchen or other room for containment. Third, you can open up the top drawers in the kitchen to impede their jumping. And last, keep food or other items off of the counters or push them all the way to the back of the counters. If food needs to be on the counter, store it in dog-proof containers. Put items away. If you have a counter surfer, you need to limit his or her access to that location if you can’t watch the dog. Training happens when you allow the dog into the “restricted” area and are watching to cue a Leave It and/or a correction. Dogs are opportunists. It’s sometimes easiest to stop giving them these opportunities.
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I use positive reinforcement training when teaching cues and working with problem behaviors.
