[duckdawgs]

2 year old Male has been jumping on the counter and eating food. Last week it was a venison steak, last night it was a carton of 12 eggs. I met with a veterinary dietitian who confirmed I was feeding him plenty of dry food which he eats all of every night.

My problem is I cant catch him in the act. he waits til both our cars are gone or he knows no one is home. When I come home and see that he got into the trash (literally opens doors and cabinets)he wont go near the area even if I have a happy tone of voice. I have always heard that the dog does not know what he is being punished for if you punish an hour or so after the event happened.

How would yall handle this situation? my first idea is to take the baby monitor and put it in the kitchen with a plate of steak on the counter and wait til he jumps up there and give him heavy collar pressure from the neighbors house using their wifi to see in the kitchen. I have tried waiting outside the door for him to do it but he is not dumb about it, I wouldn't be surprised if he was collar wise with the issue too. Any other ideas?




This dog is about to be HRCH and MH so he knows basic obedience. Last night I put his nose in the middle of the eggs and yelled no several times, not sure if it did any good.

 

[bshaf]

Crate him or leave nothing out for him to get into. If not, you could try a scat mat... it's used to keep cats off of counters. Cheaper yet would be mouse traps?

 

[Bryan Parks]

You are first going to need to put the dog in kennel/crate while your out of the house. It's dangerous for the dog to have access to trash and cabinets where he might eat something possibly toxic to him.

My first thought also is just don't leave food out.

You could also buy those cabinet locks they make for toddlers.

 

[Golden Gibby]

Not sure if it would work with a dog, but a while back I put a shock mat on a car to keep a cat off of it. here is a link.
https://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-Scat...nches/dp/B0001AB42W/ref=pd_bxgy_199_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=FNV7PER0RCG2B77C1DN5

It triggers from pressure on it. You could put along the counter edge then set something behind it. Might be worth a try.

 

[Rick Hall]

Mouse trap broke my only counter surfer.

 

[duckdawgs]

I can crate him but he has done this even when someone pulls meat off the grill and is in the next room so I want to solve the entire problem. We don't leave food out, the eggs really surprised me last night.

My main question is can you punish a dog for something that happened hours ago? people say they don't know why their being punished but you can tell he knows what he did wrong. there is a reason he wont walk within 20 feet of that area when I get home no matter what tone of voice I use.

 

[DoubleHaul]

My main question is can you punish a dog for something that happened hours ago? people say they don't know why their being punished but you can tell he knows what he did wrong. there is a reason he wont walk within 20 feet of that area when I get home no matter what tone of voice I use.

You could, but it isn't really fair and frankly, not likely to work. This is powerful self reinforcing behavior and a correction hours later is not going to do much next time he is faced with the opportunity in the moment. Setting him up with the mouse trap trick might work. You might just have to learn to dog proof everything if he is going to be out unattended with such temptations.

 

[roseberry]

My main question is can you punish a dog for something that happened hours ago? .

it will not help the dog's behavior..........but when i do it, i surely feel better!;-)

salve for the handler-Carr

agree with setting up a correction just as in any other training situation......only cost you one cold cut.

 

[DarrinGreene]

2

How would yall handle this situation? my first idea is to take the baby monitor and put it in the kitchen with a plate of steak on the counter and wait til he jumps up there and give him heavy collar pressure from the neighbors house using their wifi to see in the kitchen. I have tried waiting outside the door for him to do it but he is not dumb about it, I wouldn't be surprised if he was collar wise with the issue too. Any other ideas?

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I would absolutely remote camera his ass - it'll take about 3 reps with the collar turned all of the way up

 

[ErinsEdge]

You can try multiple mousetraps, but this is a self rewarding behavior, and some Labs are sneaky and misbehave where there is food. Don't reward him with access. Puppy gate the kitchen and garbage. Don't let him out when you are cooking on the grill unless someone is supervising. Some will go to great lengths to figure out the second they have access and take advantage of it, and they are fully willing to be punished. I highly doubt at this point even catching him next door and burning him will cure him. 10 mouse traps might but that is a PITA too. Get the highest gate you can get.

 

[Equinedoc]

I have a female GSP who is bad about this. I used facetime on my IPhone/Ipad to catch her in the act and gave a heavy collar correction. It stopped her for almost a year, but then the temptation became to great. She is now crated when we are away, the garbage can is in the closet and we don't leave any food on the counters. I think in her mind the risk is worth the potential reward.

 

[DarrinGreene]

I have a female GSP who is bad about this. I used facetime on my IPhone/Ipad to catch her in the act and gave a heavy collar correction. It stopped her for almost a year, but then the temptation became to great. She is now crated when we are away, the garbage can is in the closet and we don't leave any food on the counters. I think in her mind the risk is worth the potential reward.

Doc - your dog but if a collar correction inhibited the behavior for a year, how was that not effective? Each subsequent repetition will increase the duration until it becomes a permanent mindset.

 

[Karen Klotthor]

I bought a wooden garbage can with heavy top years ago for a male lab I had. Tried the garbage in the cabinet, he could open that, used child proof hooks after that. The wooden can worked great, still using it after 20 yrs. My youngest now likes to take food off the counter. If I have to leave something out for a while, I put things in front of it like spray cooking can, plastic bottles or anything that will not break if she get up there. any thing she knocks down will scare her off.

 

[Equinedoc]

Doc - your dog but if a collar correction inhibited the behavior for a year, how was that not effective? Each subsequent repetition will increase the duration until it becomes a permanent mindset.

Darrin, I guess it never really occurred to me to keep setting her up. That makes a lot of sense that repetition would help. I guess at the end of the day it was easier to retrain myself and the family to stop leaving food out on the counter!

 

[PDO]

Crate him and clean up.

We strive to foster and develop highly intelligent dogs that can think on their own hundreds of yards away to pick up a duck. Sometimes we just have to cut our losses and laugh at the repercussions which we have asked for.

 

[DarrinGreene]

Crate him and clean up.

We strive to foster and develop highly intelligent dogs that can think on their own hundreds of yards away to pick up a duck. Sometimes we just have to cut our losses and laugh at the repercussions which we have asked for.

No need to "cut losses" on this super simple behavior problem. You can use a $35 scat mat that is 100% consistent and requires no "catching them in the act". You can buy a disc/collar set up that will keep them out of the kitchen all together and eventually become a conditioned behavior. You can set them up with an e-collar. You can do a dozen simple things to inhibit this and... get the side effect of teaching them to keep their feet on the floor in other circumstances (like greeting grandma).

I almost forgot - there's a thing called a tattle tale that's an audible vibration alarm. You can place this on the counter and respond to it with collar stim from anywhere in the house.

I'm good for what some people think is over complicating and over thinking matters. This one requires literally no more than 2-3 effective repetitions to extinguish.

 

[ErinsEdge]

Crate him and clean up.

We strive to foster and develop highly intelligent dogs that can think on their own hundreds of yards away to pick up a duck. Sometimes we just have to cut our losses and laugh at the repercussions which we have asked for.

That is exactly it. These are smart dogs, and they figure it out. I have their food in closed bins and supplements and some basic meds like pepcid out where I fill the feed pans. The garbage is in the pantry. I don't want them in the kitchen. I have 2 gates. One of them knows how to pop the gate open from underneath. It has to be reinforced with a bungee. They can hear if the gates don't click closed and they can jump the first gate and take that opportunity to let the others in. One can clear both gates like spiderman although he is not going in there for food, it's because he is agile and can and it's fun. They are like kids with their paws in the cooky jar. The crazy lady will just scream and yell. I can't have e-collars on all of them. If you have one dog, it may be doable if you keep the collar on, but multiples operate like a team. It's them against me. They know exactly what they are doing. I know there are people out there that are successful, but this crowd inhales their food in 10 seconds and is always looking for more.

 

[dr_dog_guy]

I bought a $25 9-volt battery powered motion detector from radioshack. Its been 20 years so they are probably $50 now, but its a great tool. Counter surfing, trash cans...... The first time I used it I had a girl that would hit the trash can in the middle of the night. I put the motion detector in there, went to bed, and 3 am I have a freaked out Golden Retriever standing on my chest with a steady beep beep beep coming from the kitchen. That was her last foray into the trash.

Same principle as mouse traps and scat mats, but effective.

 

[22899]

Just to be a little bit fair to the dog......

If you invited Gooser to your house for dinner,,and Ya walked off,,and left yer dessert sittin in plain sight of me unguarded... You would prolly find it gone when Ya returned.... maybe it would be a good idea to have a "Guard you food" rule in the house..

Or better yet,,

Dont invite Gooser to dinner,, and keep your dog outside or crated when Ya eat..

 

[crackerd]

Why on earth would you continue to leave food out that's "counter-surfable" to begin with? Have you not got a larder, a refrigerator or :idea: cabinets for putting away anything edible?

Failing any of that (really?), I would recommend going with a good pick-their-own program for more disciplined casting about as to where their next morsel will come from.

First, they learn to "mark" the food from a distance

then they're taught to focus on it from an in-their-face vantage

next comes testing their lining, er, dining manners from even closer

and finally, when it's ripe, you call for the fruit

then give the dog a chance to break (or breakfast) on it

(Keeping in mind the old maxim there are two kinds of retrievers: Those that breakfast on figs, and those that are going to breakfast on figs.)

MG