Jump to content

Stealing food off the counter


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 25
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Same here out of the 3 it is the youngest who is a terrible counter surfer :( trying also to get her out if this habit with a firm no.., not working at the moment so will be watching this thread in case someone has another way :)

I saw this mentioned before and someone suggested lacing a lure with Tabasco sauce?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Micah used to counter surf as well. We put double sided tape on the edge of the counter and when she put her paw on it she hated the feel of the sticky tape, and stopped. Even when there is meat or biscuits on the counter she will just sit and stare at it - hoping it will magically land at her feet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

just thought of a tip to stop puppies being in places they shouldn't be....i saw this on TV the other day " your first puppy"

put vick's vapour rub on the area you want the pup to stay away from ...apparently they cannot stand the smell ....not sure if it works ....but maybe worth a try ? and you will be able to breath easy in the process....lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Echo has this problem, even if there's not food there, she's always looking! No matter how firm I was, she would just not listen. One day, at the same time as saying 'OFF!', I squirted her once with a spray bottle (containing water). That little squirt was all it took, anytime I say 'OFF!' now, she listens, and I praise her tons. I'm not normally one to use something like that as a training method, but it worked for her in that situation and was virtually painless :)

EDIT: I also did it from quite a distance and she did not see me do it.. so she didn't seem to associate it with me, as she was still happy as can be to come to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

just thought of a tip to stop puppies being in places they shouldn't be....i saw this on TV the other day " your first puppy"

put vick's vapour rub on the area you want the pup to stay away from ...apparently they cannot stand the smell ....not sure if it works ....but maybe worth a try ? and you will be able to breath easy in the process....lol

We used that to stop teeko chewing. Worked to a point and then he seem to change his mind and chew anyway. We knew he's been at the dining chairs when his husky kisses were minty fresh!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Micah used to counter surf as well. We put double sided tape on the edge of the counter and when she put her paw on it she hated the feel of the sticky tape, and stopped. Even when there is meat or biscuits on the counter she will just sit and stare at it - hoping it will magically land at her feet.

Gonna try this when keeta has recovered. She is a monster for counter surfing! Even when there is nothing up there! I caught her on the welsh dresser one day.....we have never even put food on the welsh dresser!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jenna counter surfs whether theres food or not. She doesn't respond to a squirt bottle (i tried this when she'd be put in her kennel and would constantly bark) the double sided tape idea is a good one...it doesn't irritate their fur or paws at all?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Easiest solution - no dogs in the kitchen ever! :P I know this isn't feasible for a lot of layouts though.

Train your dogs not to touch any food that you haven't given them. I did this by placing tempting treats on the coffee table (super easy to reach!) and forbidding them from even sniffing at the edge of the table. They so much as look at the food, I give them a no and send them away. Progress to the point where you can test them - leave a plate with a little meat on the coffee table and leave the room, but sneak back so you can peek in and catch them if they make a move to even smell it. Same thing with the kitchen counter. If it's up there it's out of bounds - PERIOD.

When they successfully ignore the food, offer them a different tasty treat as a reward, given away from the food in a designated spot.

While cooking, I like to periodically drop a delicious morsel. If the dog makes a go for it I tell him to 'leave it.' I'll leave it there for as long as I think he can stand to obey and not eat it, then I'll reward him by giving him a different piece of food and take away the dropped bit for later. This is successful to the point where when I drop a morsel, Scout's immediate response is to stare intently at me waiting for either a release to take it or reward for leaving it be.

Especially while he's still training, employ common sense. Only leave food in easy-to-reach tempting places when you're training (aka giving him the appearance that you're not watching him when really you are). Don't leave food on the counters when you go to watch tv or something, and keep anything else pushed away from the edge. Disallow "hanging out" in the kitchen. Every time he successfully gets food from the counter he is "rewarded" for counter-surfing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i think this would be hard for me to do oh and i know its a little off subject but Mieshka shakes when she waits for food. is it because shes excited or?

I'd say it's probably stress/excitement from wanting to eat. Personally, I'd just make her wait until she calms down and relaxes before giving her food.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd say it's probably stress/excitement from wanting to eat. Personally, I'd just make her wait until she calms down and relaxes before giving her food.

I do make her sit and kinda wait for it, and thats if im holding her back lol she wont sit still unless im holding her back. its just strange as the others dont do it, only her :S

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do make her sit and kinda wait for it, and thats if im holding her back lol she wont sit still unless im holding her back. its just strange as the others dont do it, only her :S

Yeah, that definitely sounds like over-excitement. And restraining her just makes her even more agitated and excited. It will just take repeated games of Outlast. No food until you sit and wait, I've got all day. Go!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any other way i could calm her down? ive tried seperating her when eating but she always resists if i try n take her elsewhere. thought maybe that would help slow her eating down aswell. but yeah didnt work aswell as i thought it might, so left it

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any other way i could calm her down? ive tried seperating her when eating but she always resists if i try n take her elsewhere. thought maybe that would help slow her eating down aswell. but yeah didnt work aswell as i thought it might, so left it

How many other dogs are you feeding at the same time? Do any of them sit and wait for their food or are the noses in the bowls before they hit the ground?

Little things you can do include not making a big deal about breakfast/supper at all. No announcing it's time to eat, no high-pitched voices. You can also draw out the process (though be aware this may make her more anxious in the short-term and may excite the other dogs too because they are used to getting it right away); get the food ready but leave it out of reach and sit back down for a half an hour before you give it to them. You could change up their meal time so they aren't always expecting it at that moment.

Go back to the basics with her. Make her sit and when she does so immediately give her a treat. If she's got that down, wait until she gives you eye contact before saying okay and giving a treat. When she has proven she can sit and wait patiently for a snack graduate to supper. Make her sit. When you go to put the bowl down if she stands up, so do you. Re-iterate sit. Try again. No matter how long it takes, she will ultimately learn that if her butt comes off the ground, the bowl doesn't get put down.

Another method lots of people like is hand-feeding. If you have the time/inclination, you can stand there and reward quiet sitting by feeding her entire meal by hand. This also makes her eat slower, if bolting her food is a concern.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How many other dogs are you feeding at the same time? Do any of them sit and wait for their food or are the noses in the bowls before they hit the ground?

Little things you can do include not making a big deal about breakfast/supper at all. No announcing it's time to eat, no high-pitched voices. You can also draw out the process (though be aware this may make her more anxious in the short-term and may excite the other dogs too because they are used to getting it right away); get the food ready but leave it out of reach and sit back down for a half an hour before you give it to them. You could change up their meal time so they aren't always expecting it at that moment.

Go back to the basics with her. Make her sit and when she does so immediately give her a treat. If she's got that down, wait until she gives you eye contact before saying okay and giving a treat. When she has proven she can sit and wait patiently for a snack graduate to supper. Make her sit. When you go to put the bowl down if she stands up, so do you. Re-iterate sit. Try again. No matter how long it takes, she will ultimately learn that if her butt comes off the ground, the bowl doesn't get put down.

Another method lots of people like is hand-feeding. If you have the time/inclination, you can stand there and reward quiet sitting by feeding her entire meal by hand. This also makes her eat slower, if bolting her food is a concern.

Thankyou for your advice, i will try re-iterating sit when it comes to feeding her. We have 6 dogs ( lol ), and 5 of them are fed in the kitchen, 3 being adults, 2 being my girl and her brother who are both 5/6months, the other dog my OH takes away to feed as he is hers. He will sit and wait for her to say GO ON THEN, even if he is dribbling wanting his food. The other 3 adults that are fed in the kitchen are patient, but they aren't made to sit and wait, and buddy ( the 5 month old ) will sit and wait for his. But as soon as the bowls hit the floor they are right in there. I would say id try making the food up and leaving it half hour but trust me the food would be gone no matter where it would be put lol.

I could try hand feeding her but its getting her away from the other dogs which seems troubling as she doesnt listen and will refuse to come with me. But i could try it, wouldnt hurt. Thanks again

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thankyou for your advice, i will try re-iterating sit when it comes to feeding her. We have 6 dogs ( lol ), and 5 of them are fed in the kitchen, 3 being adults, 2 being my girl and her brother who are both 5/6months, the other dog my OH takes away to feed as he is hers. He will sit and wait for her to say GO ON THEN, even if he is dribbling wanting his food. The other 3 adults that are fed in the kitchen are patient, but they aren't made to sit and wait, and buddy ( the 5 month old ) will sit and wait for his. But as soon as the bowls hit the floor they are right in there. I would say id try making the food up and leaving it half hour but trust me the food would be gone no matter where it would be put lol.

I could try hand feeding her but its getting her away from the other dogs which seems troubling as she doesnt listen and will refuse to come with me. But i could try it, wouldnt hurt. Thanks again

It is more difficult and required more time/patience with that many dogs at once, but it can be done. My 2 boys get fed technically in 2 different rooms (one in the mudroom, the other around the corner in the living room). They both sit for their food and wait while it is prepared. I put it down for the one in the mudroom, then go around the corner for the next. Both wait until I say okay. Sometimes I say it right away, sometimes I sit down first, sometimes I go upstairs and come back. They both wait for the release.

The end result is dogs who are calm when they eat, and they are forbidden from touching each other's bowls so they don't have to worry about someone else trying to steal their food. I have done this successfully with up to 4 dogs (the most I've had at one time).

You could also feed her after the other dogs have eaten, but this would require obedience and respect to stay away from the rest of them, and you could do the reverse and send them out of the room while you feed her alone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is more difficult and required more time/patience with that many dogs at once, but it can be done. My 2 boys get fed technically in 2 different rooms (one in the mudroom, the other around the corner in the living room). They both sit for their food and wait while it is prepared. I put it down for the one in the mudroom, then go around the corner for the next. Both wait until I say okay. Sometimes I say it right away, sometimes I sit down first, sometimes I go upstairs and come back. They both wait for the release.

The end result is dogs who are calm when they eat, and they are forbidden from touching each other's bowls so they don't have to worry about someone else trying to steal their food. I have done this successfully with up to 4 dogs (the most I've had at one time).

You could also feed her after the other dogs have eaten, but this would require obedience and respect to stay away from the rest of them, and you could do the reverse and send them out of the room while you feed her alone.

I highly doubt she would be that obident to wait for all the others to finish their food, so im not gonna try that one. WHOA...you managed to do that with 4 of your dogs!! jeez man that's crazy. and you went out of the room and they waited for you to say for them to go and they didn't move at all until you said it?! are you some kind of dog trainer lol. However did you get them to not touch each others bowls? The dogs here don't go near each others but the brother to mine tends to go to hers once hes finished his as he gobbles it all down and is the first to finish and then when Mieshka finishes she tends to travel to any other bowls that are still being eaten out of. But we pick all of the bowls up now that are finished so that stops that pa-lava happening.

I don't think id be able to not feed her when the others are being fed because she knows now when its dinner time so would be hard to break the habit if you know what i mean?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I highly doubt she would be that obident to wait for all the others to finish their food, so im not gonna try that one. WHOA...you managed to do that with 4 of your dogs!! jeez man that's crazy. and you went out of the room and they waited for you to say for them to go and they didn't move at all until you said it?! are you some kind of dog trainer lol. However did you get them to not touch each others bowls? The dogs here don't go near each others but the brother to mine tends to go to hers once hes finished his as he gobbles it all down and is the first to finish and then when Mieshka finishes she tends to travel to any other bowls that are still being eaten out of. But we pick all of the bowls up now that are finished so that stops that pa-lava happening.

I don't think id be able to not feed her when the others are being fed because she knows now when its dinner time so would be hard to break the habit if you know what i mean?

LOL, it's really not that hard! I just get after them when they start to go sniffing around each other's bowls. Some days Wyatt leaves half his food, so if I didn't enforce that rule Scout would come and hoover it up, and he sure does not need the extra calories! If they touch it before I give them the okay I take it away, and they have to wait longer for the food. So the benefit is waiting until I say okay, because it is more rewarding than disobeying for one mouthful then not getting any. As long as there is a reward for their actions, they will do whatever you want!

With the 4 dogs, they would each be fed in a corner of the kitchen, so the first one to get food had to wait until the others were set down. I put the food down for the most well-behaved dog last - that way they are rewarded for their behaviour by not having to wait as long.

Meishka can learn just as easily, even though she's so excited it may not seem like it. If you don't want her to eat until she sits, she will NOT eat until she sits. Period. The reward for sitting is she gets to eat. No sit, no eat. Simple. In her case, I wouldn't put the food in front of her first, because all the dogs need to learn to sit and wait (if you want to go that route - personally I think it would be easier to train them all than enforce it with just one). Not until she gets the idea of the exercise, anyway.

They're just like children in that sense. We construct their reality. To bring this back to the original thread topic, if you have in your mind "dogs do NOT eat from the counter/do NOT touch another dog's bowl/do NOT eat until I say so" and actively enforce that, it just becomes reality as they know it. They don't resent it, they accept is as "just the way life is."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy , along with dressing your husky as a unicorn on the first Thursday of each month