# Greed.



## Monkey&Marshall (Aug 17, 2015)

Man, no advice? Have I stumped the audience?

I'm at a loss. It's a home, there will occasionally be stuff on the counters.  Today he helped himself to an empty Rice Krispies box, a few foil wrapped Dove Chocolates (sigh - only a couple) that were left out during an open house (we are relocating) and yesterday he shredded some paperwork that the kids left out after school. He just helps himself to everything and anything, not even necessarily food at this point! I know he's a pup and believe me, he isn't unsupervised often. But he's quick! And he's crafty, he waits until we are indisposed... this morning I was in the shower!


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## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

It is very rewarding for the dog to go after these things and now the behavior has been reinforced. I would bet that a behaviorist would say the first step is not to leave stuff around. In theory the behavior becomes less frequent if it is not rewarded.


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## Monkey&Marshall (Aug 17, 2015)

gdgli said:


> It is very rewarding for the dog to go after these things and now the behavior has been reinforced. I would bet that a behaviorist would say the first step is not to leave stuff around. In theory the behavior becomes less frequent if it is not rewarded.


Right? Dog jumps on counter, dog gets delicious things like Dove Chocolates. Dog wants to jump on counter again. While in a perfect world we would never leave anything on the counter, it's not a realistic expectation in a home with three children to never put anything on a surface where the dog can get it. Where would it all go? :grin2: We have a lot of crap!

The question is - how long of keeping the counters dead empty to make the dog quit climbing up on them? >


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## solinvictus (Oct 23, 2008)

He has been self rewarded. He will continue to look for yummy stuff. All goodies must be put away and he cannot have any access to the areas when not supervised.

Think of it this way if you walk out to the corner and under the street light you find a $10 dollars you will feel very lucky. Tomorrow you go out to the corner street light and find another $10.00. The next day you go out and find $100.00 at that street light. The next day you go out there and look but find nothing you will still go out there and look the next day and the day after and so on. 

Your pup has struck gold and will keep looking hoping to strike gold again. This memory will be around for a really long time. 

Besides limiting him access and supervision you can work on a training skill.





 by kikopup

She uses a default leave it. It is different than just a verbal cue to leave it as by training it the way she suggests it is more likely your dog will leave it even if no one is there to give the verbal cue. 

There is no magic wand way to keep the dog from counter surfing it takes lots of time and effort. Taking short cuts and believe the dog is reliable to soon will again have the dog up on the counter.

Your dog isn't naughty in doggie skills  He is actually Brilliant! He is doing just what dogs do. Scavenge and hunting for food.

Dogs are always learning even when we are not actively teaching them.


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## Cpc1972 (Feb 23, 2015)

No matter how much of a pain it is you have to keep counters cleaned off. You have no reinforced the behavior and it's going to take a while to stop. How old are your kids?


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## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

No, not stumped. Your question didn't receive a lot of response because you've sort of confessed that the inmates are running the asylum. It's probably too late to fix this because he's discovered that the counter is a treasure trove. 

You will have to leave your counters and table tops like a staged model home for years to convince him that there's nothing up there of interest. Goldens are smart and they are problem solvers - if he's ever hungry or bored, he will check that counter just to see if this might be his lucky day. He's gotten so many good things from there that he will never forget that it is worth the effort. The cat is out of the bag. 

Your only real fool proof quick fix is to set him up to have some negative experiences and place cookie sheets hanging over the edge an inch or so with something super tempting behind it. When he goes for the jackpot, he knocks the cookie sheets over on to the floor where they make a giant noise that hopefully convinces him it's too scary to try again. You just need to be really sure he doesn't end up with the jackpot or it ends up canceling out the negative consequences.

If this were my home, I would do three things:

1) Tell your kids that everytime you find they have left out something and you had to clean it up after them that you will take their cell phone for the rest of the day. No exceptions. I guarantee that they will quickly realize that you are serious.

2) Tell your kids that if the dog eats something that makes him sick and he requires surgery, the guilty part will split the cost of surgery with you. Diagnostics, meds and surgery for a blockage are in the neighborhood of $3000. When the item is removed, you can get an idea of who it belonged to.

3) Start crating the dog or using an ex pen and baby gates to restrict his access to parts of the house that are an issue. I have 3 kids and this is how we survived having young children and a messy playroom and Goldens who will chew or eat anything left out. My kids are now 19, 13 and 9 so I understand it's not easy.


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## Cpc1972 (Feb 23, 2015)

We use a baby gate also when the kids have toys out in the playroom. So maybe you need to block access to the kitchen.


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## Monkey&Marshall (Aug 17, 2015)

It's not so much that the inmates are running the asylum... Everyone in the house is guilty of it. Like even throwing down the mail on the kitchen counter that I just got brought in isn't safe anymore.  Because he enjoys shredding paper! We are in the process of moving currently, so the counters are as clean as they have ever been... but people are going to make mistakes. And he is quick to capitalize!!! My kids are teenagers - 13, 15, 17. Old enough to "know better" but at the same time? When they are running late for school in the morning and slapping a lunch together, etc - stuff happens. It's hard to blame them when we all slip up! I was wrapping baby shower presents on Monday... and left all the supplies spread out on the center island. Ran to the bathroom. Came in and he had chewed up a ten dollar target gift card. LOL! Less than two minutes... He is very smart, he knows to wait until the humans have left the room before he goes exploring! Otherwise, this would be a much easier behavior to correct, if I could catch him in the act! When we are all in the kitchen he is the model of a perfect gentleman!!!

The kitchen is really where we "confine" the dogs, so maybe that will have to change, although I am not sure where else to put them! We have one of those super open traditional floor plans, so all the rooms kind of flow into each other - but the kitchen is off to itself, and has access to the back yard - so it's been a very easy place to make "theirs", if that makes sense. I hate to crate when we are in the house - we crate when we leave for long periods and at night - so I think really we will just have to be more and more vigilant. Because honestly, the dog is supervised like a toddler. And just like a toddler, it takes two seconds to make a heap of trouble when you turn your back!!! 

And maybe we will have some better luck in the next house. HA!

I may try the cookie sheets if all else fails. It can't hurt. Although I have a feeling that not much would deter him from the deliciousness that is the kitchen counters.


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## Monkey&Marshall (Aug 17, 2015)

That video was very helpful! We have started clicker training and will have to start trying to shape this behavior! Thanks!


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

Take him with you when you leave the room, baby gate or crate him when you are not home.


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## Pilgrim123 (Jul 26, 2014)

The thing about having empty counters is that dogs' noses soon tell them when there's been a slip-up. And, if you've got a food-motivated dog, they'll never forget where the food was.


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## GoldenFocus (Feb 28, 2016)

My buddy Cinnabon was a rubbish diver. I purchased one of those cans that have a lid that opens when you step on the bottom platen/lever base. That worked great for a week, but the boy was smart and learned that he just needed to step on the right part of the base and the restaurant was back in business!


We had to just put the thing into the walk in pantry because I actually never saw him actually open the thing and get the kitchen scraps out....just the aftermath.


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## Lise123 (Jan 1, 2014)

My dog was a terrible counter surfer. He would still do it if he had the chance, but we don't give him the chance to fail. Here's what we did:

1. Took all food off the counters. My house is tiny, so this was tough.
2. Retrained the kids to never, ever leave food unattended. My kids are 8 and 6, and they learned this last year. Not easy, but we learned.
3. No items of any value on the first floor of our house, period. If you leave out Legos and Bailey chews them to bits, it's your fault.
4. Worked on "leave it." We did a lot of entrapment exercises. I would leave fantastic things on the counter and pretend to step into the next room... Bailey would idle by, raise his head for the grab, and boom! I'm be on him with a stern "Leave it!" 

He gets it now, and the kids get it now, but we had an incident of the dog on the table, snacking on waffles, while we ironed out our process.Our dog still swings by the breakfast table in the morning to see if I've forgotten to clear anything, the little scavenger.

If your dog has access to your kitchen counters, you can't put anything on the counters that you don't want him to eat or destroy. We lost mail, too, including a few checks, until we all learned.

This phase will pass with consistency and discipline on everyone's part. Good luck!


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## ceegee (Mar 26, 2015)

We've tried a lot of things over the years to "cure" counter surfing, but some dogs just can't be cured. Our Labrador was an easy case: I set up a "trap" (good food on the counter), along with a mirror that allowed me to see the kitchen while hidden out of sight. As soon as the dog approached the counter to steal the food, I swooped in with a stern "leave it" command. A couple of repetitions, and she never again looked for food on the counter. Our toy poodle, on the other hand, has simply not responded to any kind of training. He climbs on tables and counters, and is very "put out" if we catch him in the act, as though we have no right to disturb him! He's no longer allowed in the kitchen unsupervised. Our last golden, too, was a thief, and while she became a bit more reliable over time, I never fully trusted her around food.

We've learned from bitter experience that we have to do one of two things: not leave food on the counter, or not leave the dogs alone when food is out. Our current pup is being raised with this system. If food is on the counter, he is with a human member of the family or in his crate. The humans - including our 14-year-old - have been trained not to leave food unattended anywhere. No snacks on work desks, in the pockets of coats that aren't hung in the closet, or on open shelves. Chocolate is kept locked away in a cupboard: it's never left around, upon pain of death for the husband and loss of cell phone privileges for the teenager (she considers this to be worse than death). Gum is no longer allowed in the house. Humans, even teenagers, are trainable - you just have to find the right trigger and follow through with it.

But some dogs are just thieves. The other day I was in the kitchen preparing dinner. Duster was lying on the mat by the counter. Then, suddenly, his nose appeared under my arm and he tried to snag the piece of chicken I was actually cutting up at the time. The attempt earned him a time-out in his crate. In his case, though, I have hope: he used to steal from the cat litter box, but doesn't do it any more ...


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## mm2k14 (Feb 16, 2016)

Everyone else has already said it, but if you aren't literally right there and able to catch him in the act, he can't be in the kitchen. Baby gates work well to block off the area. Every time he counter surfs and finds something he is getting rewarded. (Not only is that bad for obvious reasons, but potentially lethal.) The best thing to do is prevention, which means keeping him out of the area, and keeping the counters as clear as possible. 

If he can't be trusted to be loose on one floor (minus the kitchen), you can always tether him to yourself. If you or someone else can't supervise him at the moment, it's time for a nap in the crate. No exceptions.

He's what, 6 months? That is still very young! This is all part of the process.


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