Hudson - counter surfing butter fiend.
Anyway, his favourite thing to steal and eat is butter. I don't know how he keeps it down. Theeps used to steal butter too, and on the rare occasion he was successful it would come back to us about half an hour later. So, today I left a sliver of butter on a dish on the counter, and lightly seasoned it with cayenne pepper. He went right in front of me (while I was yelling at him to get down) and ate it. Then he made a horrible face, sneezed, and ran away. Only two minutes later he was back and in the sink, which I had also seasoned (okay, generously) with cayenne. Again, he got angry and stormed off, but came back and tried again. RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. I guess the whole cayenne thing must have gotten his attention because when I got up and walked over to the counter to clean up he stole a mechanical pencil off the kitchen table (I'd just been using it...my fault for not putting it away...he steals EVERYTHING) and destroyed it while I was chasing him to get it. I recovered most of it, but he's swallowed a small piece of plastic. That will return to us at about six o'clock tomorrow morning. That's his regular throw up scheduled time for anything that he's devoured in the previous 24 hours. Sigh. Do they EVER outgrow this? I constantly monitor him and he'll actually try to push me out of the way to steal things off the counter. I've tried the upside down mousetrap idea, and it snapped and scared him, but caught on his fur. He ran to the other room, pulled it off, and started chewing on it. Any creative ideas? Constant supervision doesn't work. Yelling doesn't work. Mousetraps don't work. Cayenne and other bitter tasting/smelling items haven't worked. I think I need to hire a full time bouncer to guard our whopping six feet of counter space. Or maybe an alien with a ray gun. Or a giant meat eating plant. Perhaps an angry clown...as you can tell I'm open to even the weird... |
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| This made me laugh... If you remember Fergie she did that. I had to take everything off the counters. Once I had made 2 queiches and before I knew it she ate one. I never could get mad at her. She did show signs of stopping but then started on the walls, and woodwork. |
| Blue got into margerine tub before ate it and it did come up again. He tried it a few days later, tub on floor but he did not eat it or ever again. He was also around 1 year old. He still counter surfs just stays away from butter. |
| Have you tried those Scat matts? I know it has helped a friend of ours to keep their dobbie and rottie off the counters and couch. |
| I had a problem cat and boought one of those electric pads that give a slight zap after I tried tin foil and all sorts of other things. It worked. She has been on, well I haven't seen her on, the counter since. |
ha Laika stole butter at my place. I said put everything away  now the big joke is about her butter stealing. When I visit. It is always hey honey did you put the butter away ha ha! |
| If we find an answer, I'd like to know it too, please!!
I am a little hesitant with the mousetrap idea. Personally I am nervous that it will snap the wrong part, or get a tongue caught in there or a paw and cause some serious damage. I have two tactics that I'd like to try (I just keep forgetting until he's already on the counter!). The first is the Cesar Milan style "own your space" type of thing. (It's hard to explain but if you've seen his show you know what I'm talking about). I've also had a trainer suggest building a pyramid of empty pop cans on the counter. It won't hurt him at all but if he touches it it will just come tumbling down and scare him. I'll try them and let you know - and you can do the same! |
| My parents' sheepie LOVED butter. Although she was definitely a counter surfer extraordinaire. Very sneaky, and not greedy--only took enough to make herself happy but not to outright let everyone know she stole stuff. We basically had to keep everything off the counters, which we had to do her whole life.
She also liked stealing bars of soap. She'd open the shower door in the middle of the night and eat a bar of soap...  |
| Bella was a very active counter surfer. We solved the problem with mouse traps, the snap trap kind. Set the trap so that it snaps away not toward your puppy and put an enticement on the counter. then walk away and listen. With Bella it took three seperate times but no more surfing. We have used the traps in other areas too, like rugs, blankets and pillows that she wants to take outside. Now if we are going out and suspect that something will be a problem we just set a trap on it, not even set. But be sure that set traps snap away from your dog. |
| We never had a butter dish in our house till we got Max (in the 80's) he would steal butter no matter where it was (and only butter)
fast forward to 2005 and we get two OES puppies within 6 weeks of each other. Marley (who is a Max personality sheepie) steals only one thing off the counters - butter. I can have a roast ont he counter and she will reach past it to get the butter - this I know from experience. Unfortunatley that extends to plastic butter keepers (even empty when they come out of the dishwaher) Must remember to buy a stoneware butter keeper. My experience is they never outgrow it and the best thing to do is put the butter away. |
| I love reading those Hudson stories -- he always makes me laugh!! By the way Jenny loves butter too. |
| Ahh they are such thieves aren't they?! heheheh. Isn't it odd how these stories are so humorous to us except when they are happening to us? |
| side note......
who doesnt love butter????????  |
| Although I laughed out loud I must sympathise with you. As for out growing it, you shouldn't hold your breath. My girl is 14 and steals eggs. This hairy beast can quietly open the fridge, take eggs one at a time from the holder then sneak off with it gently between her teeth, and not make her presence know. I moved the eggs in the fridge, so she came up with a brighter idea. Cut out the middle man! Now she goes into the coup, wriggles her snout under the poor chook, steals the eggs and sneaks away. I can't work out if my chooks are just very calm, plain stupid or just in shock as to what just shoved their nose up their toosh!!! |
| I know I shouldn't, but I almost laughed at loud at the visual of Hudson getting snapped and trapped by the mouse trap, pulling it off, and then chewing it. Doesn't he understand he must be deterred by the trap?! My Patch is not a counter surfer so I cannot feel your pain. I am afraid the traps would scare her enough to stay away - when I first had Patch I leaned baby gates against doorways to keep her contained in a few rooms - she could have easily just touched the gate and it would have fallen, but she was afraid enough of the gate itself to keep her distance. Good luck with the butter thief. |
MING wrote: Although I laughed out loud I must sympathise with you. As for out growing it, you shouldn't hold your breath. My girl is 14 and steals eggs. This hairy beast can quietly open the fridge, take eggs one at a time from the holder then sneak off with it gently between her teeth, and not make her presence know. I moved the eggs in the fridge, so she came up with a brighter idea. Cut out the middle man! Now she goes into the coup, wriggles her snout under the poor chook, steals the eggs and sneaks away. I can't work out if my chooks are just very calm, plain stupid or just in shock as to what just shoved their nose up their toosh!!!
My Mum is going to be so happy when she reads this post. She thought her mini poodle was the only egg thief. Charlie waits out of sight for the chook pen to be opened in the mornings and while Mum is cleaning out and feeding she sneaks as many nice fresh eggs as she can all the way up the yard and hides them under the blankets in her kennel. Then at her leisure she brings them out and drops them on the concrete to break and eat when she is in need of a snack. Mum hardly checks the nests any more, just the dogs kennel. She makes a point of thoroughly checking it every day or she doesnt know how old the eggs are.  |
| We have a 14 month old. Our first OES. I would like to know if anyone has tried those scat matts for an OES as suggested by someone previously? We would really like to try to get her to stop. |
I've had so much fun reading your Hudson stories. What a sweetie. I agree "Who doesn't love butter", but finding it amusing that these sweeties are going for "BUTTER" of all things. 
I second the can idea. while it's a pain and with me... a horrible sight... to have a stack of soda cans on the counter it does seem to work.  |
| Winston is a counter surfer, too. So I put everything away. The first time he stayed at the dog sitter's, I told her to put everything away. She was shocked to find her butter dish empty when she came home. The bottom was still on the counter and, a short distance away, was the lid. Just no butter. |
| Oh man, you need to get a reality tv show with Hudson. Have a bunch of Big Brother type cameras up to catch all his antics on tape. I swear all animal lovers would watch it. You could call it "Hudson Strikes Again" or something.
Our sheepie started to counter surf (we have 18 inches of counter space!), and we used the pop cans, but it didn't work (they worked wonders elsewhere for boundary training). We then place baking sheets across our entire kitchen; the sink, the 18 inches of counter space, the stove, the table. We had them just teetering over the edges, so that if she were to jump up to investigate, she knocked them over right away. That seemed to work, and wow was it ever a racket. It only took once and she was freaked. I suspect that she still surfs when we leave her unsupervised while we're upstairs, but nothing's gone missing in a while. (she's not allowed upstairs, something we started when she was a puppy to slowly introduce her to the house, then it just got to be routine, and now that we have a baby, it's nice to have some carpet that isn't doggyized. It's just bedrooms up there though, we don't spend any time there except sleeping and getting ready in the morning, so Sunny doesn't miss out on any quality time with us
Instead of the pads that are electric, you might want to consider an electric collar? I know they sound mean, but we've seen them used before, and we've tried them on ourselves to see how much it hurts, and it's really not bad at all. The lowest setting is usually all that's needed (it hurt less than a stactic zap you get on the end of your finger). Might be worth a try, but I've heard that you need to get a good quality collar, and some good solid advice as to how to use it as a training tool. You can't just zap them when they do something wrong, you have to "condition" them to know what the zap means. Good luck, and keep the stories coming! I hope for your sake, that he settles down and the stories DON'T keep coming, but part of me does love to hear the crazy things he cooks up. I just can't get over how creative he is! Give him a pat for me |
| Chauncey isn't a counter surfer, at least not for food. He's never been food driven. He does like to snag the dish cloth and he's good at it. He's done it with me standing beside him and was so slick I didn't know it until he started for his bed.....that's where he takes all his booty. |
| As I read this thread Hudson is right beside me, locked in his crate, beggin with big brown eyes to be let out.
About twenty minutes ago we sat down to dinner. I made my favourite dinner...roast chicken, potatoes, gravy and fresh carrots. Yum. About fifteen minutes ago Hudson was put in jail. First, he tried to eat the screen at the back door. Then, after a good scolding he laid down under the table for about a second and a half. Next he ripped a leaf off the forty five year old rubber plant (any houseplant older than I am DESERVES respect), and we had to chase him down to get it back. Then he settled (another three seconds), and then right in front of us he tried to counter surf and swipe the remainder of the chicken from the counter. Daddy got up, swore, and quickly escorted Hudson to jail. We finished in peace, and he's cleaning up the kitchen (only fair). I've been prepping Hudson for his birthday (which is tomorrow) for over a month. He's been told that it's his magical grown up boy day, and that as of tomorrow, he MUST be good. I'm not holding my breath, but we're all hoping he'll buy it. I'll let you know tomorrow... |
| aww how i sympathize with you! Our boy Checker's is the exact twin of Hudson! My two will be two in June and I keep praying they will grow out of this! Lately the biggest thing is my leather daytimer. I'm ready to shoot them. I've had both a large and a small one........ the leather has been chewed on both now.... OH and they love the fuzzy OES arm pillow that i bought from Coldwater Creek a couple of years ago. They have just discovered this one. This from a crew that refuses to play with toys.....
The funniest one was the loaf of bread i had just brought home from the grocery store. I turned around and there was Checkers with the WHOLE loaf in his mouth. I screamed "drop it" and he did, promptly turned around and SAT on it........(he's in full coat so you couldn't see it) as if to hide it, and looks up at me with these big brown eyes like "what mum? i haven't gotten anything?" It took everything i had to not laugh at him. I keep trying to keep my camera handy to get a picture of him counter surfing in the kitchen (he too loves butter). He looks just like a kid in a furry suit standing up with paws on counter looking around. I've only had 1 other dog that surfed........ my Borzoi. But then everything WAS on his level he didn't have to stand UP. This crew sure has kept me hopping....... no pens down, remote controls put away, no books at their level.................. i sure hope they grow up THIS way soon! |
| I have just finished reading the last posts about Hudson and Checkers to DH because he wanted to know what I was laughing at.
After he finished laughing he said "they havent eaten as much in dollar value as Tiggy!"
"What is this? A competion?" I asked. Its not one I'm wanting to win. This from the man who cant remember to put his glasses out of reach and was not happy last weekend when Tiggy ate a fourth pair. Oh well at least he's over it and is happy keeping a running tally. I'm with you guys I goin' keep on praying that Tiggy grows into a "big girl" and gives up eating things she shouldnt. |
Oh my goodness  I'm not sure whether to be thankful that Kody's only issue so far is the biting and tackling or be scared to death that he's not even close to being grown and will eventually do all of these things. LOL, at all of your pups. I know he is tall enough to reach way back on the counter because every now and then he will jump up to see what I'm doing at the kitchen table (my table is pub height) and his head can stretch at least 8-10" across it even without his paws actually being on the table. (So no one gets the wrong idea, he doesn't jump up to me when we are eating...only when I decide to do my business paperwork at the table instead of my desk.) Oh boy, I guess I better make sure there is nothing up there anymore just in case he figures it out!
By the way, I really love getting on here and reading about all of your babies antics and all of the valuable advice. Molly "rest her soul" was an absolute breeze to have around the house, she never bothered anything that didn't belong to her. I think it was because we were her third family and she was not being abused nor neglected anymore...in fact my furbabies are spoiled which is the way it should be considering all of the love and laughs we get from them. I think she just knew that she had hit the jackpot and respected us...plus she was 3 when we rescued her, over the puppy stage. So I guess we can hope Kody doesn't develop many or god forbid all of these bad habits. |
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