Food robber
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| Never leave anything out unattended that she can reach. Food stealing is a self rewarding behavior, so the only effective intervention is to prevent it from happening. You will either need to contain her by crating her or put her in a different room, etc; or contain or remove all available food.  |
When you find out, let me know  Garfunkel is our counter surfer. |
Nola was adopted and is a counter surfer as well!  We just make sure that nothing is left out in the open when we leave the house. It's a pain sometimes but we've adjusted well...and when we forget? Well, Nola (and Sam sometimes) get a nice little treat...  |
| When Mady was young (and I will use this with Gracie too) I would set up traps. Yummy food close to the counter. As soon as her nose got an inch away, I would tell her to leave it and then praise her (or treat if you are treat training, I suppose) when she left it. I can leave anything up there now and she won't touch it. Man oh man I hope this works with Gracie. |
| Exactly as Dawn says... they're rewarded each time they do it so the behavior continues. My dearest Panda was a wretched counter surfer when she arrived. Stole food, pulled a kettle of cooled water off the stove, turned the gas stove on. She is 99.99% fixed... she stole my peanut butter sandwich off my desk last month (my fault of course for giving her the opportunity). Consistently picking up after ourselves and putting all food out of reach is essential in stopping the stealing. Panda's surfing behavior itself was modified with the use of Scat Mats. http://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-ScatMat-E ... B0007NTBJ6 If we had a plate of food we needed to set down, we would put it on top of the fridge, in the microwave or oven... even in a drawer. Thankfully we always remembered where we hid it.   |
6Girls wrote: If we had a plate of food we needed to set down, we would put it on top of the fridge, in the microwave or oven... even in a drawer. Thankfully we always remembered where we hid it. |
| I couldn't help but chuckle at the post and forgive me, as I know at first it's frustrating to live with a counter surfer. Dunno why sheepies are so notorious compared to other dogs - perhaps it because due to their size and bounciness they can...so they do. I found that it eventually wasn't my dog(s) behavior that solved the problem but my behavior that changed. I became "trained" to never leave food on the counter and thus had super clean counters. Not even a sugar bowl was safe on the counter but safely tucked away in a cupboard. I had to laugh at reading the post as I also stick things way up high even if walking away for a moment. As my fridge is in a alcove type thingie I have to resort to sticking stuff in my cupboards to prevent it's consumption if I walk away momentarily. Kaj and I also become "guarders of the food" so that now each of us is trained in that one stays by the table if food if laid out or one of us is in the kitchen if more dishes are being prepared. Food is never left unattended. So in a nutshell we have never been able to stop the counter surfing but have learned ways to prevent it. |
| We started when Moe was little..thank heavens,because now he is tall enough to lay head on table,counter etc. When he would try to surf we would reprimand the COUNTER,TABLE ..slapping the counter saying "Bad counter".then praise moe when he stayed away. He has never put his nose back up there even stays away from where the treat jar is. |
| I don't know why but Butchy is pretty good at leaving stuff alone. He did in the past help himself once in a while but we've been just saying leave it and he does. Our first oes wouldn't touch anything even if it was sitting on a low table, Farley went for the gusto, if it was out it was his. It's not due to anything we did that Butchy leaves things alone, we just got lucky. |
| our cats are terrible for it. They love sitting up by the sink and looking out - they even managed to boil the kettle one time, I assume they sat on the button So I suppose we've already been "trained" not to leave anything out by them. Fred once stole a chop from under the grill so we'll leave nothing to chance  So once George is big enough for this kind of escapade, I think we're gonna be fine  |
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