Counter surfing

[JohnLloydJones]

We have never had much of a counter surfing problem. As both my wife and I are vegetarians, there's not so much to tempt a dog. Senneca will forget her manners if I leave cheese out, but I have long since learned to put any form of cheese promptly back in the fridge. Rhys bach, my foster, has never shown signs of counter surfing -- until quite recently. He took and ate a whole loaf of bread a couple of weeks back. OK, I now place bread in a box at the back of the counter top.

 

So today I set some rye cultures in preparation for tomorrow's bread baking. This is the first of a two stage culture, so I prepared 4 small containers, each with a small amount of sourdough starter, whole grain rye flour and water. A little later, I hear noise in the kitchen and run down.

 

1) Rhys is sitting opening the aluminium foil of a loaf of bread (Olive levain). Scattered around him are coffee beans from a metal container that was sitting on the counter near the bread box -- which, of course was also lying on the floor.

 

2) As I am picking up the mess, I notice two plastic containers; both empty. He has licked the rye culture clean from both of them. That's raw (rye) flour and water w/ a little starter culture. Is that something dogs crave? That's a new one on me.

[martySQ]

... I would suggest you call the vet though... yeast turns flour to alcohol and you might end up with a drunk dog if it keeps fermenting in his tummy...

[JohnLloydJones]

... I would suggest you call the vet though... yeast turns flour to alcohol and you might end up with a drunk dog if it keeps fermenting in his tummy...

 

You're right, but the amount was very small -- 30g of starter and just set, so I'm not too worried.

[ejano]

Sounds like curiosity....if he didn't like the taste, he won't be back.

 

Ladybug is generally a very very good dog but every now and then she gets a hair crossed, especially if we leave her without saying good bye and be a good girl. I left a cooked, sliced roast beef defrosting in a low casserole dish on the counter and when I came back , Ladybug was looking very guilty but the waste basket, her usual target, was upright and undisturbed.

 

Then I noticed the floor in the kitchen was very sticky....and the casserole dish was upside down, stuck under the trestle of the table. She had apparently flipped the dish off the counter but it landed upside down, and try her darndest, she couldn't get it to flip over to get the roast beef, but she had skated it all over the floor until the meat was literally paste.

 

Liz

[NorthfieldNick]

I'm sorry, Liz, I had to laugh at that one! I think that could have been the inspiration for a kong. Probably kept Ladybug occupied for quite awhile

[Soda-pop]

I have found that counter surfing only gets worse. My dog taught my ex roomies dog to counter surf and she's a pit/cattle dog mix so being naughty and willful is like, her MO. She's a beast now with counter surfing. Best to try to nip it in the bud. I (mostly) cured Cash by years of leaving 100% nothing edible where he could get it. Took a year or two but I didn't want to resort to an electric mat or anything. Probably could have crated him while gone but... what's done is done!

[powerfulgazelle]

We found that a single episode of surfing round the kitchen island that contains the gas cooktop while the teakettle was on the flame cured Kip of countersurfing once he discovered that the long fur that grows out from his front toes is, in fact, flammable.

 

Negative reinforcement, a beautiful thing.

[ejano]

I'm sorry, Liz, I had to laugh at that one! I think that could have been the inspiration for a kong. Probably kept Ladybug occupied for quite awhile

 

 

It was funny. She looked so abject. She knew she'd done wrong and she hadn't even gotten the tasty reward of ill-gotten gains. The only other time she ever misbehaved like that, she ate a whole porterhouse steak...a big one...that I'd left defrosting in the sink when we decided to go out to dinner instead. We left in a rush, and she was miffed and when we came home, there was the paper on the floor and her with her head down hiding in a corner. I was just relieved she wasn't sick.

 

If we tell her, "Be a good girl, We'll be back." she's fine. If we don't, we may come home to find the kitchen wastebasket knocked over. She doesn't graze in it; just knocks it over. Ken always tells her, "And stay out of the trash."

 

 

Sometimes they just go after certain things. Our Lucky girl would have sold her soul for a stick of butter. Plus, at first, she was a trash hound, because she'd been a stray. Someone told me to put a stick of butter on a cookie tray filled with silver ware and when it made a clatter on the floor, she'd not come back. Well, she learned not to go after the butter when it was on the cookie tray filled with silverware. The same person told me to put a mousetrap in the trash and when it went off, it would scare her and she'd learn to stay away from it. Being a dummy, I took the advice again. As with the silverware trick, , the first time she set it off, she went flying. Then she learned that I would forget the mousetrap was there, put some trash in it and set it off, get disgusted with the whole thing and she was home free again. She was finally cured of the trash with a lot of love and very good food of her own. As for the butter....we learned to put it away. Score 1 -1, I guess.

 

Scotty, our last rescue, came roaring into the house, put his paws up on the counter with a "What's for dinner?" expression on his face. He was still on the leash so a firm pop and a shout corrected that behavior. We never saw it again.

 

Liz

[bc4ever]

Scooter hasn't counter surfed since he was a puppy. A little trick they taught us at puppy school was to line the edge of the counters with empty soda cans placed on their sides, then, if they jumped up on the counter, they would knock off the cans, making a horrible noise and scaring them off. Another plus with this method was that it didn't come from us. We were nowhere around. We still sometimes use this method if there's something we don't want him messing with. Of course, guests wonder why he runs off when they're holding a Pepsi can! LOL! JK! Another idea they suggested was putting sticky tape on the edges of the counters, then when/if they jump up, their paws get sticky. This didn't work as well as the soda cans. And of course, the easiest--keep things out of their reach. But if you have a determined dog, they'll probably figure out a way to get what they want!

[JohnLloydJones]

A little trick they taught us at puppy school was to line the edge of the counters with empty soda cans placed on their sides, then, if they jumped up on the counter, they would knock off the cans, making a horrible noise and scaring them off.

...

But if you have a determined dog, they'll probably figure out a way to get what they want!

Well. Rhys bach knocked over the (metal) coffee beans container and that didn't faze him one bit, so the answer, for now, is to keep things out of reach.

[in2adventure]

My last dog counter surfed. We ordered pizza one night and had the leftovers sitting on a plate near the edge. The mistake actually cured her of the surfing She jumped up to get the pizza and flipped the plate over on top of herself. Everyone came running to see what the noise was and found Tika standing in the middle of the floor covered in pizza sauce and surrounded by a broken ceremic plate. Funniest thing you ever saw She never even sniffed a counter after that.

 

I've heard that mouse traps in a loose paper lunch bag works really well. Scares the crap out of the dog but doesn't pinch toes because they are in a bag.

[ejano]

My last dog counter surfed. We ordered pizza one night and had the leftovers sitting on a plate near the edge. The mistake actually cured her of the surfing She jumped up to get the pizza and flipped the plate over on top of herself. Everyone came running to see what the noise was and found Tika standing in the middle of the floor covered in pizza sauce and surrounded by a broken ceremic plate. Funniest thing you ever saw She never even sniffed a counter after that.

 

I've heard that mouse traps in a loose paper lunch bag works really well. Scares the crap out of the dog but doesn't pinch toes because they are in a bag.

 

Ahhh....Pizza....what dog could resist Pizza? What a picture! I might suggest that perhaps the embarrassment of being caught "red handed?" cured TIka? .

 

 

Liz

[Laurie S.]

Cheyenne's a counter surfer but at least she doesn't do it when I'm home anymore, most of the time. The other night she managed to grab a bag of Doritos I had left on the counter. She was rather frustrated by the fact that I had closed it with a clothespin and she couldn't get into it. At least she didn't have to time to do that. Ive learned to put everything away but occasionally, I forget. I have a canister with her chicken treats in it and since it's hard to screw down, I usually just sit the lid on top. When I'm home, she doesn't go after it. But one day I was out for about an hour, and she got up on the counter, knocked it on the floor and went to town.

[Frogs & Dogs]

Kit thinks counter surfing is for wimps. Her version involves jumping onto the counter (all 4 feet) and then licking any dirty dishes in the sink. Keeping food off the counters isn't my problem, but doing all the dishes every time is. She never does it when I'm watching, so I'm still pretty perplexed regarding her method. The kitchen is tiny, so there's no real opportunity for a running start. It's a wonder she has never hurt herself trying to get up there.

[Laurie S.]

My kitchen has a passthrough into the family room. When I leave her home alone, Cheyenne has figured out how to jump from a chair in the family room up onto the counter. The first evidence was when I saw pawprints on my new glasstop stove. That and the 1.5 muffins that she ate.