Number 1 Fix for Counter Surfing
Most dogs are pretty food motivated, as well as curious and opportunistic. Which means if they have an opportunity while not being supervised to investigate that delicious smell from the countertop they probably will! Which is why we try to eliminate that as an option from day 1. When you bring your new puppy home, they are too small to be able to reach the countertop, though they may jump at the cabinets, your stuff (for the time being) is still safe! However, that will change pretty quickly, so we want to nip that behavior in the bud now!
We start this process of eliminating the behavior of counter surfing by place training. Place training can solve a lot of house hold problems but definitely counter surfing is at the top of that list. First we work on developing good behavior in our puppy like hanging out on their dog bed with a chew bone or toy. Showing them that their dog bed is a good place to be because good things happen there. If they wander off their bed with their chew bone we just help them get back on their bed with their treat.
Then as they work through some clicker training and obedience sessions at home, we can actually start marking the behavior of them getting on their bed on their own! By continuing to develop this behavior through free shaping we create a very powerful association for our puppies that their own idea of getting on their bed can reap them rewards.
We will then move on to asking for the behavior of getting on their dog bed with the cue “kennel”. Once our puppy is good at following this cue and consistently exhibiting the behavior of getting on their dog bed when asked we can start increasing distance, duration and distractions. We ultimately want to be able to send our puppy to their bed from a further distance than standing right next to their bed, we also want them to be able to stay their longer than a half a second! As well as we want them to be able to stay there through the distractions of cooking dinner, carrying in the groceries, kids or other dogs playing, etc. You get the idea.
We can finally reinforce the place training behavior of them getting on and STAYING ON their dog bed with collar conditioning. We can hold our puppies accountable to the behavior they already know and can consistently demonstrate to help build on distance, duration and distractions. That allows us to strengthen the behavior of them getting on and staying on their bed and will help weaken the behavior of getting off their dog bed when they aren’t released.
If your puppy can stay on their dog bed for longer durations of time and stay there through distractions as well they won’t have the opportunity to get up on the counters as well as if you start this behavior early and develop getting on and staying on their bed from the get go, your puppy won’t even have the opportunity to learn counter surfing is an option!
Kat
