Printed on August 27, 2007
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Stealing Food from the Counter
I adopted a two year old female German Shepherd last January. Emma spent the first year of her life in someone's back yard and the second year at a rescue. She has adjusted remarkably well and is a loved member of our family. One thing......she takes food off of the kitchen counter. Chicken, bread, whatever is there. I tried spraying a piece of bread with Apple Bitter - she ate it. I tried tobasco sauce - she ate it. I tried crushed chilis AND chili powder together - she ate it. The cayenne pepper did the trick.....or so I thought until she pulled a bag of bread sticks off the counter and ate the entire bag. Any ideas????
1 Reply
October 31, 2009 2:31 PM
Hi Kim,
Stopping “counter surfing” isn’t easy as you discovered. The first rules are making sure food is out of reach and to prevent temptations by not leaving food out unattended! You (the family) need to change your habits and routines as well as the dog’s.
You should always have your meals before or at the same time as she has hers. Only feed your dog from her own bowl unless you are using treats to train her. That means no throwing her chips while you snack on the sofa or scraps from the dinner table during human meal time. She is not allowed within 3 or more feet (1 meter) or to exhibit any begging behavior with anyone who has any food especially children.
She must learn and then obey the LEAVE IT (leave it alone) & TAKE (take it) commands even to get to eat her own food. This is training her impulse control, obedience and that you are the Pack Leader all in one step. How to do this can be found in the topic BASIC TRAINING: For Humans And Their Dogs located at http://ngccommunity.nationalgeographic.com/ngcforums/dog-whisperer/2009/10/basic-training-for-humans-and-their-dogs.html under section #1a.
Unattended alternatives that will also help are “motion and proximity sensitive” devices attached to things like air horns and personal sirens which can be found on the web. Here you bait the dog to get her to set off the alarm. The goal is to frighten her off the counter and make it a bad experience. A shock collar can also be used but requires that you personally monitor the activity and give her a shot the moment she begins to stand up at the counter.
LEAVE IT & TAKE must still be trained and LEAVE IT is immensely powerful and has hundreds of other uses. My big dog had a baby opossum in her mouth and I said LEAVE IT and she dropped it and backed off! At a neighborhood block party I told the kids to say LEAVE IT to my dogs if they came close to them while they sat on the ground with plates of food. The dogs were told ONCE and didn’t go near any food for the rest of the event.
When you are done training these 2 commands you should be able to put a Thanksgiving plate full of food on the floor and she will leave it alone on command. It may kill her to do it you can train her to leave it alone.
Consider training your dog with the “whole” Basic Training guide. It will give you much better control, make you a Pack Leader and develop a well balanced and well mannered dog!!!
The other safe and trustworthy advisors on this forum are Tracey, Blizzard, Sandie, Dawg Pro and Doggone.
Be Well and Train Well.
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