How do you stop a dog from grabbing things from kitchen counter and eating them.?

Question

Our 6 year old lab has never done this before. When we leave the house she is getting things (food, paper, plastic bags, etc) off the counter and either chewing them up or eating them. Would prefer not to crate her when we leave the house....any ideas on how to stop this behavior?

Answer 1

ahhh counter surfing... UNFORTUNATELY once the dog has been rewarded for this behavior ( the food it gets from the counter) it will ALWAYS keep checking the counter,, crating while you are out, keeping counters clear of objects are your only options... the dog may suffer separation anxiety when you leave,, putting the dog in a crate is the nicest thing you can do for the dog.. you won't be mad when you get home, the dog will be safe and will be better able to deal with separation if kenneled.... oh,, you can try to train the dog,, but dogs know when you are home and when you are not... so don't bother,,, my golden would never ever even think about counter surfing when we are home.. but as soon as we leave.. yippee,,, so he stays kenneled or we keep the counters debris free... this should be the least of your problems,,, love that pup

Answer 2

I would try a deterrent of some sort. There is a product call SSSCAT (not sure of the spelling) you can find it on-line or in some pet stores. It was developed for cats that counter surf. It has a sensor on it, and whenever the sensor is set off the device makes a loud beeping noise and then hisses out a small spray of water. It works like a charm on most cats and dogs, the nosies freaks them out! Another option would be to be double sided clear tape along your counters, whenever the dog jumps up she will get stuck on the tape. You wouldn't have to leave it there forever, after enough times, she may just give up and think that the tape is a permanent addition to your kitchen. What ever method you chose, it has to be something in which she will be "punished" each and every time she gets up there! If she gets away with it once, she will keep trying thinking that this time she will once again get away with it. Might be easier just to block her from the kitchen. Two baby gates double stacked work very well!

Answer 3

Only other resort is dog proofing, which means putting things away or out of reach, stealing stuff off counters provides a reward when sucessful so dogs will make and effort to redo, therefore it is not something you can easily train them out of.
You could try using a baby gate to keep her out of the kitchen if you home layout that allows, which is my way of preventing countersurfing , or you put food stuff that needs to sit out in an unaccessible spot like inside the microwave, in the oven or ontop of the fridge, child locks can be used if your dog knows how to open cupboards and keep the countertops free of items.

Some people resort to booby trapping for example placing mouse traps on the counters, or lining up cans of rocks/pennies along the edge with the hope of scaring the dog if it attempts, it may work for some that are noise shy , but most labs are not

Mistresses suggestion is not one I would recommend unless a dog is caught in the act coreection served no purpose as a dog does not understand why it is getting punished after the fact, to them all they understand is that you come home and then get angry with them so next time you leave it create anxiety in the dog because they are worried how you are going to react the nest time you come home, and when some dogs worry they need an outlet for the tension to calms themselves, and quite often that stress reliever will be finding something to chew on, so potentially could create even bigger problems like chewing on furniture. So the last thing one want to do is go yelling and hitting when you arrive home or getting angry at the dog and causing them to become stressed out each time you leave, instead just calmly and quietly clean up and accept the fault as your own for leaving things out

Answer 4

A dog should be trained on how to eat, walk with you, not to bark, potty training and sleep on its place etc. You can teach anything to your puppy, dogs get trained easily with some good instructions. If you want some good training tips visit https://tr.im/liHoN

If properly trained, they should also understand whistle and gesture equivalents for all the relevant commands, e.g. short whistle or finger raised sit, long whistle or flat hand lay down, and so on.

It's important that they also get gestures and whistles as voice may not be sufficient over long distances and under certain circumstances.

Answer 5

I would have to ask if there was something different in the house? What's changed? What are you doing different? Does she feel left out, or angry about something? Is there someone else, or another animal in the house, to where she might be jealous of them?

My suggestion would be to take her back to the scene of the crime and show her, before anything is cleaned up, what she's done. Pop her gently on the back end, Tell her NO!, and crate her, where she can see you clean up the mess.

Dogs don't like the fact that they have displeased their owners. You showing her that you are displeased with her, showing her what displeased you, and making it to where she can't get at you, while you have to clean up the thing that displeased you will work on her.

In the crate she will whimper, cry, bark, and scratch to try to get out. Ignore her attempts to get out of the cage. Act as if she isn't even there while you clean up her mess. Even though you know she's there, and her cries will work on your heart strings, be strong.

Doing this sets in the mental and emotional together. Makes her think, I displeased my owner and now look what he's done, he doesn't even see me. It will make her feel bad..and yes, I say 'FEEL' bad. Once you're done with cleaning up, fix yourself a cup of coffee, tea, or what ever it is you drink, sit down, making sure she sees you and drink your drink. When you're done, rinse out the glass, put it away, then go to her and let her out of her cage. Pet her and show her that you love her.

Answer 6

tie cans and metal objects like knifes and forks to things the dog would noramly grab and leave it as normal, when the dog grabs and take the object down he will be shocked when the loud objects hit the ground and be scared, do this for a while and eventually thee dog will learn, Taking things from the counter = Loud scary noise. it worked perfect with my pup =]

Answer 7

Yup, buy some 2 faced tape, that you use to tack down carpet... Put it down the edges of the counter, and across the middle and when she jumps up with her paws on the counter, she'll get stuck and will find out pretty quick that it's not fun to jump up on the counter.

Answer 8

Keep the kitchen counter clean.

Answer 9

stop putting things on the counter in reach of your dog

Answer 10

I would put everything on the counter into the cubboard. I had a dog like that.Wish you the best........Good Luck!!!!!!!!