Is Your Dog A Thief?

Does your dog counter surf? You know – carefully grabs things off the counter, i.e., food, or anything remotely smelling of something to eat? If you’re not there to catch them in the act, what good is the “leave it” command.

It is like they have learned the fun of getting a bit of a thrill for doing something and not getting caught in the act. They are beginning to understand the words of the trainer that says, “it’s too late to correct after the fact.” I think they like those words of advice.

So you will feel at ease, it even happens in my home. The other day, I was fixing some toast and left the kitchen for a second (maybe three) and returned not noticing that anything had mysteriously disappeared from the counter. I looked up to see Violet acting a bit weird. She was holding her head down slightly and just walking slowly around. I walked over asking if she was okay. . .well, it hit me that she was carefully holding something in her mouth that she didn’t want me to see. I said “drop it” and out came a cube of butter!

Meat I could understand, but butter? It shows you that they have no clue what they’re grabbing, but if it’s a part of food preparation, it must be eatable. Drop it came easy given what was in her mouth. If it had been a piece of meat or cheese, releasing it may have been more of a challenge.

How do you stop counter surfing? Keeping the dogs out of the kitchen is a good place to start. There are also products called “scat mats” that you can put on the counter that will either make a tone or give a static correction when touched. There are also small devices that sense the heat and movement of the dog and will make an ultrasonic sound that deters the dog.

For those of you with little dogs, you can smile at your dog because you know at least that’s one behavior you won’t have to correct.

If you need help with your dog’s manners, please send a note in the box to the right!