[NAGDU] Counter-surfer is back

Sat Dec 3 00:21:55 UTC 2016

Tracy,

What's the deal with napkins? Loki is a champion napkin eater and will 
take a napkin off the table if it's sitting beside food. We generally 
use light, small paper napkins or half paper towels, and he shreds them, 
so they haven't hurt him yet. He's to the point where he only snags 
napkins on special occasions, like when he's bored or stressed, but 
still! He also likes cloth napkins and place mats, but those he takes to 
the couch or the bed and shakes them to make sure I know to come make 
him give them to me. Goober! I think the paper ones stick to his mouth 
when he tries to drop them, so by the time I reach him there are only 
shreds left. He also has a weakness for butter.

I honestly don't know of any magic way to cure the problem of counter 
surfing other than to keep at it. And you're right. Once they make a 
good score off the counter, then it's that much harder to convince them 
not to keep trying. Aargh! I think the can full of coins would work if 
the sound of the coins startles the dog into getting away from the 
counter. With Zay, a foot stomp is enough if she doesn't get off on 
command. Loki is good with a quiet "off" and "leave it." I reward him 
for that, which has the added advantage of not leading him to be sneaky. 
Much. When we first moved in with Wayne, who is sighted, Mitzi thought 
it was hilarious to let him see her putting her nose where it didn't 
belong, just so he could bust her at it. I think the reason Loki has 
never taken much to counter surfing for food is that Zay is not about to 
let him get to anything first. Unfortunately, when he got tall enough to 
look over the top of the kitchen island to eye remainders of beef roast 
and such, Zay used him as her point man and scored some good roast beef 
she wouldn't have known about otherwise. She was a bit of a monster for 
awhile after that, but she's mostly cured again. She's not long and 
stretchy like the poodles so makes more noise when she wants to check 
out the counter, so I can catch her at it from a distance and remind 
her. For awhile, I would have to go to her and push her away with my 
knee, which I would do quietly but rudely. Then she started responding 
to "off" again and started reducing her surfing regimen.

Setting Krokus up a time or two is probably a good idea, especially if 
he has a bell or something so you will hear him from a distance. Then 
use whatever command or method you use to call him away or inspire him 
to leave the temptation. Could you just shake the coin can to startle 
him? Or roll it his direction. I think it's the sound that matters. If 
he doesn't have much startle response, then it might not be very 
effective. Mostly I find that if one of my dogs backslides on something, 
the best solution is to go back to an earlier training version of what 
worked before, then move through the same steps to bring the dog back up 
to snuff. Mostly, that works really well, and we go through the training 
steps quickly.

I'm having to keep an eye on Loki, since he took advantage of company 
distraction to score some butter. At least this time, it wasn't two 
whole fresh cubes of the stuff. /lol/ Once I busted him and pushed the 
butter back a ways, he teased me to play the leave it game but hasn't 
tried for it again. Whew! We will be having company and disruption for a 
while, so I'm going to have to be on my toes, I guess.

Then there's Mitzi. She gave up counter surfing years ago and has been 
innocent as a babe... Until a week or so ago, when she just up and 
snagged something right in front of our faces. What was that about? She 
hasn't repeated the crime, so I guess she just had a brain blip or 
something. So all my dogs are monsters. /lol/

hth,

Tami

On 12/02/2016 06:32 AM, Tracy Carcione via NAGDU wrote:
> I thought Krokus had gotten over counter-surfing, but he's taken it up
> again.  I forgot I'd left a dirty napkin in a saucer on an end-table, and he
> jumped up and grabbed it when I walked away. It took a while for me to
> figure out what had happened, so I couldn't snarl at him in a timely way.
> And since then I've caught him jumping up twice.  I've let him know my
> displeasure, but it hasn't helped so far.
>
> I guess I'll try setting him up, leave something tasty where he can see it
> while I'm sitting close by, and stop him if he goes for it.
>
> Last go-round with this, TSE said to put some coins in a can and toss it at
> him when he jumped up.  They clearly don't know what a lousy pitcher I am.
>
> If anyone has ideas that have worked, I'd be interested.  I'm bummed, since
> Krokus had been doing much better with his undesirable behavior, and then I
> let him get a big win and we're back to square 1.  Or maybe 1.5, since he
> knows what I want; he just is more interested in what he wants.
>
> Tracy and the Hellhound
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> NAGDU mailing list
> NAGDU at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for NAGDU:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/tami%40poodlemutt.com
>