While our pet dogs live a pampered life compared to their wolf ancestors, they are still opportunistic scavengers, happy to eat a tasty morsel whenever the opportunity presents itself – from a few scraps from the garbage can to the turkey sandwich you’ve been making pack in your child’s lunch!
When a dog successfully grabs food (or other objects) from a counter or table, trainers call it “counter surfing.” Left to their own devices, most dogs—at least those tall enough to reach the counter—will experiment with this behavior thanks to the endless supply of tasty treats we humans insist upon.
Set your dog up for success
Dogs like to gamble. I mean, they REALLY like to gamble. If they get something right — even once — you can bet they’ll try it again, especially when the payoff is big — like a sandwich. When your dog is young or otherwise new to your home, it is wise to employ some leadership in the home to reduce the likelihood that he will have the opportunity to experiment with counter surfing. Nothing makes us tidier in the house than a dog in training! Avoid leaving interesting objects on counters and tables, and incidentally redirect your dog’s attention to the appropriate object when sniffing around surfaces you’d like him to ignore.
Learn the behavior you want
It’s easy to identify what we don’t want our dog to do. We don’t want them to go against the surf. Awesome. What should they do instead? Dogs repeat behaviors that they find reinforced. Countersurfing is self-reinforcing — the dog is reinforced by the things it helps itself to do. When we reward dogs for behavior that is not compatible with counter surfing, the unwanted behavior is reduced. Here are two ideas:
- Teach your dog to stay on the mat in the kitchen: If your dog is busy sticking to the dog bed while in the kitchen, he can’t jump up to steal things from the counter. Teaching a dog to stay still in one place (sometimes called “place training”) is useful in many scenarios. In this case, the dog learns that there is no need to explore the worktops for rewards – you will deliver the rewards. Don’t be stingy about it. As your dog learns to stay on his bed, make sure you reward generously so that it remains worth it – in your dog’s mind – to play the game our way instead of following his instinct to see what treats he can find and enjoy on the counter.
- Actively teach your dog to ignore food on counters and tables: Another great option is to reward a lack of interest in food on the table or counter. In this training setting, the dog is rewarded for not moving toward easily surfable food. In the early stages, forbidden foods should be of low value and rewards should be high. Train on a leash and at a starting distance that is easy for your dog to be correct. Coach Emily Larlham offers an excellent explanation and demonstration of this method on her Kikopup YouTube channel.
Rehabilitation of a successful surfer
If your dog is an experienced contra surfer, you’ll want to use a combination of training and management. Training will help you learn the desired new behavior, but it won’t happen overnight. In the meantime, you need to drastically reduce your dog’s counter-surfing opportunities. Every time your dog surfs successfully, it is self-rewarding and the behavior will continue.
- When you are not in a position to actively train the behavior you want, make it almost impossible for your dog to practice the unwanted behavior.
- Pay attention to your dog’s behavior with a view to interrupting and redirecting when you suspect surfing is imminent. For example, as your dog walks by the counter, head up, nose twitching, there’s a good chance that jumping will soon follow. Break this pattern of behavior and encourage her to run and get the bone or toy and praise your dog for engaging in that behavior instead.
- Another option – especially in the first weeks of your rehab training – is to simply avoid the temptation by keeping the dog away from the kitchen, especially during high temptation activities like meal preparation, and when you know your attention will be elsewhere and you’ve won you cannot monitor your dog’s behavior.
Remember – every successful surf makes the behavior more likely. Even if you reprimand your dog when you catch him in the act.
A word about the use of counter surfing penalty
Verbally reprimanding your dog for counter surfing—if you catch him in the act—will stop the behavior at this point, but will also likely teach your dog not to counter surf. when you’re around. Ideally, we want our dog to understand that the better choice is to simply not surf, whether we’re watching or not.
That’s not to say I don’t interrupt anti-surf dogs – I do, and it’s in a tone that clearly indicates my displeasure. But when I do this, I know it’s a Bandaid, and a clear sign that I need to up my training and management game.
Some trainers recommend elaborate mine traps using soda cans taped together and interwoven among treasures that your dog would love to jump up and steal. The idea is that the noise of the falling cans will scare the dog enough to prevent future attempts. While this might work for the occasional dog, many dogs relearn to avoid surfing when they recognize this type of setup or are willing to risk the crowd to reap the reward.
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