Delilah’s obsessed with food. She is constantly in scavenger mode. When I’m in the kitchen she is either under my feet or sitting guard in the doorway, prepared to dive head-first under the cabinet to catch a bread crumb.
You cannot leave food on the counter or table, if you do, it’s fair game for Delilah. After we fix our dinner plates, we have to immediately put the food away, or put it in the oven or microwave to ensure Delilah won’t snag it as soon as we finish eating.
She’s not afraid to go into the sink and grab a dirty dish, or plastic bag so she can bring it out into the living room and lick it clean.
That also holds true for the stove and no, she doesn’t care if it’s on or not. If memory serves me, she has taken a cooking hot dog out of the pan.
Once when I was at the sink, literally three feet behind her, she took a piece of chicken out of the pan. Yes, she’s that bold.
When I put water on the stove for pasta I always add a little oil. Delilah loves oil. She will lick the oily pasta water and given the opportunity will lick strait oil right from the pan. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone into the kitchen to find water or oil flicked all over the stove and had to dump the entire pan and start over. I finally got smart and put a lid on it.
As many times as I’ve caught her licking something out of the pan, I’ve never been able to get a picture of it. Until recently.
Yes, my bold and beautiful dog trying to get a french fry.
Do you have a counter surfer in your house? Have you found any creative ways to break this habit?
Oh that’s funny! I know we shouldn’t laugh… 😀 Are you sure she’s not part ridgeback?
My friend’s ridgeback ate a wokful of butter chicken while it was cooking on the stove and my friend was only about 4 metres away. He was in stealth mode. When she went to stir it… it had gone, and so had the culprit. She caught up with him downstairs, hiding between the sofa and the wall, trying to lick butter chicken off his eyebrows!
I shouldn’t laugh either, but I always do. I can’t help it. I can only imagine what she went through before she lived with us to make her constantly look for food!
Butter chicken? Once she ate 3/4 pound of butter….wrappers and all. 🙂 Those crazy dogs!
My creative way of stopping this is to have all small dogs. They keep the kitchen floor very clean for which I am grateful.
I know that doesn’t help you much.
LOL it’s a little late on that one Jan! I’m usually pretty pro-active with her, she just caught me at a weak moment.
Jodi, You know my Zeus has been a counter surfer for almost 2 years now. His latest was stealing Azariah’s taco, lol. He’s doing much better, I’ve been using the “off” command whenever I see him about to surf. When he jumps down I give him a lot of positive praise. I also have been calling him if I see him headed toward the kitchen counters instead of his food or water bowl. He’ll stop and look at me like oh no she caught me and then he heads for his own bowls and I let him know that’s a good thing. It’s been working he hasn’t stole anything for almost 2 weeks.
It sounds like you are doing great with Zeus!! How is he?? How is his leg? I’m so glad that you’ve found a way to work with him.
I know that it is MUCH harder to break the habit once they figure out that yummy food is the reward 🙂 My brother doesn’t allow his dogs in the kitchen . .Cali lays in the kitchen on the floor totally in our way! Her favorite word to hear in the kitchen is “oops”!
Delilah sure is cute 🙂
At our other house we had a way of keeping them out of the kitchen but not in this one. I can tell her til I’m blue in the face but she keeps going back. 🙂 Yup oops is a good one!
Rocco used to climb up on the table and help himself. This stopped when my husband accidently left his “Mexican Fire Rice” on the table. Poor dog shot fire out his ass for a week. 🙁
LOL I don’t know if that would even work for her!! Poor Rocco!!
Cyrano is still a sandwich stealer when no one is look (and sometimes when you’re looking right at him). They do make these electric shock pads that you place on the edge of the counter to ‘train’ dogs to stay off, but I’ve never actually used one so I have no idea if they work or not. I was tempted when I lived with Cyrano (lots of missing grilled cheese in those days), but I never brought myself up to the shock treatment. 🙁 You could look into though if it sounds like something you might want to try. But I think I like the mexican fire rice idea! 😀
Like you I’ve never brought myself to the shocking. I have tried to set-up her up using cans with pennies in them on a cookie sheet, but she managed to get the treat and only knock over one can. 🙂 Luckily for you Aladdin is too small to reach the counter.
She has talent! And we don’t have enough counter space to really get up on XD But he sure does score enough from dad, he doesn’t need counters lol 😛
My kitten is becoming an expert counter surfer – I must admit I just sit there in awe of his technique – nothing is safe! 🙂
Oh Barnaby, if there’s anything I dislike more than a dog on the counter…..it’s a cat. I am constantly screaming at Bob. 🙂
That is something. She is a bold one. As a pup Thunder was a counter surfer, but he outgrew it. Freighter wants to counter surf, but we are putting the kibosh on that. He is learning. The food is one thing, but what scares me are dish rags because if swallowed, they can cause big problems.
It is good that you are nipping it in the bud now. Sampson did it once, or twice but like Thunder he outgrew it. Luckily for us Delilah only likes to roll in the dish rags.
This was Fred when he was on phenob he was always starving we had to be very careful of everything, we would put the food in the stove or microwave while we sat down to eat as well lol.
Now something I was taught by a friend was she went to the office depot store and bought those plastic mats you put on the carpet so your chair can roll at your desk – ya know they have those knobs on them – well you turn them upside down on the counter and that is suppose to keep your dog off the counter because it doesnt feel good to them. – this was to keep a GSP dog off the counters and it worked
Also foil was suppose to make a sound when they put paws on it – someone with a cat did that and it would scare the cat.
I’m sorry you had to go through that with Fred.
I do like the idea of the plastic mats though, what a great idea. I think I’ll check into those, thank you Kari!!
Waaaaaah Whine Whimper…. WE can’t REACH. You are so LUCKY Deliah.
BOL Frankie and Ernie, you don’t need to. Your mom is very good to you!
Oh that’s funny, in a I’m-sorry-I-shouldn’t-be-laughing kind of way. :] As cute as the picture and story is, I have to admit, I’d worry about her near a hot stove. You don’t have electric by any chance do you? I’d be just slightly less terrified about that…
We’ve been lucky, for all her faults, Bella doesn’t steal food or counter surf. She does beg but you know, she had to to stay alive so we’ll never be able to train that out of her.
Oh trust me, I laugh too.
Yes it is electric but I do worry that she will burn her paw on the burner or her mouth in the pan.
Since we don’t have her background I can’t know if she had to fend for herself or not which is why I have tolerated it as long as I have. Soft spot you know. 🙂
Yes we have a counter surfer but it is the cat that is not our cat (but has become our cat) and who shares the same name as your counter surfer. 🙂
LOL oh yes, the cat that’s not yours, that you feed and clean up after. 🙂 Now you are calling her your cat?
When you find the magic cure for counter surfing let me know. I will be waiting. Hurley will be doing his sniffing rounds of the kitchen, evaluating whether there is something interesting enough on the counters worth me yelling at him (for the record, any teensy bit of food on the counter is worth getting in trouble over).
Well she doesn’t care if she gets yelled at or not. 🙂 She will get down though so I guess that’s a good thing, right?
Kari had a good suggestion about those mats you get at the office supply store to help your chair roll across a rug. Then you put them spikey side up and they don’t like the feel of them on their paws.
What about working on her not even going into the kitchen period since it’s such a temptation zone? A bit of work on a new command like “out” might work.
This is one or our house rules… no dogs in the kitchen if we are in the kitchen, and if we are eating they are to stay off the furniture we are eating on while we eat. Just helps eliminate a lot of the temptation right off the bat.
You could also have a leash at your side to snap to her, or one on her, to guide her away when you leave the kitchen. There are all kinds of videos on teaching “leave it” where they make their own choice about it.
You could place a rug that she is allowed on, so she still feels like she is part of things. I guess the brunt of the work was prevention, I would get on it as soon as you can though as it is one of those “self reward” things they do that makes it harder to leave behind. And I would hate for her to one day get something that really could injure her.
Good luck! She is indeed bold
Anna
http://www.akginspiration.com
We’ve been trying to keep her out of the kitchen for a while. Trouble is the kitchen is open on two sides so we really can’t block her.
But I do like the rug idea and will try that.
I worry about something injuring her too. 🙁
Wow, Go Team Delilah! She even beats Shiva for bravery when it comes to counter-surfing! I’ve never seen her dare to take anything from a hot pan and usually the sink is pretty safe. Every other surface, however, is also fair game for our dog. There are ways to work on this but we just manage it like you do by making sure there is no food available when we are not around. It’s not a “white carpet” issue for me and I’d rather work on other things.
However, that being said, I wonder if Shiva’s counter-surfing is linked to her running away during agility. Food is her biggest distraction and remains the one thing I can’t seem to recall her from. Perhaps if we work on counter-surfing this will also help us in other areas… Now you’ve got me thinking! You are a genius!
I can’t wait to see where you go with this Kristine!! You are the real genius!
Like you the counter-surfing isn’t a ‘white carpet’ issue, I wrote about it because I thought it would make a good blog post. 🙂
Do you think she smells food somewhere and runs off course? I know when we practice some of the dogs take a while in the tunnel, mostly because they are gobbling up treats. 🙂
I love the photo! When we first got Daisy, she grabbed a whole roasted chicken that I had sitting in a casserole dish on the counter. The whole thing came crashing down, and she was left standing there with a whole chicken dangling from her mouth while the casserole dish crashed and shattered on the hard tile floor beneath her. Luckily she was not hurt by the glass, but it scared the heck out of her (and us!) and she has never surfed the counter again! 🙂
Oh my gosh, she’s so lucky she didn’t get hurt!! I’m not sure if that would even scare Delilah!!
I forgot about the corned-beef that Delilah ate too! LOL
Looks like you were busted buddy!! Tee Hee
I don’t do that cos Mum said not too, so I don’t cos I’m the perfect Dog – Tee Hee – no actually I don’t, I just do the cute face and Mum often caves in and gives me a Carrot – works for me…. 🙂
Wags to all
Your pal Snoopy 🙂
I give her lots of treats Snoop!! I think it stems from her past. I really manage it most times. Thanks for stopping!
Hey Delilah, Jet here. Hi Miss Jodi.
JJ is jumping at the chance to comment. Here she is. Hi Miss Jodi and Delilah. Delilah, I can tell that you and I have gone to the same finishing school. I think Miss Jodi misunderstands. You are her QC Coordinator! (quality control) You’re looking out for her best interest. You’re completely misunderstood. Did I get that about right?
Hey JJ, Miss Delilah thinks you are right on the money!
Hey Delilah, JJ here. I’m studying a combined degree of law and psychology at Scooby Doo Academy! Glad my education is helping other K9s!