Dog Blog - Dog Product Reviews

I was talking to someone today who had me in stitches talking about her dogs, who work in tandem to get food off the kitchen counters. They cooperate. One drags a chair to the counter and jumps onto it, throwing down food for the other one. It was really funny, but it also made me think, how do you stop a dog from surfing the couinters when you're not there?

I haven't had this problem, although I had one Dachshund who I swear would have gotten into the bread if he'd had a chance to get up there. In fact, one day, my cousin and I left the house to go to a movie. Shortly after we got there, I remembered a frosted cake I had left on the counter. I was fretting about that cake the whole time we were at the movie, thinking my two big dogs would get into it. But when we returned, it was intact. What a relief. Still, I don't tempt them any more.

I hear from lots of customers whose dogs climb up onto the counter to get food. There's the Standard Poodle who goes from there onto the refrigerator top to get the Krispy Kreme doughnuts. There's the Australian Shepherd who set the house on fire because she turned on the stove during a potato chip chomp on the counter.

 There are devices out there that you can put on furniture or counter tops that will give your cat or dog a mild shock if they jump on it.  (I've tried it; it feels like the shock you'd get after walking across the carpet and then touching the doorknob.) Also, we could put all the food away (a very good idea). Other than that, what else can be done?

Has anyone come up with a good deterrent to counter surfing? Let us know, because this seems to be a problem that's especially difficult to solve, since we're never home when it happens.