Crate!

We've crated our boy since the day we brought him home and it's been a perfect arrangement. First, you have to understand, a crate is not bad or mean or scary. It will be come your pup's bedroom. A crate is his bed. His place. His safe zone. His couch. His napping spot. It's his place.

As I type this my 7yo Lab is snoozing in his. Voluntarily. And it has been his place of choice since as long as I can remember. He doesn't fight it. He doesn't bark. He doesn't hate it. He volunteers to go in there. Ever since the beginning we showed him it was his and he has taken to it like he took to swimming. So, he likes crate. That is established that a dog will not see it as punishment.

As for a negative reaction to scare him from counter surfing, you need to set up booby traps that will catch him when you are not around. Your pup must associate negative consequences to his action, not to you being around to administer the action. One idea is to lay contact paper or some kind of sticky paper to get on his paws when he puts them up there. Cats especially hate this one. Another is the pennies in a can. You can tie some string to a metal can, put pennies in there so it makes a loud rattle. When the dog puts his paws and trip the string he'll startle himself with the noise of the can.


Crate is easier.

 

When Im in the dog house I have to stay in the shed.

 

Chad,

If you go with the crate, a trick I learned a while back is to put an old shirt you have worn, but not washed, into it. Helps with the separation anxiety also. The first night Jackson was in his he whined until I threw it in there, then he settled down and went right to sleep. We got rid of the crate after I started in the oil fields so he could 'enforce' the locks on the doors if need be.

FWIW the reason I like the hot wire is it teaches them them that jumping, or better yet climbing) up n things hurts, and you don't have to say or do a thing. Jackson ran up to me after his first, and last hit, for love and attention (which he received a whole pile of). He wont jump up on anything now, unless he is told to do so. Seems cruel, and maybe it is, but I always worried about him investigating a hot pot or something on the stove, or a knife on the counter and getting himself in big trouble.

Which ever solution you come up with, let us know how it worked (or didn't). Always looking for new and better solutions for training our best friends!!!

 

All great replies! Thanks everybody. I will start with the bitter apple first. If that does not work I will do the crate thing. I wish i did it before. I have another smaller dog that gets crated when we leave (for other reasons) and she would love to sleep there when she was small enough to fit in it. I am thinking a bigger crate and she would still like to go in there.

I'll keep you posted on what worked and what didn't, if anything!!

 

awwwwwwwww

 

Sheds are cool. Been there a few times myself. My new shed is getting a big screen tv, surround, fridge and porta pottie. BBQ is by the door.

 

A guy I worked for had a big mooch pooch. She would steal your lunch if she could get at it. So we set her up with some hot peppers. She kept at them for an hour, determined to eat them. Too hot, too hot,,, Maybe the first one is cool now, nope, next one? nope. She finally ate them, but never bothered our lunches or mooched again.

 

Update #1
The day I was going to get the bitter apple stuff I came home to find the bottom corner of the couch was chewed and a corner of the coffee table! So I bought a crate instead. She does not mind it at all. And I love not worrying if I forgot to clean everything off the counters!

 

Sounds like the best solution Chad. Sounds as though she will be very happy, and most important out of trouble!!

 

True! I told her today she has gone 6 days without getting her butt spanked!!

 

OK Peta is gona hate me! but the dog I have now was doing that and we tried to stop it every which way. so I got to thinking ....pain is a great teacher,so it took some convincing of the wife but she Finlay got sick of it too .so I got some wire fabric and a high power electric fence charger and laid the fabric on the counter and around the floor and hooked +to one and- neg to the other (make sure your wife is throughly schooled on high voltage or it will take a year or more to ever get any again)!!any way it only took 2 attempts by old yeller to get the idea. red neck? yes but it worked.

 

Y' spose rat traps'll keep our Alsatian off the bed? She's gettin' a bit rough on my lower lumbar...

 

Dang, I am stupid. Its already got power. Should have run some coaxial cable for the old TV that is stored in it.