My dog is climbing the fridge

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Some of you may recall that I became the proud owner of a delightful pit bull last month. (Picture here; note that the muzzle is required by law. But you can see that he’s smiling behind it!)

Everything is going well, he is getting good at not jumping on my friends and is generally learning to behave himself quite nicely.

The only problem is a serious case of what apparently is known as counter surfing. As soon as I leave the house, he is up on the counters, making a mess.

This is a huge problem for two reasons (aside from the obvious one, that a dog shouldn’t be doing that!)

  1. I have a particularly huge kitchen (it takes up more than half of my total living space), with quite a lot of counter space - a table, a “peninsula” (as opposed to an island) that’s maybe 6’ by 3’, a stovetop, a space to the left of the sink that’s about 2’ square, a double sink, another space to the right of the sink that’s about 1’ by 2’, and another 2’ x 3’ space beside that. Before I got lovely Jimbo I was quite pleased with all this space because it meant I could leave my crap lying around wherever I wanted (see point 2, below); now, I am not so pleased.

  2. I’m a total slob, and up until I got the dog I don’t think I ever, in my life, went to bed with a clean kitchen. It’s just not in me. It is a massive struggle for me to even wash the dishes, let alone clear off every inch of horizontal space in the kitchen every morning, and then clean off the bits and pieces of whatever I missed in the afternoon.

Someone suggested booby-trapping the counters with noisy things so that when he gets up there, things will crash around him and the noise will deter him. No such luck. Every time he goes up there, something crashes or smashes, and it’s just getting worse.

The more I clean up the more invasive he gets. On Tuesday the only things on the counter were the dishrack and a plant (which he had always left alone before). Guess what I found scattered around when I got back. Grr. Along with various things that had been stuck to the side of the fridge with magnets.

This morning, I had a friend staying in my living room, so she was able to rat him out. I left the house but I forgot something, so I went back in to get it - only to find the dog ALREADY standing on the counter. I scowled and told him to get off, which he did. Then my friend called, she said that he’d scattered cereal and a bottle of booze on the floor. Things that had been ON TOP OF THE FRIDGE when I left the house.

No place is safe.

I love my dog but this is getting ridiculous. I cannot rearrange my kitchen any further. I cannot clean up more effectively. He is like a mouse, but more persistent, and a lot bigger. Oh, and he’s been invited into the house, which I guess is different.

Tomorrow I will booby-trap with upside-down contact paper (I’m told they don’t like the sticky) and alum-covered toast, if I can find it in the grocery store.

If that doesn’t work … well … maybe I’ll just get rid of my kitchen.

2

Getting rid of the kitchen (and half your house) is a lot easier than getting rid of Jimbo.

Part of me wants to be impressed, the other piece wants to express sympathy.

Way to go, Jimbo!

(guess what side won)

3

Somehow I have to get this thread next to my thread, “My cat is in the dryer.”

4

You dog is looking for things to do because he is bored - give him a cannon bone when you leave the house and you have more of a chance he’ll leave other stuff alone. Dogs aren’t really designed to stay inside a house for a large part of the day. Also, if he is still young he’ll grow out of some of the distructive behaviours. The other thing to do is make sure he is walked and therefore exhausted before you leave him home alone - more likely he will sleep and has burned off the energy.

5

If all else fails, crate him when you can’t supervise him.

6

It could always be worse…my friend has a bulldog cross god knows what and he learned to open the fridge…cold cuts are expensive and they went through about $100 worth before they finally figured out what was happening. Now they have to velcro the fridge shut.

7

:smack: And I meant to add…spread some peanut butter or something he really likes inside a hollow bone and he’ll work on it instead of the counters.

8

[Fark]Your dog wants Glenfiddich[/Fark]

He must be an impressive athlete to be able to climb all over the place like that. Does he use a chair or anything as a stepping stone (so to speak) to get up on the counter, or does he just leap right up and have at it? You could try booby-trapping it with loops of masking tape so when he jumps up he gets sticky tape all over his paws.

I know my cats hate it. Dogs may not care so much. YMMV as always.

9

Ditto on crating when not home, and “busy” toys when you are home and can’t watch him.

Crating can be a sad thing at the beginning for both dog and owner. The dog will resist and it will become a daily chase scene to get him in every morning. And then he’ll make you feel all guilty and sad about it as you walk out the door.

In a short while, though, Jimbo will start going to the cage when you say “cage” or better yet, when you’re putting on your shoes to leave. And soon enough you’ll find him snoozing in there with the door open when you’re home. It’ll become his domain and he’ll love it.

If your dog is that bored and that nosy, he’s going to hurt himself while you’re not there and the guilt of having to go through that will trump any guilt you’d feel by having to crate him. Trust me.

10

Sprinkle pepper on the countertops.

11

He just leaps up from the floor. He jumps onto the table and from there can reach the fridge. I have removed all other “stepping stones” but he doesn’t appear to need them, he’s very wily.

I leave him with two stuffed frozen kongs every day; my experience this morning proved that he went for the counters BEFORE the kongs. (They’re the only toy that I’ve found that works - all others either don’t last (e.g. rawhide) or he’s not interested (e.g. Nylabone).)

The plant/dishrack escapade happened the day after he’d been for a 2.5 hour walk with 20 other pitbulls (pictures are on the Yahoo page linked above), and he got a substantial morning walk as well. I’ve never seen him so tired. And yet he surfed …

I don’t want to crate him the whole time I’m away (or, actually, every time my back is turned - when I take the garbage out? go to the laundry room? pick up my paper in the morning?). That would indeed suck for everyone. He already loves the crate (because he’s in it every time I leave him alone OTHER than going to work) and I don’t want to do it any more than I have to. sigh.

I am trying the sticky paper tomorrow and will try the pepper too.

Might be true. He looooooves red wine, and there was some pretty nice booze up there this morning that my friend brought over. Maybe I should just give him a shot of whiskey before I go out, that should solve everything!

12

Put a thin sheen of alcohol on your countertops.
Light them on fire.

13

Is there any reason why you can’t lock him out of the kitchen when you go to work? (Baby gates work really well for this.)

14

There is no way on this earth I would have a dog uncrated while he was alone in the house, personally… I’d be worried that he’d get into something with which he could hurt himself. It’s good that he loves his crate. It seems like you’re thinking of it as punishment or restriction, but he’s responding to it properly as his “den”, his secure place.

If he’s having no trouble jumping up onto the counters, I can’t help but think that baby gates aren’t going to pose a problem for him. You could try to put two baby gates in the doors… one wedged in the upper part of the doorway to keep him from jumping over. But that will only work if your kitchen isn’t an open plan.

Ultimately, it may be just one of those training issues where you constantly have to redirect him when you are home until he gets the idea.

15

The kitchen is the only place he can be. (That, or the living room, bedroom or bathroom, and those would be way worse.) It’s a funny layout.

I just tried some alum, on the advice of my trainer. The idea is to bait the counters with something horrible.

He loved the alum. Sigh. And Marmite, too.

Tomorrow, tho, I will use pepper. Pepper and sticky paper. I will triumph!

16

He loved alum?

Your dog is weird.

Yeah. Tape and pepper. Pepper on the tape, even, so when he tries to remove the tape he has to taste the pepper.

But then if he likes the pepper, you’re screwed. He’ll be asking you to season his kibble from then on.

17

Jalapeno pepper juice made my puppy stop chewing the baseboards.

Is he skittish at all when he hears a loud, sudden noise? I was thinking you might be able to train him by scaring the hell out of him.

They sell motion-detecting alarms at Lowes for about $30. They’re meant to be put at the bottom of your driveway to tell you when a car is coming into your property, but maybe you could put them up on the walls above the counter. When the dog jumps up there, it would trigger the alarm. (My grandma bought a set which she put on her knewl posts so she would know if the baby tried to go up the stairs.) Turn the alarm up as loud as possible.

Mousetraps are another possibility. Get the tiniest ones you can, so that they wouldn’t actually be able to snap down on a paw or his nose. (The idea is to startle, not to actually pinch the dog. You might be able to loosen the spring, too, just to make sure he won’t get pinched.) A relative of mine used them to stop her large breed dog from stealing out of the trash can. When the dog started sniffing and rooting around, the traps would spring, scaring the bejeezus out of him.

Try to trick him into doing it while you’re home. Hide so he can’t see you and leave something yummy on the counter. When he jumps up to get it, blast one of those air horns they use at sporting events, or throw a can full of pennies against the wall. Tell him he’s a bad dog and isolate him for a while as punishment.

18

There are sensors you can put up which will trigger a really high-pitched noise if he breaks it. Very irritating to dogs and apparently they often back off when exposed to it.

Aside from training the dog *you * need to make some changes. He’s obviously a very intelligent animal who loves exploring and seeing what he can get into. So you need to stop leaving crap all over and start putting it in Jimbo-proof places. And above all, stop leaving food around to tempt him. Can you imagine leaving a toddler human alone in a room with chocolate and expecting it to be there when you get back an hour later? Jimbo can’t imagine that either. :smiley:

19

If you can’t crate and nothing else is working you might want to look into a little item called a Scat Mat.

20

It’s not a matter of can’t crate, but more of won’t crate. I agree with others when I say there’s nothing wrong with crating a dog while you’re away. As long as you’re consistent and make it a good experience, the dog isn’t suffering. The easiest solution of all is, be cleaner :stuck_out_tongue: Don’t leave anything on the counters ever and he’ll eventually learn there’s no point.