Monday- So the war is on with Rei's counter surfing

Rei has a passion for Peanut butter, so with some research and some past experience with pet dogs, I've decided to try an approach that I don't like to do, but she's getting out of hand. So I am baiting her with Peanut Butter, an irresistable food to her, with Cayenne pepper/hot sauce mixed in. I have some hot sauce here that Mike likes and and I used a bunch of it in some peanut butter and added some crushed red pepper to the mix as well. The stuff was orange and hopefully nice and potent to make her think twice!

I then cut 2 slices of bread in half and spread the mixture thickly on the halves and then laid them on the counter tops/stove close to the edge. I laid two other pieces on the coffee table/lego table on plates and told her to LEAVE IT! and walked away.

Well, she immediately went and gobbled the one up on the coffee table and then came to the playroom and went for that one too. I then took the bowl with the remaining stuff in it and laid on the plate in the playroom too, and again told her No! Leave it. With this, she's thinking about it, but her previous steal is getting to her, so she's not wanting it as badly.

Twenty minutes later we were quite an unhappy puppy and very remorseful- rubbing her head on her blanket and trying to get the taste out of her mouth...

Poor puppy! (head buried in her blanket with very sorrowful eyes)



Now while it slowed her way down on wanting to take foods and she was very subdued and very well behaved last night- not even really coming close to the kitchen or to the dining room as we ate (she probably had a tummy ache too), We will continue a regime of loaded food in various places that she's not to take from as needed. I hope that with 4-5 days of getting a hold of stuff that doesnt taste good, she'll just plan to leave things alone. Will update on how things go as we go along with this!

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~THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED~

Contents from this post has been removed due to a complaint to the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind about the practices I have used.

This methodology of training has been used after using other milder methods before this without the desired results and after thorough research and careful instruction on using these types of methods in order to keep my dog from stealing food when we are out in public places as well as here at home.

This method should not be used by just anyone, but with the assistance of a professional dog trainer and careful instruction.

While the school instructed me on using foods to work on training Rei, I researched and implemented on my own the methods and practices of using the cayenne pepper to teach Rei to not countersurf.

One of the resources that I used to gain more information on this included the following:

http://labadoption.org/linkpages/DogBehave/Articles/Counter%20Surfing.pdf

And as a reminder- upon leaving the school, I do have 100% ownership of Rei, but the school is there to support and assist me in any issues that I may have, to ensure our bonding and success as a working team.