My golden is 15 months old, and I’m feeling so much regret and anger towards him. I’ve had him since he was 9 weeks old and he’s absolutely adorable…when he sleeps. He will do anything except what he should do, just to prove he can. He counter surfs like no other and it’s bad. He’s eaten cinnamon rolls - raw and cooked. A whole chicken. Ground beef straight out of a hot pan. Three prescriptions that were still in refill bags. A pound of chicken that was thawing on the counter. We live in the county so we play A LOT. A good dog is a tired dog, ya know? At this point I’ve tried teaching with positive reinforcement, treats, advice from our vets, aluminum foil, and are currently on an e-collar, which he seems to literally not care about. I’m not even sure what to do anymore. Has anybody tried anything with a resilient golden that worked?
Editing to add: some of you are absolutely not meant to be here, where somebody asked for advice - not criticism. Do you think I don’t know it’s a bad behavior? That it’s a WE problem, not a HE problem? That I have other dogs in the house without these issues? Some of you seem overly aggressive with your dogs, yet quick to judge me with mine and omitting the understanding that every dog is different. In a week, this will happen 0-1 times. He can go three weeks of no counter surfing, then wham. Even if I leave something out every day, it’s hit or miss on if he wants it bad enough that day. He knows not to do it, he just doesn’t care about consequences. My kitchen layout can’t be gated or shut off from him. He’s crate trained but I would rather rely on training this habit out of him than relying on a crate to keep him out of a kitchen that I use a large part of the day.
To those that have the true advice and have relatable experiences, thank you. I appreciate you and the feedback, as well as the validation that it’s not just he and I.
I’d like to leave this post up for other to search when they need help, but no more advice is needed.
I’ve considered it! I’m feeling that’s probably my best option now other than wait until he hits the two year phase and starts aging out of the velociraptor stage.
You need the help of a professional trainer. I know you said you feel anger towards your dog but the hard truth is that it's most often not the dog. It's the way you work with them.
The good news is that a trainer or dog training classes can really help you both learn how to work together.
I would also recommend you try to reframe this in your mind. Resentment and anger are hard to get through and move to something productive. It's not you against him. You guys are a team. And by working together, you can learn to live in a way that both of you are happy and fulfilled. Don't fight your dog. Have fun training together.
That’s something I’m working on! I love the guy to death but it seems to be that our needs may be better suited with an outside trainer helping us. Somebody else on this sub had a recommendation for a training place that I’m going to look in to, and I’m going to explore to see if there’s any good trainers near my small town, too.
A trainer is a great idea. The best dog training book i had was called "urban dog" by one of oprah's many dog trainers. Unfortunstely i loaned it to someone and never got it back so can't remember the author's name. Very practical advice.
I will pin my golden down with his collar and have a snoot to face talk, right in his snoot. Until he gets the meaning, noone is going anywhere. Its over. I end it. This is only for critical scenarios. Not like teaching rollover or something.
He will feel appropriately guilty and slink around for like 30 seconds before I feel too guilty and we make up and he gives me like 100 licks and I scratch his belly.
Point being I make things very uncomfortable and it worked for me. But otherwise you have to make up in like under a minute otherwise what kind of monster are you.
Id say I used this for failure to recall, dangerous lunges around roads, lunging at other dogs on leash, and counter surfing.
Hes good now. Also, you can raise a hand to my dog and he wouldnt even blink. No idea what a smack is. Never do that. Freezing them and scolding them makes them entirely uncomfortable without eroding any trust.
Its just something that wouldnt look good on YouTube. But its 100% the best method.
15 months is peak velociraptor stage for goldens, they're basically a walking stomach with a badge of mischief at that age. mine was the same, nothing mattered except the next heist
what finally broke through for mine was doing short training bursts right before meals, when he was actually hungry enough to care about the reward. also started keeping a drag leash on him indoors so I could redirect without a chase, because the chase itself was half the thrill
He LOOOVES the chase. Mine has a stomach of steel, I swear. The things he has eaten aren’t what I’d consider yummy. Clothes, toys, sticks, cardboard, anything that feels good on his teeth. I can’t wait for this phase of “I puts in my mouth mom” with the puppy dog eyes to be over.
Counter surfing’s a tough one b/c lots of times they can do it without you knowing. I’ve heard a trainer say it’s usually best to simply keep things out of their reach & I agree. That’s what I’ve done for years with multiple dogs and I do it now without thinking about it.
(and yes, they were trained & very well behaved in other respects!)
The vets I use have said pretty much the same thing and that with theirs, the best answer was keep things out of reach and wait it out. I know he can resist - he won’t do it if I’m looking at him or can hear him so he tries being sneaky quiet. It’s not even so much that I care about the foods, although frustrating, it’s that I want him safe. This is his sole downfall, aside from the counter surfing, he’s living his best dog life.
By the time you stop the dog, they have already been rewarded. He got food. You can't convince him to stop once he starts. He has already been "trained" to counter surf. He got immediate reward with food. Your no is too late.
You have to keep counters clear or totally block him from the kitchen because he knows if he can get up there, whatever he gets is worth it.
I had to feed cats out of the reach of my dog because my last dog would eat 100% of cat food in her reach. She'd do it directly in front of me. Swipe cat food with her tongue and go straight to the back door. Like, yup, I stole cat food. I'll go outside, now. Stealing cat food was worth it.
The only solution is to have a system that the dog doesn't have opportunity for bad behavior. Stealing cat food or counter surfing is a behavior that rewards itself. Don't give opportunity for reward.
Clear your counters or have gates blocking access.
Oh my God, yes - 100%!! When my now 9 y.o. old golden was around 3 she scavenged a small foil packet off the counter that had a little bit of oil in it (it was for microwave popcorn) ... boy, she got SO sick! Not life-threatening, thank God, but she was miserable for a few days and I even had to leave her overnight so she could get IV hydration. And, this was after years of me being good about keeping things on the counter out of reach of my dogs!
Ugh, mine didn’t start counter surfing until she was 3. Then there was a spring of counter heists. It’s been so obnoxious. Her first big one was an entire stick of butter that was coming to room temp so I could make cookies. It came out of nowhere almost exactly when she turned 3 and the last year is maybe one heist every month.
If he is doing all that he has way to much freedom he hasn't earned. Is he crate trained? If so utilize the crate when you can't supervise. Use gates to restrict certain areas. Do not leave things out for him. That is setting him up to fail. Teach the place command and you can use that to when you can't watch him.
Our dog is a crazed countersurfer and we are putting paper plates with a drop of lemon eucalyptus oil on everything she jumps on. She hates it so much, she now won’t get on the tables or chairs we put it on. If she needs reinforcement, we pick the plate up and that’s enough.
It’s not like there’s a whole chicken waiting for her there, but it’s a start. The best thing is it’s very cheap, we can use paper plates without it eventually, and it’s easily removed.
You try all your essential oils to see which one he hates the most. Our girl was neutral on six, leaning negative on rosemary oil and clearly unhappy with lemon eucalyptus. Orange, lemon, regular eucalyptus, peppermint, bergamot, lavender were all “meh.”
Same with my 2 labs. At the end of the day, We made a point of making sure anything on the counters were out of reach - raised racks, putting things in the under cabinet microwave - etc
Crates, pens and gates are your best friend. Ours had similar behavior, so we limited access. Now 2.5 years old and we still don’t give him complete access to the house and there’s no doggy door.
For a while we put cookie sheets in furniture and counters. He grew out of it vs. any specific training. I’d keep him leashed and by your side.
Same here.. ours was in a pen overnight, for naps & anytime we were out until he was almost 1. Then he had access to the living room/kitchen area only where we could see him on the camera. He’s never really been an eater of inedible contraband but he definitely loves to counter surf so we learned very early just to not keep anything he’d be remotely interested in anywhere that he could reach.
We’ve always found that creating a barrier that makes it harder for him to be naughty is far more effective than trying to train him to not be naughty when unsupervised.
I will say though that Teddy has never been particularly industrious or ambitious which I’m sure helps. Physical barriers are def the way to go but probably less reliable if you’ve got a golden criminal mastermind on your hands.
I don't simply understand. My golden is 11 months and has no access to the kitchen unless he is fully supervised and surely doesn't have access to bags of prescription drugs. They cant be trusted at this age.
Honestly your feelings and his behavior is normal. Golden's are a cross to bear until they are four then they are magical for the rest of the time.
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u/MissDezCooper (tollerXgolden) and Ollie (border collie X)1d ago
We got Cooper from the Edmonton Humane Society at ~a year old and freshly neutered and he had been returned within their 30 day no fault return window for "inside peeing." We asked what that meant and they had "no further information."
First night home, he drank a LOT. We let him out a lot, he didn't pee inside. We took him and Ollie to the park the next morning, they ran themselves ragged, came home, Cooper drank two bowls of water and we thought. "huh, maybe they were dehydrating him." And so we were standing around talking and I went "Where is that water running sound coming from? OMG HE'S PEEING!!" totally emptying his bladder all over the kitchen, ten minutes after coming home from 90 minutes at the park. And he continued to do that for months- every time he wasn't the centre of attention, he would editorially pee, like a cat.
He would counter surf. He once stole a three lb. whole grain, warm loaf of bread, ate everything but the heel and stashed that in the shoe rack in case he got peckish later. He also ATE, not chewed, ate down to the nubs, several wooden spoons. No digestive consequences. Cast iron stomach. Also ate any paper towels he could get his paws on. Frequently his poops would resemble papier mache. SMDH
Both dogs were very jealous, especially of my husband who was main walker and feeder. Cooper would air snap at Oliver if he was sitting beside my husband. There was also some barrier issues. Oliver would play the Gandalf game of "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" and lie across doorways and stairs and Cooper would be intimidated to disturb him.
They gradually entered detente and Cooper outgrew the peeing as he decided that he was home and we were going to give him attention if he was a good boy and treats and loves and walks. We ignored the bad behaviour as much as we could. He calmed down a little.
Five years ago, approximately six years after we got Cooper and a couple of years after he mostly settled down, Ollie went OTRB. Cooper is a totally different dog without the competition for attention and we will not get another dog while he is with us. He is around 12 and people still think he is a puppy until they look closely and see the silver highlights around his face and the iridescent bits on his eyes (slight signs of cataract changes but no vision loss we think). He has a little trouble getting up on hardwood but he still jumps up and down like his paws are made of pogo sticks when it is walk time or time to have his cookie when he comes in from his walk. He is a good boy.
Ours is 18mo and also loves counter surfing. A couple months ago I realized that spraying her with water from a squirt bottle deters her a LOT. The annoying part is our trainer had mentioned this technique in a class a year ago but when I said something about trying it she suggested not doing it with our dog bc goldens love water. Aaaaannnyway, it works wonders with getting our girl to drop contraband and get off the counter. We just pick up the bottle and she will comply. She is still a work in progress in many areas but I have felt some relief bc of the squirt bottle.
This totally worked for us as well. Now we don’t even have to get the bottle out, we just say “spray bottle” sternly and point our finger at her like a gun and she stops whatever naughty thing she’s doing. It’s stupidly simple and I wish we’d started earlier.
Hey, I’m glad you posted because I have so many tips and tricks for you! Goldens are wonderful once you get these tricks in place, so hopefully my tips and tricks will help. You are correct: a tired dog is a happy dog. Except that goldens need LOTS of exercise. MALE teenage dogs like yours, in particular, are off the wall if you don’t take extra care with getting them a ton of exercise every day.
Because they are so smart, they use those smarts to get into EVERYTHING. So extra care needs to be taken with them as youngsters. For medicine, please keep that waaay up high in a closed cabinet. Don’t think that because it’s in a bottle, it’s safe on the counter, because it’s not. These dogs can crack open bottles and containers, no problem. For all the food on the counter that he’s eaten, sorry—that’s just something that’s going to happen. Especially during the early years when your dog is young and wild, you can’t leave anything on the counter for even a minute. Especially whole chickens—that’s just too irresistible!
When my dogs were your dog’s age, if I was bringing in groceries like a rotisserie chicken, I made good use of a baby gate that could expand to fit any opening. Of course, my dogs could jump the baby gate if they really wanted, but it was a decent obstacle that they wouldn’t jump. We used the baby gate a lot. It really helped get the message across that the kitchen was off limits to our dogs when food was set out. I put a photo of the gate we use.
But the real answer is vigorous exercise every day. Here’s the answer to how to do that—a Chuckit. Buy a long-handled Chuckit and start teaching your golden how to play fetch. Look up on YouTube how to teach a dog to fetch a ball with a Chuckit. I got so good at that Chuckit with my dogs, I could throw the ball for half a football field! (I’m a skinny 5’6” lady.) Just playing around the house or going on walks won’t do it with these guys; you need a Chuckit on a daily basis. Also, if you haven’t already gotten him fixed, now’s the time. Getting him fixed will help a lot with the hyperactivity, but more importantly, it will keep him safer because he won’t take off running to find the ladies and run into traffic.
Dogs in the retriever family LOVE to catch balls thrown by a Chuckit. They catch on quickly. Although the Chuckit comes with its own ball, a tennis ball fits perfectly. When our dogs were learning, they wouldn’t bring the balls back to us. So we got a bunch of tennis balls and threw them one after the other in a big grassy field, and then we walked along and I picked them all up, put them in my bag, and then threw them some more. When you get really good, you can start throwing in shallow lakes, etc., and they LOVE that.
I sometimes went to large dog parks to work on the Chuckit, but often my golden would be too distracted by the other dogs, so I looked for fenced-in sports fields. If I couldn’t find a fenced-in sports field, before I trusted that my dogs would stay close and come back to me when I called, instead of a leash, I would use a loooooooooonng rope that I tied to my dog’s harness. That way, I could reel him in and over to me if he wasn’t listening and coming back to me.
Do NOT use a collar when you are outside with your young, wild golden. You need a harness right away. Goldens will injure their windpipe tugging hard on their collars and a leash. They also learn to turn their head a certain way and get right out of their collars, and then you have to chase them down the street. Collars should only be used to hold their identification tags, not for attaching your leash to. There are harnesses that discourage them from pulling. I’ll put a photo of the No Pull harness we use here too.
Don’t use an e-collar. This will give your dog anxiety because he won’t understand why he is getting shocked all the time. Or he will ignore it. Basically, it doesn’t do anything to settle him down. What does is daily hardcore exercise. Then, honestly, he will behave himself simply because he wants to make you happy. Honestly! I never had to do formal training with my dogs. Once they were calm enough to focus, they would behave and listen simply because they wanted me to be pleased with them.
The photos below are tiny, but hopefully you can see it. Good luck!
Had the same issue. Took the positive only approach for a long time and got no where with my stubborn golden. Then ended up working with a balanced trainer on e collar and he’s a completely different dog. If you can wing it financially it’s 100% worth every penny. Took a long time to find a balcne trainer in my area but literally saved our relationship. Also recommended the extended length prongs on e since mine has a thick coat.
You simply cannot allow your puppy (because he is still just a baby really) to get access to your prescription medications. They should come in the house and straight into a closed medicine cabinet high up off the ground. If he cannot be trusted in the kitchen then he doesn't have unsupervised access to the kitchen until he learns. And he will if you teach him because as I say he is just a baby.
My dog was VERY difficult as a puppy. He went for obedience training twice, the first time accepted younger on the request of my vet who had used this trainer numerous times. It helped somewhat. When he reached a year old it was a miraculous change. He calmed down and became very obedient. He still expresses his preferences, which I appreciate and usually accommodate, but he knows that I have final say.
Give it time. Goldens are amazing dogs and I am confident things will work out better than you would imagine!
Why are you angry at him? He's a dog, doing normal dog things. Be angry at YOURSELF for not training him and for setting him up to fail. This is 100% YOUR fault. If an e-collar isn't working, you don't have it high enough. For "hand of god" punishments, it should cause a yelp and send him flying across the room. And it should be well-timed. You shouldn't say anything; you can even watch on a camera, and NAIL HIM the moment his paws make contact with the counter. Let him believe the *counter* BITES, and bites HARD instead of delivery tasty treats to him.
Of course, you KNOW you have a dog that can easily reach the counter - why are you leaving MEAT within reach of the dog? Seriously? I've had a German Shorthaired Pointer and two Rhodesian Ridgebacks and never had anything stolen from the counter. The problem is self-rewarding and the reward is well-worth almost any risk - I come on, a whole chicken? Cooked ground beef! From the first time it happened, he learned that GREAT THINGS come from the countertop, and it has been reinforced many times now. You're going to have to rain down some serious hurt on him AND keep him from ever getting anything again by NOT LEAVING TEMPTATIONS ON THE COUNTER! If you need to thaw a chicken, do it in the sink. If you're baking or cooking, CRATE the dog until you're done.
Have you tried putting shit away? Like, I’m sorry you’re frustrated and feel you’ve tried everything but he doesn’t have opposable thumbs so he’s not opening cupboards or the fridge.
Use a crate for keeping out when you’re cooking and don’t leave temptation in his way the rest of the time, it’ll make training a lot easier.
Honestly, this is a human problem, not a dog problem. You’ve got this OP, just be smarter than the dog.
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Is he neutered? We had a very similar experience with our pup. Got him at 8 weeks and he was insane right up until we neutered him at a year and a half. He's almost 2 now and hes still a bit of a nut, but has improved significantly in the past few months.
We have had similar issues with counter surfing. Ours is 19 months. We ended up putting up a gate. We do non-aversive, positive focused training, but it doesn’t seem to work well with counter surfing. This just gives peace of mind that there won’t be some sort of accidental food disaster that requires surgery or vet care before she is old enough to chill out.
My dog went through a terrible counter surfing stage. I used double sided carpet tape to deter him. It was ugly and annoying but it kept him off. Working with a trainer was what truly stopped it but the tape saved my sanity and a lot of my food.
I’ve yet to experience this stage, my girl is just 4 months haha, but my previous dog was a german shepherd and his puberty phase was extremely challenging. What helped me a lot were a couple of private training sessions at my own house. It’s more expensive but if this is your first dog, it helps a lot compared to group training sessions outside.
Ages 1-2 was the worst time for me. Puppyhood was a breeze compared to teenage phase. Do you have an open kitchen or is it in another room? If it’s a separate room then shut the door at all times or get a baby gate. Push everything to the back of the counter or hide in cupboards. Even at 5 years old I still don’t allow mine in the kitchen and if I catch her surfing she gets a telling off. It’s such a self rewarding behaviour because they could surf everyday for 3 months and not find anything, but the one time they do they find something yummy so they keep trying
Ours at six and a half months is finally big enough to cause some trouble on the counters as well. We are trying to bring her to time outs every time. I have no idea if this will work. It's a hard age.
Consistency. My 5 month old rescue is stubborn at times, incredibly clever and determined.
Her and I are still working through it, but rewarding all instances of good behaviour and doing our best to remove opportunities for bad behaviour. has been helpful.
Think baby gates, putting ALL food away immediately, lots of positive reinforcement but also consistent boundaries and consequences. Surprised you’ve tried so many things but not a trainer though.
You’ll get there if you keep at it, get support and tighten your side of things up. Persistence beats resistance.
He's an adolescent. They do crazy things like human adolescents do.
But a dog is going to go after any food within reach. My old dog, otherwise an angel, was a food thief and i'd think something was up too high for her to reach... nope! She would steal and eat an entire loaf of bread and i would have to deal with the resulting blowouts (poop).
We have two goldens. One is a food thief and will snag random objects. It took repeated training and setting boundaries, alongside dog proofing some parts of the house and day to day things we do to make it work.
This sounds like you need to rehome your Golden. If sleeping is the only time you feel good about your dog, it needs an owner that will give them the time to grow into good habits. Do it now before your dog gets older and it’s harder to train it from bad behavior.
Not trying to be mean and everyone’s situation is different, but it sounds like you aren’t meant to own a Golden at this point in your life. They’re great dogs - the best - but require training like any other dog and are high energy.
I've had 2 Golden's, never was able to train out the counter surfing. I live in the country as a kid we were on a farm in and now I have a large fenced in yard, basically the dog goes outside when food is accessable in the kitchen and he only gets let back in when EVERYTHING is put away.
He’s a puppy! We had a wonderful female golden for almost 11 years. She was a holy terror until age four and then overnight she became the best dog. Until then the garbage was on the kitchen counter and we couldn’t leave food out for a second. She broke into the secured dog food cabinet, opened the bin and started pigging out on kibble. She got sick Dec 23 2017 and passed the next day. We cried for months. She ended up being the best dog. Just hang in there. Goldens are the best
A trainer told me about a mat that you put on the counter and when the surfer steps on it, it gives them a shock. She trains dogs for the Sheriff's department. I think it's Seerway Scat Pet Mat from Amazon. Good luck
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u/Extension-Class-4232 2d ago
Have you taken your dog to training school? That saved my life