(Narrator) Ten year old Australian shepherd
(Shelby) Stains, move your nose!
(Narrator) Named Stains, is uncontrollable in the kitchen
Can Victoria bring these wayward hounds under her spell?
(Victoria) Stains!
(Craig) Stains, come here
(Victoria) Wow, Australian shepherd!
(Victoria) What happens in the kitchen?
(Shelby) We cannot leave anything out in the kitchen
if we leave any food out at all, Stains gets it
(Craig) He's a counter surfer!
(Victoria) Right
(Shelby) And Peanut would get it too but he's too short
(Victoria) Can I see a little bit of this "counter surfing" then?
(Shelby) Last week I baked cupcakes for my friend"s birthday and
left them on the counter, and when i came back
about an hour later, they were almost all gone
(Narrator) To demonstrate, Shelby plants a bit of food on the counter
and they all leave the room
Stains pretends to go along
but then quickly doubles back
(Victoria) Wow
(Victoria) There's a positive side to a dog being food motivated
they can learn really quickly, but, there's
a negative side, Stains just can't think of anything else
except food
(Narrator) And if the dogs aren't stealing food off the counter
they're begging for it at the table
(Shelby) When we sit down for a meal, Stains will
intently stare at you and
drool
all this drool comes out of his mouth the whole time we're eating
(Victoria) Let's go on to Stains
He's a huge counter surfer
Of course he's an opportunist!
He's fine when you're there
But when you go, he's gonna get that food
(Victoria) Craig and Shelby are newlyweds, and
I really want them to be able to enjoy a dinner in their own home
in peace
(Victoria) Stains, lets go!
(Narrator) Victoria shows Shelby and Craig
how to keep ther dogs out of the kitchen during mealtimes
(Victoria) So i want to establish, Stains being behind the line
and each time he comes in
i'm just gonna push him back
And the same with Peanut
Stay
I'm using my body, to say back
(Narrator) Victoria tries several times, then
she feels its time to hand over the reins
(Victoria) Craig, take over
for a while
(Craig) I knew at dinnertime that Stains would, uh
He'd sit right behind that line and, he'd sit and he'd lie down
I knew Peanut was gonna be the issue here
(Victoria) Go
(Craig) Back, stay
ah ah
Stains, get back
Peanut
Stains, down
Peanut back, back!
Peanut, stay!
(Narrator) But persistance pays off
(Victoria) Good boy, good boy
That's what you want, you want him to suddenly lie down
good boy
(Narrator) That night, Craig and Shelby attempt the impossible
A romantic dinner at home
(Craig) stay
come on Peanut, out, out
sit, stay
(Victoria) as long as peanut is behind the line, he actually doesn't have to be sitting
(Narrator) But as soon as Craig's back is turned, Peanut is over the line
(Shelby) I can do it, back
back, back
stay!
(Narrator) when Shelby takes a no nonsense approach
Peanut gets the message
(Shelby) Oh my gosh they're staying
(Victoria) Great job guys, this is a real breakthrough!
(Narrator) But when left alone in the kitchen during cleanup
Stains is up to his old tricks
(Victoria) I'm gonna get back to Craig and Shelby
Because there's still more work that we can do
(Narrator) Victoria has a plan to tackle Stains' counter surfing
and she's so confident it will work
she's using the ultimate bait
(Victoria) cupcakes, mmm mmm mmm
(Narrator) Stains helps himself to any food he can get
and recently stole fourteen cupcakes
from the kitchen counter
(Craig) Hey! what are you doing there
(Victoria) He has a certain amount of impulse control
but he's not stupid, we go out the room
and he's like " well you're not there anymore
so i'm gonna take advantage of it"
which is why i have this, okay
this is a collar
it's literally just a remote talking collar
I talk into it like a walkie talkie and he just hears it
around his neck
(Narrator) First, Victoria wants to refresh the away command
(Victoria) away!
Away!
I just waned stains to know that, he had to
back away from the plate of cupcakes so
I held it in front of him, which was so awful
and so tempting for the poor dog, but then when he either
took his head away or sat right down I said "away"
so he got to know that the word away meant that
he had to back away from them
(Narrator) Then, Victoria attaches the magic collar
(Victoria) I wanted to do this training because i wanted stains to see
that even though nobody's there
he's still being watched
(Narrator) They take up their post on the other side of the house, and then
it's all eyes on stains
(Victoria) I'm gonna get him as soon as i see him
*muffled* Stains away
Stains, away
Stains, away!
*muffled* away!
*muffled* ah ah! Stains away!
Good boy Stains, good boy
(Shelby) We were really proud of Stains, for
for walking away from the cupcakes
I wasn't sure if he was gonna...
What he was gonna do so it was great seeing him do that
(Victoria) You're not going to be able to sit in front of a monitor forever
but you could do the training, setting it up yourselves and just hiding round the corner
I would recommend Shelby and Craig do this setup maybe once every day
just to go through it to reinforce the behaviour
But management is key with this
Just, if your dog is a counter surfer,
make it easier for them, dont leave food on the counter