{"id":2404,"date":"2015-08-25T17:21:42","date_gmt":"2015-08-25T17:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/pets\/sneaky-retriever-hops-the-counter-to-steal-food-2\/"},"modified":"2015-08-25T17:21:42","modified_gmt":"2015-08-25T17:21:42","slug":"sneaky-retriever-hops-the-counter-to-steal-food-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/pets\/sneaky-retriever-hops-the-counter-to-steal-food-2","title":{"rendered":"Sneaky Retriever Hops on the Counter to Steal Food"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The dog trainer is in to answer your questions. Alexandra Macias, owner and operator of the Long Beach-based Alex Macias Dog Training, will be sitting down and answering readers’ pet-related inquiries.<\/p>\n

\n

Hi Alex,<\/em><\/p>\n

My Golden Retriever, Guinness, loves to jump up on the counter and steal food. He especially likes to sneak up there when I\u2019m cooking dinner. Can you help?<\/em>Thank you.<\/em><\/p>\n

– Claudia<\/em><\/p>\n

Hi Claudia,<\/p>\n

I would recommend teaching Guinness \u201cleave it.\u201d Leave it is a universal command that just means to leave \u201cit\u201d alone. The \u201cit\u201d can be anything\u2014your shoes, other dogs, people, even food on the counter. To teach Guinness the \u201cleave it\u201d command:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Begin by having a treat in your open hand.<\/li>\n
  2. Place you hand in front of Guinness.<\/li>\n
  3. When Guinness starts to go after the treat, close your hand.<\/li>\n
  4. Tell him to \u201cleave it\u201d ONCE, and wait for him to give up trying to get the treat.<\/li>\n
  5. Once he gives up, praise him, and let him have the treat.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Repeat these steps until he gives up immediately once you say \u201cleave it.\u201d<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Once Guinness has mastered leaving the treat in your hand, move up to putting the treat on the floor.<\/li>\n
    2. Place the treat on the floor in front of Guinness.<\/li>\n
    3. When he goes after the treat, quickly cover the treat with your hand.<\/li>\n
    4. Tell him to \u201cleave it\u201d ONCE.<\/li>\n
    5. Once he stops trying to get the treat from under your hand, praise him, and let him have the treat.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Repeat these until he immediately leaves the treat alone when you say the command.<\/p>\n

      Once he has mastered leaving the treats on the floor, and you do not need to continue covering the treat with your hand, practice \u201cleave it\u201d with items he tends to go after (food on the counter.) When you notice him start to walk toward the counter, tell him to \u201cleave it\u201d in a stern voice, and praise him the moment he chooses to walk away, or stop going for the food. Good luck! WOOF! <\/p>\n

      – Alex<\/p>\n

      Alexandra Macias is the owner and operator of Alex Macias Dog Training, a Long Beach-based dog training business. To ask Alexandra questions for a future article, leave them in the comments below, or email her at  <\/a>alexmaciasdogtraining@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The dog trainer is in to answer your questions. Alexandra Macias, owner and operator of the Long Beach-based Alex Macias Dog Training, will be sitting down and answering readers’ pet-related inquiries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":158,"featured_media":67741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1018],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pets","tag-ask-a-dog-trainer","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/158"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2404"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2404"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}