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I was super busy today, and I'm so happy to come here to see all the great answers to my question from you all. Thank you so much!
I'm actually very careful not to leave food on the table, normally making sure to put stuff on top of the stove or inside the stove or on top of the fridge, but I swear whenever I do forget, and she is left alone - even when I was just in the bathtub for about 10 minutes! - she will take the opportunity. She just started this new, rather resourceful acrobatic feat.
There are no chairs around the table. I have created an island, basically in the middle of my micro apt. There is a narrow, tall bistro table on the kitchen side, and abutted up against that is my sewing table on the other side, with no chair. It's a normal desk height. When I sew, I slide it to me where I sit on the bed (247 square foot studio).
Jackie can leap tall buildings with a single bound lol! When I rescued her, she would leap up into people's arms, especially men. I have also learned that she knows what fishing is. I think she was owned by a boy, maybe a teenager, who encouraged her to leap into his arms at chest height. It's like she did it expecting to be praised. I've gently encouraged her not to do that anymore :-) All it takes is treats rewarding the new behavior. She's all about food, and all about pleasing me. Such a sweetheart, but she's also obviously very smart and obsessed with available food.
And, this girl can leap like you would not believe.
I bought some of the cheap old-fashioned mouse traps today at Walmart while I was out, and I thought I could maybe pad them with duct tape or something. But, I really like the idea of the scat mat. I would have worried about her getting hurt by the mouse trap. The scat mat would be perfect! And my table top is about 36 inches by 18 inches.
I think what she's doing is hopping up onto the sewing table/desk, which is where the tupperware container was, that ended up on the floor. I bought it to organize sewing stuff. And somehow she got from there over my sewing machine and the hat I'm making (which was balanced on top of the sewing machine) and onto the bistro table, and snatched that bisquick biscuit out of the bowl on the table, without upsetting anything except the tupperware container that was empty and sitting on the sewing table. .
She really should be in agility classes. She's pretty amazing.
I have an Amazon seller account, and am not selling anything right now, but I saw that people are selling used scat mats, so I could buy one, use it on the Jackster, and then just sell it. Would be worth it. I wouldn't worry about her getting hurt from it.
I wonder if I put a bowl on it with some food on it, if the food would cook LOL?
Thanks so much for all of the tips everyone! Scat mat here we come!
On the off chance ...did you recently change her food?
When I had my pet shop I noticed all the table jumpers were on certain foods. Usually the foods I'd say were not absorbing well with a BIG STOOL. Like the original Science Diet - I could always tell a Science Diet dog with the big stool! So I'd get the people to try a denser protein food that maybe more satisfying and absorbing better. But that was in the 1990s.
The BEAGLES were the big offenders from what I remember.
They'd leap on the table during dinner, steal a stick of butter and run off! LOL
So if you changed her food, change it BACK!!
If you do chose to switch foods do it slowly over a week or two and the thing that counts that gives them diarrhea is the FAT percentage and PROTEIN.
My Rat up there^^^ couldn't really tolerate Blue...his stool was always soft and not healthy IMO but the owner insisted on giving it because it's "good". ODDLY, he was a scavenger, too!
I'm not saying to switch her casually. That in itself can cause alot of problems.
This. Why is there food on the table in the first place? I don't leave any food out on counters or tables in my home at all, especially since I have Great Danes who can reach food on the kitchen counter with just their head Any time I have to leave food out, even if it's just for a minute, I put it in the oven, microwave, or on top of the fridge. I have taught the Danes not to "counter surf," so even if there are steaks out, they won't grab them. I don't like them having that temptation when I'm gone a long time, though.
On the off chance ...did you recently change her food?
When I had my pet shop I noticed all the table jumpers were on certain foods. Usually the foods I'd say were not absorbing well with a BIG STOOL. Like the original Science Diet - I could always tell a Science Diet dog with the big stool! So I'd get the people to try a denser protein food that maybe more satisfying and absorbing better. But that was in the 1990s.
The BEAGLES were the big offenders from what I remember.
They'd leap on the table during dinner, steal a stick of butter and run off! LOL
So if you changed her food, change it BACK!!
If you do chose to switch foods do it slowly over a week or two and the thing that counts that gives them diarrhea is the FAT percentage and PROTEIN.
My Rat up there^^^ couldn't really tolerate Blue...his stool was always soft and not healthy IMO but the owner insisted on giving it because it's "good". ODDLY, he was a scavenger, too!
I'm not saying to switch her casually. That in itself can cause alot of problems.
No, she's been doing really well on Kirkland Healthy Weight dry food for at least 8 months. What I have done, is started giving her a little bit of people food here and there again.
I noticed she started scratching herself lately, and I figured it was probably the people food, and I switched back to just giving her food made for dogs, and treats made for dogs.
So, no, it's not a change in her food so much, as perhaps whetting her appetite for the "good stuff" LOL.
Our agreement, is she goes where I can't see her when I'm eating. And the reward for that, is that when I get up from eating, she pops out of wherever she's been hiding (under the chair or in her crate, usually) and she gets a treat for being so good while I've been eating. I was giving her just a teensy bit of whatever I ate. But, I've gone back to getting up, washing my plate, and giving her a piece of a dog biscuit.
Jackie would eat until she gets sick. She's that food obsessed. When I first got her, I kept feeding her, thinking she was still hungry. She gained a ton of weight quickly and was sick a lot. I was cooking her meat, a little bit of grain and veggies. This diet did not work for her. But, a lot of the problem was probably that her stomach was just over-full, too. She would throw up and have diarrhea.
I switched her to Kirkland Healthy Weight and she's thrived on it. She gets 1/3 cup morning, noon and night, coinciding mainly with when I eat. And normally for her "lunch" I put her lunch portion (usually more like 1/4 cup) of food in her treat ball, as it gives her something to do and makes the food last longer. I've never seen a dog inhale food as fast as Jackie does. Then she also gets about 1/2 a tiny milkbone biscuit as her treat for being good while I eat. She'll get an occasional additional treat depending on what's going on - if she has to go into her crate, while the pest control guy is here, for instance. Then she'll get 1/2 a beggin' strip.
Her stools seem to be a normal size and are firm but easily passed.
Obviously, if the food isnt' there, she won't go for it. But, I want to train her not to do it. Haven't you all rushed home from the grocery store and had to go to the bathroom so bad, the best you could do is throw the food onto the table and rush to the bathroom?
That's all the time it takes for this little one to take advantage. Rather than have to throw my food into the oven before I rush to the bathroom, I'd like to be able to trust my well-trained dog not to leap on the table and snatch my dinner.
Since she rewarded herself for table surfing she not going to stop. At this point you wouldn't be able to trust her. With service dogs they have to learn from puppies Not to eat unless told. That away when they help with gro they wont eat the gro in the store they don't touch the food til told to. Katie will carry a loaf of bread to me & sit waiting til I take it from her with a give command. By the same token IF I say its your ..well food gone! IF I hold a piece of meat right in her nose & Dont say it yours she will actually back away! IF I say Katie come & get it she take it but holds it in her mouth til I say well eat it! I started this train when I brought her home at 16 weeks! IF I have to leave the room for any reason & there is food in her reach, it will still be there when I get back! BTW she now 9 yrs old!
Since she rewarded herself for table surfing she not going to stop. At this point you wouldn't be able to trust her. With service dogs they have to learn from puppies Not to eat unless told. That away when they help with gro they wont eat the gro in the store they don't touch the food til told to. Katie will carry a loaf of bread to me & sit waiting til I take it from her with a give command. By the same token IF I say its your ..well food gone! IF I hold a piece of meat right in her nose & Dont say it yours she will actually back away! IF I say Katie come & get it she take it but holds it in her mouth til I say well eat it! I started this train when I brought her home at 16 weeks! IF I have to leave the room for any reason & there is food in her reach, it will still be there when I get back! BTW she now 9 yrs old!
This is such a fantastic story! Thank you so much for sharing it.
Well, Jackie is smart enough to learn quickly that if she jumps on a table, she gets zapped LOL! So, I think, especially with what you said about her being rewarded for being sneaky, that the zap mat (forgetting the term right now) is the way to go.
It's funny, the day she snuck on the table when I was in the bathtub, I remember thinking it was weird that she didn't want to stay right next to the tub, which is what she normally would do. So, she actually processed the information - hmmmm, if mom is in the tub, I can sneak onto the kitchen table...
I mean as soon as I was settled in the tub, she recognized her opportunity and went for it. I was only in the tub a total of about 10 minutes. But, as soon as I got in the tub, she went for it. Smart little thing. She'll learn quickly that if she jumps on the table, she will NOT be rewarded LOL!
I just watched a bunch of videos on YouTube showing the effect scat mats have on dogs and cats. I admit it, I laughed hard enough to cry
It's amazing how quickly they learn that it's the mat causing the problem, and they learn to jump over it or walk around it. One video was done by a man whose dog learned to jump over the mat (was trying to keep the dog out of a room), so he got the mat extension, and put it so that the width of the mats was too far for the dog to jump over.
Jackie would learn quickly - probably just one time would do it. But, I wonder if she'd be smart enough to know when the mat is not there, and then just jump when the mat is gone.
I think I'll give it a whirl. They sure don't like the scat mat, but I don't see that it does any damage. The one video of the whippet who jumped on the desk shows that you definitely don't want to put anything breakable on the table lol!
Your going to HURT a dog you Rescued cause you Don't want to Keep food off the table? And You Think its Funny seeing Animals get HURT! YOUR Sick!
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Any time I have to leave food out, even if it's just for a minute, I put it in the oven, microwave, or on top of the fridge. I have taught the Danes not to "counter surf," so even if there are steaks out, they won't grab them. I don't like them having that temptation when I'm gone a long time, though.
