# Constant barking & jumping up/counter surfing



## Elsasdreamuk (Feb 18, 2018)

Hi everyone, we are new Vizsla owners and our 4 month pup is brilliant apart from constantly barking for attention or food. Whenever I am cooking or preparing food or we are eating at the table she yelps consistently throughout the whole time, tries to jump up onto the counters/ table or tries to bite the edge of the table, climb up onto us through the gap between our legs or if I'm standing she jumps up and scratches at my legs. 

We've tried turning our backs on her, telling her "OFF", feeding her at the same time or giving her a chew to direct her attention to but she just consistently barks. 

Doesn't anyone have any ideas on how to deal with this? Or perhaps it is a phase? 

The other thing is we have a young niece who our pup jumps up at when she gets excited and the pup does scratch her face by accident, how can we teach her to not jump up & to not countersurf? 

Any help would be great!!


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## Gabica (Jan 20, 2018)

Lots of leave it/take it training in different environment, including the counter and table itself. Ignore when she attention barks and never give in to it as it becomes self-rewarding (including when you start talking to her while she barks - just walk away from her and don`t say or do anything which sends her the message that you have recognized her while she attention barked). she is young, so it may be too much to ask from her to get the level of self control while you are eating, and not begging, best is to crate and feed her at the same time until she learns to deal with leave it/take it confidently. also don`t give her any food or treat around the counter or the table where u are eating. always do feed her in her crate or `place`, so that she learns that no food is going to get to her at any other place in your house and learns to appreciate those certain places (crate or her mat) as her place to get food.

jumping up: she will keep trying for a while with people who she thinks are easy targets, so u will need to teach your nice the different body language types which are preventing it (consistently with the adults), or if she is too young for it, have the puppy learn first the not jumping up in general and then interact with her.


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## Garvs (Apr 8, 2017)

Regarding the barking this worked amazingly well and easy for me...

http://https://www.thespruce.com/train-your-dog-to-speak-1117307

She'll still barks (I mean...she is a dog after all) but it's sooooo easy to control now. Hope this helps a bit!


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## gingerling (Jun 20, 2015)

The easy answer here is to crate her when you eat.

At other times, telling her to stop ?


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## jedi one (Mar 2, 2014)

Commands like No and Stop are not action commands. Our trainer trained us to always give an action command to Obi when he was misbehaving. Commands like Sit, Here, Heal, etc. all give a dog something to think and react to with an action. It is not unlike dealing with a young child. Distract them from what they are doing by giving them something else to do. The best command that our trainer taught us and Obi is Place. In every room, Obi has a place. It may be a mat, a rug, a chair, every room is different. Whenever he is doing something inappropriate, we just say Place and he knows to go to his place and lay down. Even our three year old grandson has learned the command. 

As for counter shopping, we tried several things, including Cayenne pepper. Obi loved it. Cleaned the entire edge of our counters. Perhaps the only cure will be a bump from the shock collar but you’ve got to catch them in the act.


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## Betty (Apr 14, 2016)

Counter surfing can be avoided by keeping anything nummy or smelly off the counters!!!! When prepping a meal, the pup can watch from the doorway....training is involved in both instances: people and pup, both!


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## gingerling (Jun 20, 2015)

jedi one said:


> Commands like No and Stop are not action commands. Our trainer trained us to always give an action command to Obi when he was misbehaving.


You need a new trainer, yours doesn't seem to recongize that "Stop" is an action command, self control is most assuredly an action.

If you always give an alternative to your dog, especialy a wickedly smart Vizsla, you will get a dog that acts based on anticipation of consequence...in this case, the inevitable praise or treat when s/he sits/downs/"place"..instead of thinking about it's actions beforehand and knowing not to engage. See also: Dogs at the park that are 100% b/c they're fixated on the treat.


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## GracieGirl (Jan 21, 2018)

We have the same age pup. We were told by a trainer to command ‘no’ in an firm unfriendly tone and ‘off’ in a friendly tone to encourage the behaviour of jumping off. We do the same for the couch. Giving the dog an alternative such as sitting on a clear spot such as bed near kitchen where she can see us, and unpredictable rewards for lying on her ‘bed’....

This doesn’t stop her when we aren’t home though!


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## NutterButter (Mar 5, 2016)

Not saying this is the best solution, but we trained Sadie to pick up a toy when she is barking to muffle the sound. Personally I like being notified when someone drives up or comes to the door. No one arrives unannounced at our house! It is actually kind of funny to see her running around finding a toy before she barks but we have enough of them laying around it does not take long. She greeted me at the door with 4 mufflers yesterday (Blue Snake, Green Snake, Bear, and Cat).....  The toy thing might develop into a distraction from these other behaviours too.


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