Gambling is addictive. If gambling didn’t involve winning, it wouldn’t be a thing. When a dog gets up on the counter or table and gets something awesome, it’s a win. For the same reason people keep trying to win the next jackpot on the slot machine, dogs continue to try to win the next jackpot from the table or counter.
How do we stop this behavior? The answer is easy. We have to stop allowing “wins.” If the wins dry up completely then eventually our dogs will stop trying.
To stop the wins we need to stop leaving the jackpots on the counter. Make sure nothing good comes from the counters and focus on all the good stuff happening for doing more appropriate behaviors. (I.E holding a down/stay on a mat for random rewards.)
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