Category: Common Problems ¤ Author: Sue Ailsby ¤ Title: Motion Detector Cures Counter Surfing ¤ OK, definitely time for an update re Chez Ailsby. Song (Giant Schnauzer) and all her forebitches have discretely countersurfed - the odd half-loaf of bread in the middle of the night, a pound of butter at Christmas, who ate the cinnamon buns? - that sort of thing. This spawn of Satan Portuguese Water Dog, however, while being a WONDERFUL, SMART, FUNNY, WILLING - well, you get the picture - has been the bane of my existence for the past year with her shopping. Everything that isn't nailed down is fair game for going through the dog door. It isn't malicious in any way - if she's thinking about ME, she'll bring it all to me for a pet (making it rather difficult to do the books until I get all the c*** she's brought me off my desk), but if she's not thinking about me, she'll be out in the yard. Dishrags. Shoes. Paring knives. Towels. Plastic bags. Screwdrivers. Grooming scissors (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!). King-size blankets. The kids come home from college now with one single sentence: Hi mom glad to be home lemme change my shoes and I'll go pick up the dog yard! At one point as a puppy, Scuba was quietly taking the dishrags out of the sink (which I can't quite see from the puter) - yes, I'm a wastral of a mother, yes, she should be better supervised, but the reason I don't have LITTLE dogs is that BIG dogs housetrain themselves, and with the Giants this surfing wasn't a problem. Karen's vanilla trick worked beautifully when I remembered to put vanilla on things. However, what appears to be finally really doing the job is your discussion from some time ago about the Radio Shack motion detector. I let that percolate for awhile and finally went to buy one (no, we only have the kind you hook into your home sentry setup. What's that? Oh, it looks like a little portable motion detector! I never saw THAT before!). It was on sale for $29.99 (Can)(that's like 4.99 Am ;-/ ). First I put it on the coffee table pointed at the TV - an innocuous place, but one where they don't need to go. Dog walked over there, siren came on, I jumped up from puter and ran around hollering "Oh my God! Oh my God! What are you doing?" for the 30 seconds until it shut itself off and reset itself, then came back and sat down at the computer again (notice I did NOT focus on the dog who set it off, just ran around hollering). Both dogs plastered themselves to my leg for 15 minutes, then set off in search of good stuff again. I let it play three times, then when they were outside I moved it to the island in the kitchen so it wouldn't go off when they were in the kitchen but would sound when a head came up into Forbidden Territory. When it went off, I jumped up and ran around hollering again. The next time it went off, I just hollered from the puter, but both dogs were already well on their way to lying politely at my feet (yes, I believe someone WAS in the kitchen, but it CERTAINLY wasn't either of US!). Scuba spends the night in a crate, but Song is loose. Two nights in a row, at 5:03 AM, the siren went off for the kitchen counter. Song is totally innocent but naturally chagrinned that she neglected to bark at whoever it was that set it off ;-D . That was it, no more nocturnal forays. Then I put it in front of the garbage can and put something particularly stinky and yummy in the garbage - one hit. Then I left my grooming scissors on the grooming table in the dog room, and left a towel to dry draped over the dog tub and put the detector where it could see both the table AND the tub (they also jump up on the table to see the cats that play in the yard). Four hits, and now even when someone drives into the yard they do NOT jump up on the table to see who it is. At the moment, it's under the dining room table dealing with heavy-duty nose prints on the dining-room window and a certain fishing dog who would gladly watch for whales from the crow's-nest, if you catch my (ahem) drift. How did I ever live without this stupid little gadget? How much better than baby gates do I love thee? THANKS, GUYS!!! Sue eh?