Board and train
Does board and train help with counter surfing?
Counter surfing is two problems in one coat: a dog with no practised alternative to standing at the counter, and food within reach of a dog who has learned that reaching works. A board and train can take on the first. The second lives in your kitchen and cannot be trained out from ours. Here is what the curriculum covers, what you take over, and what to ask at the consultation.
Last reviewed September 28, 2026
What the dog learns
The two curriculum skills that touch the counter problem.
Two skills on the On-Leash Foundations curriculum touch counter surfing: a place command and working around everyday distractions. The program runs two weeks at $1,865 + GST, with sit, stay, down, heel and loose-leash walking alongside, and a slip lead and training collar to take home. Place gives the dog a spot to hold while the household gets on with things. We teach it with markers and rewards to begin with, and you learn to run it at the handover lesson.
What no curriculum includes is a cue that reliably holds a dog off unattended food, and we will not pretend otherwise. Counter surfing tends to pay for itself: every time a dog reaches and finds something, the reaching is reinforced, and that happens in your kitchen, not ours. So a board and train can give the dog a practised spot to be and give you the skill to ask for it. It cannot change the height of your counters or what sits on them.
- Place on the two-week curriculum
- Distraction work, not a food cue
- Handover lesson to run it yourself
- Food access is the home half
Back in your kitchen
What we cannot change about your counters.
The part you take over is access, and it starts the day the dog comes home. Food goes away or the dog goes to place while it is out; a closed door or a gate covers the moments nobody is in the room. None of that is a verdict on your housekeeping. A habit rehearsed in one kitchen will be tested in that kitchen, and the skills we hand over have an easier time with less to test them against.
Private Training is $150 + GST per one-hour session with a written weekly plan customized to your home, built for hands-on owners who want to do the work themselves. On-Leash Foundations is built for dogs who pull, lunge and treat the leash as a suggestion, so one consultation question is whether the counter is the whole problem or one item on a list. We recommend a program at the consultation, and a smaller one when it is enough.
Asked and answered
The questions people ask us.
Does board and train help with counter surfing?
It can help with the skill side. On-Leash Foundations works on a place command and manners around everyday distractions, and the handover lesson is where you learn to use them at home. It cannot control what is left within reach, and we do not promise that a cue alone will hold a dog off food.
Can board and train fix food stealing for good?
We cannot promise that, and we would not want you to buy a program on that basis. Stealing food tends to be self-reinforcing, and the kitchen where it started is where it gets tested. A program gives the dog a practised alternative and gives you the skill to ask for it; access to food stays your call.
Which training program suits a dog that steals food off the counter?
That is a consultation question, and we recommend a smaller program when it is enough. On-Leash Foundations, two weeks at $1,865 + GST, covers place and work around everyday distractions. Private Training is $150 + GST per one-hour session with a written weekly plan customized to your home.
Board and train or private lessons for a counter surfer?
Private Training is built for hands-on owners who want to do the training themselves with a professional guiding the plan. A board and train is built around daily one-on-one training and a structured routine, with a handover lesson and free follow-up sessions. Neither format changes what sits on the counter, so tell us at the consultation whether the counter is the whole problem.
Keep reading
Tell us about your kitchen.
Book a consultation. We will say whether a live-in program or Private Training sessions fit your dog and your counters.
From real owners
Rated 5.0 on Google.
Real Northline dogs