I fostered a Lab mix for a while that due to an injury to her hind legs was confined to her kennel. I would allow her to come out and lay on a big doggie pad so she could stretch out a bit. However, it was difficult to keep an eye on her to make sure she wasn't moving off the pad, so I put a little cat's bell on her collar and when she moved around it would jingle (it hit her tags) and I could hear her. I'd tell her "pad" and she'd remain still. She had chews that kept her busy.
The point was I could control her just by hearing her - I could make her stop crawling off the pad because I could hear her first. Then I'd say, "I can still see you!" (even though I'd left the room) and she'd stop. Perhaps if you had some way to stop the counter surfing before your dog is able to get a good whiff of the counter, it might stop the behavior. Obviously this lab was on a lot of meds and pain killers so it was easy to control her verbally. But I was suprised that it worked the way it did.
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