Hi - Your story is very familiar! Bailey was a champion counter surfer - food, paper towels, dish towels, etc. She also turned on our gas range while surfing and that scared me. I tried the usual tricks (jar of coins, squirt of water, mouse traps) and nothing worked. I am sure there are better dog trainers out there who could have worked with Bailey and trained her not to get up on the counter. I, unfortunately, did not have success.
We have a DogWatch fence system which works extremely well for Bailey. I was looking at their website and noticed that they have a portable, battery-operated disk that works with the same receiver she already wears on her collar. I got one and set it up on my counter. It was easy to adjust and it came with little white flags to set up and warn her. I took off her collar and held it up close to the receiver. She heard the warning beeps and that was that. I left it on my counter for a while, but Bailey never went back up there. I was able to set it up so that she could still lie at my feet while I was cooking - it would only activate if her collar got close enough to the top of the counter.
It is about the size and shape of a smoke detector. We took it on vacation and set it up at the bottom of the stairs. My daughter and her friends were staying upstairs and they had candy and socks and hair ties, etc. I just didn't want Bailey up there. I went through the same procedure...set up the device, put the flags up, took her collar off and let her hear the warning. She never went past it. Much easier than trying to block off the stairs with a gate or chairs, etc.
I don't know if this helps. It worked great for us. Good luck!