Whether your dog dashes out an open door or barks excessively at arriving visitors, you can teach skills to overcome these common issues.
The door is the epicenter of some common nuisance behaviors in dogs, particularly racing out the door and unwanted barking. With positive training and a little patience, both behaviors can be improved and potentially eliminated.
The urge to dash out the door
Door dashing is a very common behavior that has obvious dangerous consequences. There are many reasons your dog might want to dart out the front door at any opportunity.
- Dogs are often naturally curious about and enjoy exploring the outdoors, especially areas they don’t get to visit frequently.
- Some dogs are bored in their home environment and are stimulated by the opportunity and excitement they feel when they escape. The promise of fun and excitement outside the home is highly rewarding.
- Dogs with a high prey drive or a deep-rooted instinct to run and chase are driven toward these behaviors.
- Many dogs have simply not been taught not to dart out the front door. A dog won’t automatically understand that the front door is a boundary they are supposed to stay behind.
How to stop door dashing
Follow these steps to teach your dog to stay at the front door instead of dashing through it. This exercise will need to be taught in small steps and might take several days or more to get to the final behavior.
- Teach your dog to “stay” in different locations and situations before you practice at the front door.
- Next, go to the door, and ask your dog to stay a few feet away from the door while you walk to the door. If he succeeds, give him a treat. If he gets up, no big deal! Simply reset him back to his location, and try again by taking fewer steps toward the door. Return to him if he stays and reward him with a treat.
- Repeat until you can walk away from him and to the door, without him following you. Next, ask your dog to stay, walk to the door, put your hand on the door and rattle the door handle. This is a physical and auditory cue that the door is about to be opened.
- If your dog stays, go back to him and give him a treat. The door handle sound might trigger your dog to move towards the door, and if he does, simply lure him back to his place until you can rattle the door handle without him moving.
Proceeding to the next level
If your dog is succeeding, then you can move onto the next level of opening the door.
- At this step, you can attach a leash to him for added security (which you or someone else holds).
- Open the door a tiny crack, shut it again and go back to your dog to reinforce the stay with a treat. Continue to repeat this until you have the door wide open with your dog staying still.
- For each repetition, go back and give your dog a treat for staying still.
- The next stage is to add sounds and signals that someone is at the door. This could be a knock, the sound of the doorbell, or the sound of footsteps outside. Have someone help you so they can make the sound and you can work with your dog.
- Make the sound (footsteps, knock or doorbell), then ask your dog to stay as you did before. Open the door as you did before. Your dog might get a bit more excited at this stage, as sitting and staying by a door during a calm training session is relatively easy, but becomes a lot harder when the doorbell is rung.
- If your dog gets up, calmly lead him back to his place and repeat until he no longer moves when he hears the bell.
- Repeat the exercise with family members coming through the door, guests and then strangers, as long as your dog is sociable and safe around new people.
Be patient, because you will see success.
Excessive barking at the doorbell
Another common problem between dogs and the door is excessive barking when the doorbell rings. Nearly every dog barks at the sound of the doorbell, but you can teach him not to. The formula for solving this problem is similar to the protocol above for door dashing.
The key is to teach your dog that the sound of the doorbell is not such a big deal:
- Find a level of ringing the doorbell that does not cause excessive barking. You can try a recording of your doorbell on your phone, or a location (how about if the door is open, or if you and your dog are just outside, for example?). Ring the bell a few times, then end the session and walk away together.
- Once your dog is successful at the first stage, make things a little more like "real life". If you began with a recording down very low, turn it up a bit. If you began far from the door, move a bit closer. Always ensure your dog is successful: if he goes back to excessive barking, go back down a level.
- Sit somewhere near your front door and ask a friend or neighbor to ring the doorbell. When it rings, completely ignore the doorbell. Do not stand up, speak, or open the door.
- Wait till your dog is completely silent before getting up to open the door.
- Repeat this process until your dog becomes desensitized to the sound of the doorbell. This may take multiple 1-5 minute sessions.
- Be patient! Some dogs learn more quickly than others.
