Barking when someone knocks at door/postman delivers mail

[shick26]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the website but a big fan of Victoria and the great job she does helping dogs and their owners.

I have a 22 month old female Working Cocker Spaniel who goes mental when someone knocks at our front door and when the postman posts our mail. As a puppy she never used to do this but over the past 6 months she's getting worse. Her barking sounds quite aggressive and she wants to be right at the front door in front of me and my husband when we open the door. We always try to move her away from the door by commanding her to elsewhere in the living room and she does listen but still insists in barking. I'd appreciate any help, tips, training guides as to combat this as it's not the most welcoming arrival for people. She's the most loving and affectionate dog so this behaviour doesn't match her personality

Thanks Sarah

[WufWuf]

Sorry that this was missed.

Could you please give us a bit of a run down on your dog's daily routine, exercise, training, playtime, what she's fed and how, time spent alone, anything that you can think of.

Can I also ask how she is with the people once they are inside the door? How is she with people outside the house when on walks?

[Ari_RR]

This below is not an advice.

But - just to share - we never managed to teach Ari to sit somewhere quietly waiting for people to get in. And he is a scary looking boy, 90+ lbs, big teeth and all.. So, when the door bell rings, he runs over to the door, with this low pitch barking.. Not even barking, it's something between barking and growling, and we have hardwood floors, so it sounds like there is an angry horse inside running to the door. I feel for our visitors, I really do!

But once the people are inside and he sees that we are ok with them being inside, he settles down in a matter of seconds, all it takes is for the person to stand still for 10-15 sec and let Ari sniff him (or her, which may be a bit.. embarrassing at times , but Ari doesn't discriminate based on gender and thoroughly examines male and female visitors)

This used to be worse, he would follow the guests around, staring at them in a very unwelcome manner... But lately this got much better - just a quick but thorough sniff, and he is done. So we just tell people to ignore the low pitch barking and the horse-like sounds when they ring the door bell, just come in, don't worry, stand still and everything will be all right!!...
We, perhaps selfishly, feel that overall this is less stressful then forcing Ari to stay quiet in a sit somewhere while guests are entering. C'mon, anyone can stay still for 10 sec, what's the big deal here, and a little bit of low pitched "woof! woof!" doesn't hurt anyone either.

Except for some children, who can't stay still for 10 sec... but "visiting children Vs resident dogs" is a separate topic altogether.

Anyway, this might be useless, not an advise at all, just sharing our experience here..

[elisa]

Welcome to the forum!

My sprollie never barks or such when the bell rings, but when guests come over she does get quite excited. I should figure out how I want to handle this and then be consistent, but I guess I am just lazy. Usually I just tell people to ignore her and turn away if she jumps. If she is ignored then she calms down quite nicely.

What I would do (and what Victoria did in one of the reruns I just saw) was to first get the dog used to the bell ringing and nothing happening. So there was someone ringing the bell and the owners in the house acted like nothing had happened. Like the bell is the most boring thing ever and not paying any mind to the dog barking (maybe rewarding calm behavior). When repeated the dog should get the idea. Try the same with post. Then figure out a routine that would work at the door when people come in and teach her to do that calmly.

Maybe you, or someone in the family has always gotten excited when the mail comes or the bell rings so she has sort of thought it is exciting and then added with the fact that people or stuff comes in it had escalated. And now that she barks and you command her to do something (likely also you get annoyed) then it is just getting worse. But luckily she is apparently otherwise a great dog. So be calm and super bored at things happening at the door and do the desensitizing to the bell/knock/postman. It takes work and time, but it will work.

[Circadian]

Arm yourself with a bag of treats
You and your cocker go to the front door.
Knock VERY VERY softly.
--> no respons: praise and treat
--> response: say "uth oh", no treat, knock softer next time.

Keep doing this till there is no response. Once your there thats your "start level"
Knock, no respons, praise and treat.
Do this a few times then increase the knock level.
Keep going with praise and treating. If a knock yeilds a bark say uht oh, no treat and take your knock down a notch to where there was no response.

When you can get a firm knock with no respons on the inside, then YOU move to the other side of the door and start bavk out at a level 1 knock! No response? Open the door, praise treat, go back out side and keep working it!

Good luck!