Trick or Treat: How to Get your Dog to Respect the Doorbell

Does your pup make it impossible for you to answer the door when someone knocks or rings the bell like mine?  Getting my pup Teri to take a few steps back so I can answer the door is quiet the challenge, but not for long! Now is the perfect time to tackle this issue!  As Halloween approaches, we will have many people knocking on the door in one night, presenting the perfect opportunity to practice, practice, practice. 

Check out the attached video to get you started  on helping your pup become manageable and comfortable with people coming to your door. 

A few things to note:  I don't mind that Teri barks when someone knocks.  It lets the person knocking know that I have a dog and that my dog is alert and aware of his or her presence.  What I don't like is that she rushes to the door and makes it difficult for me to answer without her barging through to see who is there before I can.  In these initial phases covered in the attached video, I am not yet tackling barking.  I am only working on getting her conditioned to go to a particular place when someone knocks or rings the bell.  Once I can get her body position and movement under control, I will then work on waiting quietly (that will be part two).

Changing a dog's exisiting behavior is one of the hardest things to work on, much harder than teaching tricks or introducing new behaviors like obedience.  To change or modify existing behavior you are essentially changing your dog's emotional response to an existing stimuli. In this case, the response is running to the door and the stimuli is the knocking or ringing of the door bell.

When taking on any kind of behavior modification three things will be your best friends: Patience, Consistency and Repetition. 

Your dog may not get it in the first day,the second day or even the first week.  That does not mean your dog will never get it.  Keep training sessions short (15 minutes).  Stop your session on a success with lots of praise.  You want to stop a session before your dog gets bored.  If your dog ever messes up, go back to the last step your dog did well.  The idea is to set your dog up for success! 

The more consistent you are, the clearer it will be to your dog what you expect of him or her.  This means practicing what you want every single time someone knocks on the door or rings the bell.  Deviating from what you want can potentially give your dog the wrong message that you no longer expect the practiced new behavior but instead accept the old "bad" behavior of charging the door. 

The more you repeat and reward the desired behavior, the more likely the behavior will become a default behavior and be repeated.  Practice makes perfect!

Next Blog:  Part 2- Adding people to the mix and working on waiting quietly without barking.  Halloween is the perfect night to practice this, so practice part one this week and check back next weekend for part two, just in time for Halloween!

**Don't know what clicker training is? Click here to find out!

**For pet training services, free consultations, questions or additional comments,  you may contact me via Facebook at facebook.com/melsmenagerie or via email at melsmenagerie@gmail.com.

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