please help!!!!! MY DOG BARKS WHENEVER ANYONE KNOCKS AT THE DOOR?

Question

it is driving me mad how can i stop this without stopping him barking at the back door if there was an intruder thanx xx

Answer 1

You want your dog to be quiet at one door, but bark at the other. Not easy, but possible. It will need time, patience and commitment on your part for it to work. My apologies, but this is going to be long!

First of all, you need a spot in the house where the dog is to go when you want it to be quiet……this is his physical cue. As you progress, a verbal cue should suffice. But dogs are very into physical cues, rather than verbal, so teaching the physical first will strengthen the behaviour. You could simply put down a mat somewhere. Okay, first lesson…..no-one at the door. Dog is not barking. You are simply going to teach the dog to sit or lie down on the mat. Easy. Take the dog to the mat and put a treat on the mat. As the dog eats the treat, say “Mat”. (I am presuming here that you have not taught the Sit or Down…..my apologies…..if you have, you can ignore this bit!) Keep putting treats on the mat, saying “Mat” each time. Dog will start to go to mat of it’s own accord. Separately, holding treat up, ask for a Sit, and treat when dog is sitting. (You are not doing this near the mat.) Also teach the Down, using a treat to lure the Down. When you have taught both of these, and they are 100%, you can now ask the dog to Sit or Down on the Mat. (You have meantime been training separately the dog going to the mat for his treat.) He should now be going to the mat of his own accord in anticipation of a reward. Now take him a yard or so away from his mat, hold his collar, point to the mat, say “Mat” and let him go, and when he gets there, ask for a Sit or Down. If he doesn’t Sit or Down, just shrug your shoulders, and say, “That’s no good, is it? No reward for that one.” There is no pressure….simply no reward. Try it again. If he “fails” the second time, then you need to go back a step. The Sit or Down are not strong enough……go back to your Sit or Down training. You could, of course, just go to the mat and ask for the Sit or Down at the mat. It is sometimes that simple! (Whatever works!) Btw, if he “fails”, be sure that he succeeds at something, so send him to the mat, if he is doing that well, and big praise for that. I *always” finish my training with the dog “winning” his reward…….otherwise there is no point in them trying hard for me the next time.

Now you have your dog going to a specific spot and Sitting or Downing on the mat on command. This is all done when there is nothing to disturb your dog, or cause him to want to bark. Now you up the anti. When your dog can go to the mat and Sit or Down on command, you ask him to Stay. Leave him for just a couple of steps, saying “Stay” and go back and reward/praise for the Stay. End of exercise. (Easy, innit? ) Do this again and again, building up the distance and the time the dog can cope with. Each time with big rewards. Now to really up the anti. Get a toy and play with it……don’t let go of it, cos the dog will get to it before you do!!! IF the dog breaks the Stay, shrug shoulders and say, “Oops, no reward for that, is there?” Put dog back on the mat, and play with toy again, perhaps just showing it. (Try for success, so if you know he will break if you stand with his tuggy and twirl it around in your hand, just stand and have it in your hand. Then build up so that he *can* stay while you twirl his tuggy around.) Of course, you go back and reward highly……preferably with said tuggy, or favourite toy! He earned it!!! You up the anti so that the dog can Stay on his mat while you throw his favourite toy about. And, of course, his reward is his toy………when you have finished the exercise.

Now your dog can go to a specific spot , he can Sit or Down on the mat on command, and he can Stay on command. Up the anti again. Go to the door and open and close it. IF dog breaks the Stay, shrug shoulders and act really disappointed. “Oh dear, no reward for you, pal!” Put him back on the mat. IF he STAYS, you go back, break him off and REWARD!! High praise and rewards! When he can do that every time with no breaking of the Stay, you open the door and close it. Same as before. Now you *knock* on the door yourself. If dog breaks the Stay, same as before. Build this up until the dog can Stay when you knock on the door. HUGE reward when he first does it. He has to realise that this is the best thing he’s ever done in his life!!!!!!! Now you get a friend to knock on the door. If he barks, same shrug of the shoulders, and take him back to the mat and ask for a Stay again. (It will be unlikely for him to bark and Stay at the same time…….dogs find it quite hard to Sit and Stay and bark as well. They find it even harder in the Down. Not saying it can’t be done, but they are thinking hard about the *Stay* for which there is a huge reward coming, that they are unlikely to bark.) If he Stays and *does not bark* when your friend knocks on the door, you go to him, break him off from his Stay and GO BALLISTIC with reward and praise. Build on this with your helpful friend. (Who is going to be ever so patient standing outside while you first of all reward the dog! Dog comes first!!)

You now have a dog that, when someone comes to the door, you can say, “Mat” and “Stay”. You can now add “Quiet” to these. So if the dog barks for one door, you can send him to his mat…..REMEMBER to REWARD the Mat, Stay and Quiet. He will still bark when someone comes to either door, but you can now quiet him when you need him to be. I hope this helps. It is not a quick fix…….but training dogs is about patience, not yanking on collars or using e-collars. It’s about your relationship with the dog. It’s *your* house…..not his territory by right, and he needs to know the boundaries. That’s all they are…….the same rules you would set with a child. And for all those people out there who use check chains, etc. An adult dog has the mental age of a 5 year old child…….would you use a check chain on a child? Or would you train the child to understand what you want through reward, praise, and a loving relationship?

I also use a word to tell the dog the exercise if over. I use "Finish". Think about what word you want to use. This makes it clear to the dog when you want the exercise to be over. Clarity in all things make it easier for the dog.

PS to Mamgu. This will work for your dogs too. But you need to teach them one at a time. (Right now, one will feeding the bad behaviour off the other…..in the same way, once you have taught something, you can reward one for good behaviour, and the other will try harder to get it right……so long as you have taught them both well. For example, if you ask them to go to the mat, and one goes and the other doesn’t, the one that goes gets the treat, the other gets a shrug of the shoulders.) You will eventually have two dogs that are competing against each other as to who can get to the mat the fastest!! And, of course, you can teach Mat, Stay (if necessary) and, most importantly for you, Quiet. You need to reward the “Quiet” highly. Good luck!!

Answer 2

He's barking to let the 'intruder' know theres a pack, and to alert you. Its normal behaviour, its really irritating when it becaomes too exciting for him to stop!
Put him on the lead and act calmly, get him to sit while you open the door. Ignore the barking. Its acceptable for him to bark a couple of times, its when they won't stop its a problem.
He'll soon get the idea that its not his job to talk to the visitor, thats what you're supposed to do. His job is to bark, shut up and sit.
To guard your house, your dog has to learn that visitors knock on the door, are greeted, then either come in by the front door or leave. He can pick up that its unusual for anyone to come in by the back door or window, but only if he has enough experience of greeting normal visitors who behave the 'right' way.
He can't actually tell the difference between a burglar and a visitor. There have been owners killed by their own dogs because they climbed over the garden wall, or 'tested' their dogs guarding ability by breaking into their own house at night. Those dogs didn't recognise the intruder as being their owner, their guarding and attack instinct was aroused, with unfortunate results.

Answer 3

There was an episode of that argentinian/portugese (I can't remember where he's from!) dog whisperer on TV a while ago where he quickly trained a dog to stop barking and hurling itself at the front door everytime someone came near it. He stood at the far end of the hallway to the front door, with the dog on one of his special leads (where the collar is around the top of the dogs neck, just behind the ears), and just held it while someone knocked on the door. The dog couldn't rush to the door and quickly gave up barking.

You can't stop your dog from barking though, and still have him bark at possible intruders! It might be possible to train him to bark at people that come near the house anywhere other than the front door, for example if a stranger suddenly appeared in the back garden. But then the dog may get confused between intruders and your friends having a BBQ!

Answer 4

This is a behavioural problem that needs to be addressed. When you ask the dog be to quiet the dog should do as commanded.

There are several ways to do this. The reward for the dog is when you open the door, so you need a friend or neighbour to help with this. When the knock at the door allow the dog to bark once or twice and then ask them to be quiet. If the dog is quiet on command then give the dog a treat and go to open the door. If the dog barks again sit down and ignore the dog. It takes a lot of hard work but you can train the dog this way. Victoria Stilwell (Its me or the dog - Channel 4) uses this to good effect.

It is important that the dog is trained well, so local training classes may help.

Answer 5

You have a dog that is trying to protect you and his place. If he only barks when someone knocks at the door you are lucky. My dog barks as soon as someone starts up the walk to the house, that's OK. he will bark if someone is walking down the other side street. He will bark if he hears someone close a car door a half a block away. Well, nobody is going to sneak up on me.

Answer 6

sit with your dog, near the door, get someone to knock the door and when your dog barks, lift your hand and firmly say NO! It will take a while, be firm and reward your dog with a treat when he doesn't bark. As for intruders, your dog will be protective of his territory and it is unlikely that an intruder will knock your door, your dog will just attack when they try get in the house.

Answer 7

Any dog can be trained not to bark although it is always easier to train a puppy, but it doesn't mean they'll never bark. They're dogs. However trying to train it to bark at one door but not the other would just confuse the animal.

Personally I just talk to my dogs. They seemed to understand this part because they are pretty quiet. Talk to a trainer if you can't do it yourself.

Answer 8

It's great for it to bark. You need to know when someone is outside and they people outside need to know that you have a dog. The key is to train it to stop. My word for the dogs to stop is enough. Once I say that they know that everything is ok and they can stop barking. We had to do this with a choker and my husband at the door. We worked with both dogs for a week, every single night for 10 minutes 3 times a night. Now they bark and then stop as soon as we say enough.

Answer 9

my dog barks when someone comes to the door or the door bell rings. I go to the door and say good dog - this then stops the barking.

Answer 10

if you stop your dog barking at one door the same thing could happen with the other door and intruders don't just enter though the back door they will try the front even if its just to see if anybody is at home so your dog braking at the front door is a good thing

Answer 11

your so lucky my two dogs bark if there is a bird in the garden ,if someone walks down the road even if it is on the other side of the road, even know how to look in the stereo glass door and see the reflection of people walking down the next road to us and bark at that, i would be happy if it was just the knock on the door. I will be looking at some of these answers and sorry i cannnot help you.