Free Tips to Stop a Dog from Charging the Door

For this Omaha dog training session we worked with Barney, a three-year-old Plot Hound / Boxer / Pit mix. Barney’s guardians set up this session to learn how to stop a dog from charging the door. Barney has also been displaying territorial dog behavior, especially when in the yard.

I got a first hand look at Barney’s door behavior when I arrived for the session.

Now in the moment, you have to do what you have to do if your dog is reacting in an unwanted way. When you pull a dog backward, it triggers their opposition reflex. This can make them react more and pull forward.

As a dog behaviorist, I often see a common problem. Many clients forget to train their dogs. They do not teach dogs how to behave in different activities. Instead, people often try to teach their dog in the moment, which is about the worst possible time since the guardian is usually doing other things and unprepared.

By setting up a scene, we can lessen the intensity of the situation. This gives the dog a safe space to learn. If a dog makes a mistake, we can go back and repeat that step.

We do this until the dog understands what we want. Then, the dog will show the behavior we want. This may seem obvious, but most of my dog behavior clients never think about this option.

How to Stop a Dog from Charging the Door

One of the ways I help dog guardians is by showing them how to add discipline or structure to repetitive activities or tasks. Dogs need a lot of repetition to learn. By adding a small step to your routine tasks, you can have a mini dog training session. You can do this each time you complete that activity, without even thinking about it.

An example of this is to train a dog to sit at the door before we open it. The next step is to train the dog to stay in a sit when the door is opened and wait for permission to go through. I showed the guardians how to train the dog to behave this way at the back door in the video below.

This may look like a simple exercise, but by repeating it over and over, every day, it will help Barney get into a habit of asking for things and paying for them with obedience and good behavior.

Positive Dog Training for Behavior Problems

I showed the guardians a few ways to add a little bit of structure to petting them. I like to call this passive training and it’s one of the easiest ways to use positive dog training to teach a dog to behave how we want them to.

To give the guardians tools to redirect him, I showed them another positive dog training exercise; learning to focus. Barney caught on right away and was looking up at whoever was conducting the exercise within minutes.

Because we covered so much ground, I didn’t get a chance to get too deep into a Stay exercise. Training Barney to Stay is something I really want the guardians to practice every day as it will help him develop self control and give them a valuable tool that will come in handy over and over.

I tried out a few additional exercises with Barney, but they were more advanced than he was ready for and when he started to push back, I pulled the plug.

It had been a long day for Barney and his guardians skipped his normal exercise so I could see him in his most challenging state. Not the best scenario to push the limits.

Because Barney pushed back on the normal door answering technique I use, I would like to see the family practice the same procedure I walked them through in the first video. Keep Barney on a leash before a guest arrives. It helps if the person comes at a set time or texts ahead. This way, the family won’t be caught by surprise.

Tips to Prevent Territorial Dog Behavior

Once Barney rushes the door, the family members can use the leash to walk him back to the spot on the floor furthest away from the door, but still within visual range of the door. Barney should be made to sit and wait in that location while another family member answers the door. The guest should be quiet and avoid any sudden or big movements.

Once Barney is sitting without pulling or reacting, only then should the person take 1-2 steps towards the door. It’s important to not let the dog pull towards the person. After the 1-2 steps, they should place Barney into a sit again and wait for him to be calm before taking another 1-2 steps.

This will take a minute or two so it will be wise to arrange to have a friend or relative play the part of a guest. Once Barney gets close to the guest (but still slightly out of reach), the guest should casually turn sideways, crouch down and hold out their hand towards him with a treat in their palm (palm facing up). If Barney is calm and not pulling, the handler should then allow him to get the treat.

This process will be helped by having the family practice having Barney go to a place on the back wall when there is no guest present and get a reward while hearing a specific command word similar to what we did for the bed training exercise.

It will take a lot of practice, but by blocking Barney from charging the door and replacing it with this more structured approach that also incorporates positive reinforcement, it shouldn’t take long before Barney stops charging the door without being on the leash. Ideally, Barney should practice this at least once a day for 2 weeks (more practice will accelerate his progress).

We wrapped up the session by filming what I call the Roadmap to success. But after reflecting on the session afterwards, I decided to dial things back a bit so we shot another roadmap which you can watch by clicking the video below.