Teaching a LA Dog to Move Away From The Door Instead of Escaping

For this Los Angeles dog training session, we trained 8 month-old Lab / Doberman mix Bella to go to the corner of the living room when people knock on the door.

For this Los Angeles dog training session, we trained 8 month-old Lab / Doberman mix Bella to go to the corner of the living room when people knock on the door.

Knowing that Bella likes to jump up on guests, I started this session off by showed the guardians how they can teach a dog to stop jumping up on people who come to visit.

After Bella settled down, I took her off the leash and sat down with the guardians to discuss her dog behavior problems and how I could help them as a dog behaviorist.

I shared a number of dog behavior tips like petting with a purpose, how to reward wanted behaviors through passive training, creative ways to exercise Bella, the importance of rules and how to enforce them. While it seems like a lot at the time, most of the methods I use to stop unwanted dog behavior are actually quite easy. The difficult part is making these small changes a part of the dog’s daily life.

Because the guardian runs a daycare, stopping the dog from escaping or door dashing was a pretty high priority. I wanted to show the guardian how to keep a dog away from the door with a multiple part approach; classically conditioning the dog to move away from the door when the bell is rung as well as show the guardian how to teach the dog how to stay behind an invisible line on its own.

If the guardians follow the steps I outline in the above free dog training video, they can get Bella to move away from the door anytime someone rings the doorbell. It will take some practice, but the practice is really, really easy. Id like to see the guardians repeating this exercise with 15 treats 3 to 5 times a day for one week. If they make that commitment, Bella should move away from the door automatically when the bell is rung via classical conditioning.

Teaching the dog to stay behind an invisible boundary is really my plan B for this dog problem. But when needed, the guardian can use the escalating consequences I showed her to back Bella up so the chance to escape through an open door are greatly reduced.

I was quite please as to how well Bella responded to both approaches. This is one smart dog which is why I suggested the guardians try to set a goal of teaching her one new trick or command a week for 2 months. If they use fun command words and each guardian teaches 4 new tricks each, Bella will get a nice confidence bump and the guardians will have 8 new ways to distract and interact with her!

To help the guardian remember all the positive dog training tips we shared in this in home Los Angeles dog training session, we shot a roadmap to success video.