Training Three Dogs to Stop Barking at Guests When They Arrive

In this Omaha dog training session we worked with three dogs, Coda, Carlie and Chase, who needed help to stop jumping at the door, stop barking at guests and stop door dashing.

After I arrived I sat down to chat with the dogs’ guardians about their main dog behavior concerns. I learned that their dogs were barking when they were outside in the yard to come in, which is what we call demand barking. Demand barking is when dogs are barking to get your attention, whether that is to let them inside or to pet them. To help them stop demand barking you want to ignore this behavior and make sure to reward them by letting them in inside or petting them when they are quiet. This is similar to when dogs are barking at guests when they arrive at the front door. To help stop them from barking or door dashing I showed their guardians our Claiming the Door Exercise, which you can watch below.

As you can see in the video, we started by working with only one of the dogs. It’s best to work with each dog individually when you live in a multi-dog household. After they each know the exercise it is much easier to start working with more than one dog. Remember that they might still bark for a little while, but they will eventually stop as you continue to practice this training technique.

By the end of the dog behavior session each dog was learning to look to their guardian for leadership and direction. As a German Shepherd trainer and herding dog trainer I recommend that they keep using our Petting with a Purpose technique. We wrapped up this session with Coda, Carlie and Chase’s Roadmap to Success video, which you can watch below.