An Easy Way to Stop Dog Barking At the Door

For this in-home Santa Monica dog training session we share the secret to stop dog barking at the door to help 1 year-old Aussiedoodle June.

We started off the session by covering a number of dog behavior and training fundamentals.

We introduced a marker word to speed up the training process then use a hand targeting exercise to help the humans practice their timing and technique. I also used that exercise as a vehicle to explain how and when to properly introduce command cues when training dogs.

Next I went over probably the most powerful dog training tip that I share with my clients, something I call celebrating.

Celebrating is a super easy exercise that increases a dog’s confidence, improves their respect for their humans, helps the dog practice basic obedience and teaches the dog manners. And if the humans get into a habit of celebrating, just about every time they pet their dog they are doing a micro training session without any other effort. It truely becomes a gift.

It’s also a really helpful exercise if you have a dog barking problem. Dogs frequently feel the need to bark because their humans are very confusing as to what they seem to want. Dogs gauge our interest in things by how much attention we give them. Celebrating helps the humans get into a habit of rewarding desired behaviors vs the things we dont like.

Dogs who are unsure or insecure are far more likely to bark at sounds. After discussing the situation with June’s guardians I am fairly certain that these were contributing factors to their dog barking problem.

I also made sure that we spent some time discussing dog body language; specifically dog consent, cut off signals as well as as affirmation signs.

Many people are unaware of the fact that their dog is communicating no when they don’t like something. This causes the human to repeatedly do the thing that causes distress in their dog. The humans aren’t doing it on purpose, but the end result is still the same for the dog. It erodes their confidence, makes them more insecure and frequently leads to unwanted dog behavior problems such as barking at the door.

Conversely, recognizing and responding to your dog’s cut off signals makes them feel more secure and confident. I don’t know about you, but I am able to handle more challenging situations when I feel comfortable, secure and confident. Dogs are the same.

Before I showed June’s people how to stop dog barking at the door, we headed outside so that I could share some loose leash walking tips. Now I shoudl mention we did this in a courtyard behuind the house. The #1 reason people fail to teach a dog to stop pulling onthe leash is to teach them outside on a walk.

These loose leash walking tips were easy and effective. One of them was simply marking and rewarding June for looking at her handler. Rewarding your dog for checking in voluntarily is probably one of the easiest things you can do to promote loose leash walking with your dog.

I also went over a placement conditioning exercise where June’s guardian walked in a circle and then marked and rewarded every time that she looked at them. This led to us marking and rewarding when she started walking towards us, and eventually while she walked next to us.

It was impressive to watch how quickly June figured this out. Within a couple minutes she was walking on the left side of her guardian or myself or whoever was practicing. This was even more impressive considering we were not using a leash.

I recommended that the guardians practice these loose leash walking tips in their backyard area once a day in short 2 to 4 minute practice sessions. Short successful practice sessions that are repeated a few times a day every day wil generate much faster resuls than only practicng once a week. No matter what you are trying to teach your dog.

Teaching a dog to stop pulling on the leash is also accelerated when you practice having the dog walk in the position you want in non distracting environments. Walking them inside or in an environment where they spend a lot of time is the best way to accomplish this.

How to Stop Dog Barking at the Door

Now that we had addressed all of the minor dog training needs, I was ready to turn my attention towards June’s habit of barking at the door.

Whenever I am trying to stop dog barking, I find that a combination of desensitization and counterconditioning is usually the best way to go. This is because the exercise is easy and the positive nature changes how the dog feels about the knock.

If your dog has developed a habit of barking at the door, you should definitely check out the free positive Dog training video below.

By practicing in short, successful practice sessions while being mindful of June’s body language and cut off signals, the guardians can anticipate when she is about to start barking and back off.

The most important factor with this technique to stop dog barking at the door is to create situations where the dog does not feel the need to bark.

I know it sounds weird but essentially what you’re doing is rewarding the dog for not barking while you re-create the situation that usually causes them to do so.

When we finished filming the above video, one of the guardians mentioned that they had already practiced some counter conditioning. It seems like she was doubtful that the exercise that I showed them in the video would actually stop the problem since they had done it themselves.

But there are two important differences. First of all, their previous attempt attempts at stopping dog barking did not include the fundamentals that I covered in the first part of the session. There’s not often a direct line between stimulus and behavior which causes many people to become confused or frustrated.

But confidence and insecurity are very powerful emotions that influence us in many ways. The same thing happens with dogs. If you don’t help a dog feel comfortable and confident in their environment with the little things, unwanted behaviors like dog barking at the door often result.

Secondly, it sounded like they had done a little bit of something I call practicing until failure.

This is one of the most common mistakes people make when trying to use counter conditioning to stop dog barking. If the dog barks when you’re practicing, that means the knocking sound, or whatever the stimulus was, is too loud. When this is the case, essentially you’re practicing rewarding your dog for barking.

It can seem to be a tedious process but this is a time-honored way of stopping dog barking. I have seen at work hundreds and hundreds of times. And every single time that a client has reported that it did not work, it was because they were not practicing frequent enough, practicing too intensely which caused the dog to bark or didn’t incorporate the other dog behavior tips I shared in the session like celebrating.

June barked softly a few times and did offer a few “huff’s” which we want to avoid when doing this exercise to stop dog barking at the door or anywhere. I continued as I assumed that June would not be as excited and stimulated without the presence of a house guest. But if she does continue, her guardian may want to practice the knocking away from the door.

Practicing away from the normal source of knocks can help the dog be more relaxed as the sound usually doesnt occur in the new place. When desensitizing dogs with counter conditioning, you have to find a way to make things easier when a dog struggles. Changing the location to a bedroom or other locaiton can be a great way to make it easier to fix a dog barking problem.

Its also important to remember that dog behavior does not occur in a vacuum. There are many factors that contribute to every dog behavior just like they do for humans. The key is to make sure that the dog feels calm and confident and then teach them how you want them to behave in situations like when someone comes to the door.

Thats why I spend so much time on fundamentals before I get to exercises to fix the problem. Its natural to try to make faster progress. That is the world we live in. But going slow now (at the beginning) while addressing things wholeistically allows us to move faster later.

We covered quite a lot in this in-home Santa Monica dog training session and I found that a summary video can help people remember a lot of of the salient details that they may otherwise forget.

Since we covered so many of those fundamentals before we got to the secret of stopping dog barking at the door, I pulled out my camera and recorded a roadmap to success summary video to help the guardians remember.