Teaching a Dog to Walk Away from the Door When People Knock

By: David Codr

Published Date: October 29, 2019

Heidi and Rusty - Teaching a Dog to Walk Away from the Door When People Knock

For this Omaha dog training session we teach 11 year-old Schnoodle Heidi (pictured here on the left with her room mate, 11 year-old Wheaton Terrier Rusty) to move away from the door when people knock, instead of trying to escape.

Teaching a dog to move away from the door when the doorbell rings is all about breaking the activity down into small steps, and then helping the dog practice each step over and over individually. By doing this in the easiest scenario possible, ie no one at the door, we can help the dog learn a new behavior.

Many dogs escape through an open door, taking advantage of the arrival of guests to do what we call “door dashing” in the dog world. This secret to stopping dogs from running out an open door should stop Heidi and Rusty from doing the same. I could tell the guardians were happy to know that they could stop the dogs from door dashing with a little practice.

The best thing about this tip to stop dog door dashing is anyone can do it. You don’t have to be a professional Schnoodle or Wheaton Terrier dog trainer, just patience and have good timing. It only took me a few minutes to train the dog to move away from the door when I knocked on the wall. The doorbell will be more challenging, but not overwhelmingly so.

We covered a number of other dog behavior tips in this in home Omaha dog training session. To help the guardian and his helpers remember them all, we recorded a roadmap to success video that you can check out below.

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This post was written by: David Codr