Easy Lesson on How to Teach a Dog Personal Boundaries

Jagger (left) is a three-year-old Goldendoodle who lives in Omaha with one-year-old Great Dane Zeppelin. Their guardians set up this dog behavior training session to work with Zepplin primarily on how to teach a dog personal boundaries with other dogs and to stay out of certain rooms.

Zepplin has not been listening to his family, jumps up on counters to steals food, and is all around an excited dog. Overall, he and his roommate Jagger could benefit from some dog boundary training.

The day of the session, Zeppelin was recovering from a stomach surgery to prevent bloating. He seemed less focused and noticeably quieter than usual.

How to Teach a Dog Personal Boundaries

Boundary training basically instructs your dog on areas they’re permitted or prohibited to enter. Whether it’s a specific room or the entirety of your backyard, your dog comprehends the limits of their space.

While other methods exist to control your dog’s access, teaching them to make wise decisions about their whereabouts grants you freedom from continuous monitoring. Training your dog to steer clear of certain rooms, like the kitchen, affords you personal space and peaceful meals.

As the session went on, I saw that Zeppelin had no issue invading people’s personal space. This can be a problem for any dog, but with a giant breed like a Great Dane, not respecting personal space is especially troublesome.

I made sure to go over some creative exercise tips like feeding out of a snuffle mat or Cookie in the corner. Many dogs follow us around or get into trouble because they are under exercised or bored. But if you want to know how to teach a dog personal boundaries, taking care of their physical needs is important.

As a Dog Behaviorist, I’m always encouraged when people with large dog breeds reach out for help. It’s crucial the dog listens on their own, and not through force or pain causing tools like prong collars, etc. I abhor these tools as they have no place with the modern positive dog training methods and approach we subscribe to.

I have found that many people go straight to punishing thier dog’s unwanted behavior without first teaching a dog the way you want them to act in the first place. We would never accept that as a human, but it happens to dogs all the time.

Tips to Teach Dogs to Stay Out of Certain Rooms

There are some easy ways to keep a dog out of the room; setting up a baby gates, making sure you dont reward your dog when it  crosses the boundary, etc. But the best way to keep a dog out of a room is for dog owners to set boundaries. But most dog owners dont have the time to do that consistently.

Instead I showed the guardians an easy way to teach a dog to stay behind a barrier using positive dog training. For this technique I used a marker word. If you dont have a marker word in place, you should add one. They are eay to introdcue and use and can dramatically speed up your dog’s learning process.

Step One: Teach Your Dog Where to Go

1. Determine where you want your dog to wait. Having a floor mat or dog bed in this spot can make things easier.
2. Come up with a word that means go to this place like “spot,” or “place.”
3. Go to that spot and show your dog you have a treat. Say the word, then toss a treat on the floor mat or bed.
4. When your dog steps on the mat / bed, say your marker word, then let your dog eat the treat.
5. Walk away so your dog is off the bed, then go back and repeat this exercise 12-15 times.
6. After a couple of practice sessions, motion your dog to the bed, then ask your dog to sit after they step onto the mat.
   Say your marker word with they sit, then give them the treat. Repeat this step 1-15 times each practice session.
7. Eventually your dog will go and sit down on the bed when you give the go to the spot cue.  The first time it does, say your marker word once, then give them 5 treats in a row. Doing this the first few times they sit on their own can help your dog understand.
8. Keep practicing until your dog goes and sits on the bed when you give the go to the place cue.

Step Two: Teach Your Dog to Stay in a Spot

The next step is to teach the dog to stay on the bed as you move away progressively. Some dogs will stay in place while you take one step into the next room, other dogs may stay in place for a dozen steps, but almost all of them will get up to follow you at some point as they are conditioned to do so.

Why? The do this all the time and there is usually a reward when they do. Your company, a pet, a treat, meeting a new person, etc. Following you is fun and there is somehting in it for your dog.

So to teach dog boundary training, you have to teach them to stay in place and reward them when they do so.

1. Tell your dog to go to the spot. Mark and reward them when they go there and sit down.
2. Take one (single) step away, then stop and go back to whre your dog is. If they stay on the bed, say your marker and give them a treat.If they don’t stay there, give them the cue to go to the bed again, mark and reward with a pet. Then take a half step away (only move one foot) before returning to where your dog is to mark and reward them. The idea is to make the stap small enough where your dog can stay on the bed as you partiall step away.
3. Once you can find a step (or partial step) that you can take with your dog remaining on the bed, repeat it 2-3 times.
4. The next time, take 2 steps (or more of a step than you did before if you are only doing a half, quarter step, etc) and if your dog stays in place, when you return say your marker word, then treat them.
5. Repeat this process until you can walk all the way into and around your kitchen.

After you practice this method to establish dog boundaries, your dog will become conditioned to stay in that spot as you go into the room. It takes some practice, so I recommend you practice 3 times a day in short, 1 minute practice sessions.

After a few weeks, sitting and staying on the bed as you go into the room becomes the new habit. Congratulations! You have taught your dog a new behavior!

If you have multiple dogs, practice this tip to teach dog boundaries with each dog separately until both dogs can do it easily. Then put them on the spot together and practice the whole process again.

Dog Boundary Training Tips

I also recommended the guardians work up to doing this exercise when there was a meal being prepared or served. You need to start practicing this dog boundary training exercise with no food being served or prepared. But once your dog knows how to do it, then you can practice after microwaving a piece of roast beef or other food item to introduce the smell.

By teaching a dog the basic of how to stay out of a room, then practicing increasingly difficult screnatios progressively, you can easily train a dog to stay out of a room.

Dog boundary training is essential for safety within the household, especially a multi-dog household. With positive reinforcement and our training methods, dogs can learn to respect rules and behaviors that make a peaceful environment.

It was good to see Jagger and Zeppelin’s owners asking for help and using kind training methods instead of harsh ones. With consistent practice and reinforcement, both dogs showed progress, underscoring the effectiveness of patient, positive training approaches in fostering respectful and cooperative canine companionship.

I’m confident that if the pup’s parents keep practicing these techniques, the new behaviors will stick for long-term success. Im happy to have done this session on how to teach a dog personal boundaries and am excited to hear from the dog owners how its going.

We wrapped up the session by filming a success roadmap video, packed with positive dog training tips I shared with Jagger and Zeppelin’s family during our in-home training.