Free Tips to Train A Dog to Stop Barking at the Door

For this Culver City dog training session I helped 3 year-old Chihuahua Terrier mix Bonnie stop barking at the door.

Stopping dog barking isn’t so much about stopping the barking as it is determining why the dog feels the need to bark in the first place.

In my experience as a Dog Behaviorist, I’ve found a lot of dog problems come from confusion or frustration. The human is confusing or accidentally contributing to the dog but is unaware of the fact that they’re doing so.

That’s why I like to start off my sessions by going through a number of fundamentals. I explained to Bonnie’s guardian the importance of using marker words as well as how to establish one.

Next, I recommended the guardian start celebrating desired behaviors. Celebrating as an easy way to communicate to your dog what you want them to do. In time, this can teach your dog manners and even condition them to come and sit in front of you to ask for attention instead of barking.

Anytime I’m called into stop a dog barking problem, I like to also work on impulse control. This is a very underrated contributing factor to nuisance dog barking. Dogs need to practice self restraint and impulse control if you want them to actually control themselves.

To help Bonnie with her impulse control, I decided to walk the guardian through somehting called the relaxation protocol. This is a series of very small and simple exercises that are combined together to help a dog learn to sit, stay calm, focus and and essentially relax.

Bonnie did great when I was running through the exercise and did even better for her guardian. I promised her guardian I would mail her a list of 15 days of activities to practice. I would love to see her practicing the relaxation protocol with Bonnie once a day until they finish 15 days of the program.

Not only will this help Bonnie practice some self-control, it will help her get into a habit of listening to her humans and feeling good about it.

I shared some other dog behavior tips such as dog body language and cut off signals before turning my attention to Bonnie’s primary issue, barking when people knock at the door.

How to Teach a Dog to Stop Barking at the Door

I pulled out my camera and handed it to guardians so I could demonstrate an easy way to stop dog barking. If you have a dog with a barking problem, you should definitely check out the free positive dog training video below.

I love using this trick to stop dog barking because of how quickly it works. In a matter of one to two minutes Bonnie went from barking at the door knocked to sitting there quietly.

The guardian can use the same technique and exercise for any activity or sound that Bonnie barks at. I suggested that they make a list of all of those triggers and then systematically work at them at a time.

I also recommended the family watch this video podcast by Susan Garrett. It covers cut off signals, signs of consent as well as the calming signals dogs use to communicate stress or the need for relaxation.

Near the end of the session, I pulled out my camera and sat down to summarize what we covered in this in-home Culver City dog training session. You can check out that road map to success video below.

Whew! That was a lot. Bonnie is a fun and friendly dog who means well. But she has a few insecurities which are likely contributing factors to her dog barking problem. However Bonnie is fortunate to have an awesome family who is dedicated to her. Im looking forward to hearing an update from her family and excited to see her grow and progress.