My boxer, babe and the cableman
My boxer ,babe, has developed the bad habit of hurling herself at the glass storm door everytime someone knocks.. whil working on this, I installed a gate at the head of the stairs to keep her from hurting herself.. this morning she slipped passed me, threw herself at the door and it popped open.. I don’t know who was more shocked she or the poor cable man.. they just stood there and stared at each other.. I shooed her back indoors, apologized to the poor man , thanked the powers above that he wasn’t carrying mace or a gun and resolved to be more diligent at working to correct this behavior…. before we had our burglar she only did this when the woman from the J/w’s came to leave a pamphlet.. now it’s anyone who knocks if she can get downstairs… once i get there she responds to :”NO!, upstairs”.. any suggestions to speedily correct this behavior ..
This is a bit tricky, since she has had so much practice already. Hurling herself at the door while barking is very rewarding to her. She gets to be excited (whee!), you yell, the visitors look surprised, what fun! What you need to do is teach her a different automatic response to the knock at the door. Don’t wait for surprise visitors, this is a training event.
Enlist a friend to help you. Teach her that a knock at the door is her cue to “go to bed” (down/stay on a mat or certain throw rug, whatever you choose). Someone knocks at the door, you lead her to the bed where a wonderful treat waits. Down/stay until released. Don’t go to the door yet, you are training her to down/stay on her bed. The bed needs to be *very* rewarding. Your friend needs to be very patient. You need to create a new reward history. Don’t go to the door until she goes to her bed and stays there.
One time I was doing something like this and for impromptu visitors had to put a sign on the door something like “Please be patient. Training the dog. Will answer door after I train the dog.” It got a lot of chuckles. I don’t remember if the dog ever got trained, that was about 20 years ago I think.
So, she needs a reliable down/stay, then add the word BED *before* down/stay (new cue always comes before old cue, since dogs are so good at anticipating), so that BED means down/stay on the bed (with delicious treats). Eventually you can drop the down/stay cue, because it will become part of the BED cue. The BED must be the same bed everytime. This has to be repeated at least 50 times, maybe more, over lots of time. The knock on the door becomes a cue to go to BED. Be patient. It is difficult to retrain a behavior that has a long reward history. Hint: It’s helpful if the BED is easily portable. If you have to travel and visit friends, you can bring it with you.
Work on her Down cue separately until she drops like a stone when you say it. Make it rewarding! Feed her treats while in the down. Reinforce the down! Reinforce her self control. Work that into Down/Stay, then add the BED cue. Keep working Down in lots of places so it stays reliable. BED means down on the bed and stay until released. Practice your release. She doesn’t get up until released.
I definately agree with Wendy’s training. I know it may sound silly so the friend you recruit needs to be a good one. But believe me you can teach this. A portable bed is a great idea. Make one real cheap by sewing quilting matting (whatever thickness you like) between two old baby blankets (or larger depending on size of your dog). This is easily washable in the machine and folds up like a sleeping bag.
Once you teach “BED”, it is very useful for other situations like dinner parties or when kids come over that are nervous around your dog. My dog Hershey was first taught this by going to a certain spot in the living room where there is his blanket. Then one day I washed his blanket and didn’t replace it. Hershey still went to his “spot”. So, I suggest to add on to this command (once your dog has it down) by moving the bed to different rooms so your dog will go to the bed and not the spot where the bed is. I will have to ‘test’ Hershey on this. That way like Wendy said you can travel with the bed and give the command in other places.
thank you all, it certainly sounds like it should work.. i had always before used the command “upstairs” when she followed me down and then “stay” before i opened the door….. like I said before, until we had someone break into the backdoor a few months ago, this was never a problem.. there is a gate across the stairs and having a place to send her before i go through it will be a big help.. with the little dogs underfoot going from one room to the other is like playing doggie hopscotch and lately I don’t get the gate closed before she’s through it and at the door..