It's that time of the year again – the Christmas holidays are approaching. For many people their pets will play a different role during the holiday. Some people I know they wouldn’t dream of spending Christmas away from their dogs while others seek out boarding kennels as they feel that it is better for them or their dog due to the high volume of visitors and family members visiting.
Recently, a few owners have being asking me questions as to what I would suggest so their pet is not overlooked during the holidays and also about specific concerns they have. So below I thought I would share ideas on how to deal with one such concern.
“Too Much” barking at the doorbell.
There may be lots of reasons why your dog is doing what he is doing and we may not know exactly why. However I will outline a non-specific training plan that I hope will help.
If the dog barks as soon as the doorbell goes off and they keep barking then I would suggest you try the following:
1. Have some ring the doorbell
2. As soon as dog barks say “Thank you”
3. Then drop a small handful of treats by your dogs’ head, a little distance away from the door.
This handful of treats should be tasty enough and plenty enough so that the dog want to eat them and not carry on barking and also enough to last while you walk over to the door and let the person back in.
After a number of repetitions you should find that as soon as you say ‘thank you’ your dogs becomes quite and looks for the treat. Repeat the above until your dog is able to do this.
4. Once your dog is doing this, repeat step 1 and 2 then this time wait for a second after you say “Thank you” if the dog goes quite, mark that quite with a click (if you use a clicker) or “good dog” then reward your dog.
Now you are feeding your dog for becoming quite when you say “Ty” and not just feeding after you say the word.
5. You can now teach your dog to build duration of remaining quite after you say “Ty” by saying “Ty” then expecting 2 seconds of quite before he gets the treat and so on (don’t start expecting too much too fast).
6. If the doorbell goes off for real, make sure you do the same thing as you have being practicing while answering the door. For this you may need to have a pre- prepared bowl of goodies in the hallway.
7. Note how I talk about practice, setting up the situation and practicing will mean that you can train far more then you would, if you were only doing this when the doorbell went off for real and also it should be much easier in real life as it has being rehearsed over and over previously in a non stressful situation.
Remember to keep sessions short but have lots of sessions through out the day.
Let me know how you get on if you give this a go.
Chirag
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dog too worked up to learn
My current love and project is a very reactive pitbull/labrador/shepherd/who knows what mix. She has improved greatly in her ability to handle interactions outside the house. She still doesn't want to be pet by strangers but no longer barks/lunges/etc. We are both able to enjoy outings, the dog park, farmer's market, etc. All of this is without stress as long as no one tries to pet her. (She would tolerate petting without agression, but wouldn't like it, so I don't allow it). Anyway, after all of this improvement out and about she is still reactive at home, particularly at the door. We made huge progress with knocking at the door, which was facilitated by me taking her outside and letting her watch me knock on the door. Being outside the door helped her realize it was just a knock, nothing scary, and we gradually worked our way back inside, with other's knocking. But when we try the doorbell she loses her little doggie mind. She will sometimes eat a few treats, but mostly barks, to the point of choking on the treats she does try to eat. I'm thinking that at this point my best option is to get a new doorbell, that sounds totally different. Do tons of classical condition to that sound BEFORE linking it to the door at all. Any thoughts?
Katie Meyer, CVT,CPDT
Sounds like a good plan!
Dear Katie
Well done for the work so far, its sounds like you have come a long way from when you first got her. I agree with you, I was just working with a client with similar problems and In that case I thought trying to counter condition her association to the door bell would be extremely difficult for a few reason. So we got a new door bell and did lots of CC and then used it as a cue (go to your mat) before attaching the button part of the bell near the front door.
My tips would be:
Set your dog up for success at each stage;
a.Desensitize to the new sound
b.Train in an area your dog already enjoys being in and I try and avoid working in places the dog previously used to react to the door bell such as the hall way or living room until I am further along my training plan.
c.Use something 'potent' during your initial conditioning
Hope this help! Let us know how you get on.
Chirag
Chirag Patel
www.domesticatedmanners.com
cpatel@domesticatedmanners.com