GuideRocket.com: It’s great if your dog can protect the home and those in it, but it can become a little irritating if your pooch barks every time anybody rings the doorbell. Your dog doesn’t understand (yet!) that if somebody rings the doorbell, it’s probably not going to be a burglar or anybody intending to cause any damage, but in order to help your dog remain calm when the bell rings, follow these simple steps.
Step 1
As a dog owner, you must first decide what you want your canine to do when the doorbell rings, rather than knowing only what you don’t want him to do. Do you want your dog to respond at all to the doorbell? Do you want your dog to stay away from the door when the doorbell rings? Instead of simply knowing that you don’t want your dog to bark when the doorbell rings, come up with a command for how you would like him to behave, for example, “Stay”.
Step 2
Once you’ve decided how you would like your dog to react to the sound of the doorbell, you can start the training properly. Start by ringing the doorbell yourself and then commanding your dog what to do. You could ring the doorbell and then firmly tell your dog to “Stay” where he is. Every time he obeys you, give him a reward. This is very important, as he will associate the treats with obeying your command, and this is an essential part of the training.
Step 3
As with any aspect of dog training, it is crucial that you repeat the training process every day for several weeks. Do not think that one or two days of training will be enough to get your dog to stop barking at the doorbell forever. It will take lots of diligence on your part, but it will pay off in the end when you have a dog who sits and seems to ignore the doorbell, instead of barking and going wild every time he hears it.
Step 4
Once your dog has become accustomed to staying and remaining quiet while you ring the doorbell, ask a family member, friend or neighbor to help you with the next part of the training. Ask them to ring the doorbell from outside so that you can answer it. This will be a different experience for your pet, because he will know that it is not you ringing the doorbell this time and there is a stranger at the door. Again, repeat the process of giving the command and rewarding him when he obeys. You’ll be on your way to having a quiet, obedient and well-trained canine!
Video Guide Instructions:
[youtube id=”LG1g9Te89Xg” width=”600″ height=”350″]