AniEd Ireland

Doors, greetings and all that drama

Doorbells ringing and people coming and going, amid the excitement, can cause dogs a lot of distress. Not to mention the distress their dog’s behaviour can cause pet owners, who are trying to welcome guests while wrangling canine greeters.

There’s no time like Christmas and holiday celebrations to really test any control you thought you had over door behaviour!

Safety First!

While most people believe that their dog’s behaviour at the door is motivated by excitement, that’s not always the case. And it’s more than likely that most dogs experience a range of emotions and expectations when they hear the door.

Dogs can’t be expected to differentiate between intruders and welcome guests, but yet we want them to welcome visitors with calm and friendly behaviour, while scaring away gurriers up to no good.

For the most part, door action will cause arousal for dogs. This makes them more likely to become excitable, to bark, and even to aggress or have other strong emotional responses.

Dogs who approach the door with a wiggly body, they may or may not be barking, and generally calm and quieten once the guests enter are probably ok. The exercises described here will help.

But if a dog barks and continues to bark at the person coming in, jumps repeatedly, lunges or moves forward directly toward the guest or slinks away and attempts to avoid interaction, get some help before putting advice into play.
Management that includes confinement away from doors and incoming guests may be best, at the very least.

Dogs barking at boundaries, when people are approaching or passing, is related to distance increasing behaviour and the inner conflict they experience. Of course, most of the time, people pass on or leave shortly after arriving, and your dog’s behaviour functions for them in achieving distance.
Dogs do behaviour that works, so they bark each time.

You can imagine then, that when a stranger doesn’t leave, the dog may feel they have no choice but to try harder to scare them away. So, for some dogs, it’s safer for them to be confined away from the action altogether.

An ounce of prevention

confine and secure your dog in another room, with a tempting treat, chew or toy to work on before guests arrive
Have your guests call or text, rather than ringing the doorbell or knocking.

let your guests come in the door and settle before introducing your dog
bring your dog in on lead to prevent jumping
Guests will probably be wearing nice clothes, specially for the occasion, so even a friendly dog jumping up or getting too close may be uncomfortable.

you (don’t have guests feed your dog) have high value food rewards for the dog and drop them every couple of seconds, or scatter a handful – this HIGH rate of reinforcement will help your dog to focus on this game, rather than losing control in excitement
some dogs like to hold something in their mouth when excited; have a favourite toy type available at various spots around the door and areas where guests will be welcomed. Give this to your dog to carry before they greet guests.
don’t yell at your dog for barking – scatter treats, ask him for behaviours or tricks, hold a stuffable toy for them to lap, or remove them from the room

If your dog is more cautious meeting guests, try a new guest greeting routine to see if that helps them settle. Many dogs are more comfortable greeting new people outside in more open spaces:

have your guests call or text when they arrive
they wait outside on the street, away from the house
bring your dog, on lead, out and walk in a wide loop around your waiting guests
your guests move into the house and ahead of you and settle
keep your dog back far enough that they are not reacting, barking, staring or straining on the lead to get them
once your guests are settled, enter with the dog on lead and feed him really high value food rewards really regularly
remove the dog after a couple of minutes and confine in a safe room with plenty of things to keep him entertained

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A dog this uncomfortable with guests may not settle enough to be truly comfortable and may be better off confined away safely, with regular visits and outings on lead, or may do better with a pet sitter or with familiar people having quieter celebrations.

If a dog is unable to settle and can’t largely ignore guests after a few minutes, remove the dog and give them a break in another room.

Please be aware that sometimes, a dog appears to have settled because he has stopped barking and is ignoring the guests. The absence of barking or growling does not indicate comfort or happiness.
If your guests move, laugh or talk loudly, get up or come back into the room, your dog will start to bark or become unsettled again. This is a good indication that your dog has not been comfortable, and can’t cope with the extra stimulation and change to the guest.

Remove your dog and settle them in a safe confinement spot.

Sniffing & Snuffling for better door management

One of the most effective ways to control your dog’s arousal related behaviour is to redirect them to an equally absorbing task, but something that gives them more appropriate outlets for their excitement.

Sniffing and snuffling are the perfect alternative behaviours because they really encourage the dog to focus on the task at hand (finding food rewards), while helping them calm and preventing them practicing unwanted behaviour.

Start practicing today so that doors and greetings don’t cause drama at all this holiday season!

Calm entries

Practice this simple exercise each time you come into the house on the run up to Christmas.

Establish a Sniffing Station inside the door, or other appropriate greeting spot, at which you greet your dog. Use a snufflemat or similar snuffling puzzle, or just scatter treats onto the floor as soon as you enter.

Have treats in a tub in the car or your pocket so you are prepared as soon as you walk in, or just inside the door. Enter the house and excitedly bound to the Sniffing Station; scatter treats liberally for your dog to snuffle.

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This helps to change your dog’s expectations. Instead of anticipating this spike of arousal and great excitement when someone comes to the door, they will think sniffing is best instead.

If others practice this too, and you put this into place with guests entering, you will have a calmer door situation, with lots of snuffling and sniffing!

Doorbell = Snuffle Party

Teach your dog that the doorbell signals a snuffle party! Instead of your dog running to the door, they run to you and their Sniffing Station to snuffle for treats; then you can bring your guests in calmly and quietly.

Establish a Sniffing Station with a snufflemat, a snuffle puzzle, or simply scattering treats on the floor, on a blanket or towel, or in their bed.

Practice in short sessions of just a minute or so at a time.

Begin working close to the door so your dog can quickly check that there’s nobody actually there. But as their comfort increases, you can move your Sniffing Station to the spot you want your dog to go to when the door bell sounds, such as another room, a confinement area, a crate or their bed.

Be exciting as you bound to their Sniffing Station – it’s a snuffle party after all!

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Use a recording of your door bell or a similar sounding bell. The one I use can be found here.

You gotta practice door management games before you really need them but they are simple to work into your daily routine and require only 30-60 seconds practice per day.

Entertaining Canines: keep ’em busy and out of trouble

Entertainment and enrichment for pets is kind of our thing. If you want a FULL program of enrichment, training, fun and entertainment, check out our #100daysofenrichment project.

Festive Entertainment

In general, during social gatherings, parties and meals, you likely need your dog to be pretty low key and out of the way.

The easiest way to manage their behaviour is to provide them with appropriate behaviours to keep them busy and entertained. Instead of thinking how to stop them doing things you don’t like, think what you would prefer them to do instead!

Get your dog hooked on entertainment!

Start practicing now with simple activities that your dog can work on themselves, without too much input required from you.

Pacifying Activities:

This category is great for confinement, for calming and when you want your dog to take themselves away and stay busy.

Introduce these now:

Day 1 Stuffables

Day 11 Chewing

Day 37 Lickables and Lappables

Get practicing now so you can find the best approach for your pet – it’s too late to discover they don’t like a certain thing or can’t work a toy on the day, when you really need it.

Activating Entertainment:

Before it all kicks off, provide your dog with plenty of appropriate mental and physical exercise so that they are relaxed and satisfied before the celebrations begin.

Always think in Rollercoasters: if you bring your dog up, they need help coming down again. This is why, it’s not necessarily a great idea to provide exerting exercise right before your guests arrive; your dog will still be wound up and now, with the extra excitement, will find it even harder to come down again.

Introduce some of these activities, and always follow with some down time and something from the pacifying category above.

Day 2 Play: Release the toy, release the joy

Day 6: Sniffing Saturday – Sniffathon!

Day 13: Sniffing Saturday – Scatter Feeding & Snuffling

Day 27 Sniffing Saturday: Adventure Time

Day 32 Play: Fun with Food

Day 55 Sniffing Saturday – Sniffing Courses

Day 57 Rollercoaster Games

Day 62 Sniffing Saturday: Searches & Scavenger Hunts

Day 69 Sniffing Saturday: Drag Hunts

Day 71 Chasing!

Day 76 Sniffing Saturday – SNIFFARI

Day 93 Watersports

Put these in place on the morning of your party, and even in the days leading up to celebration.

Puzzles!

Puzzles can be a great way of providing vital mental exercise and putting them together can be a great to get kids involved. When creating puzzles, think safety first!

Day 25 Dissection & Destruction

Day 29 Blankets

Day 31 Foraging Boxes

Day 39 Bottles

Day 44 Puzzle Chains

Day 46 Teasers

Day 51 Compound Puzzles

Day 53 Suspended Puzzles Pt1