# Doorbell and training to ignore?



## KCsunshine (Apr 16, 2012)

One of my pet hates at the moment is the fact that Coco goes really crazy barking when the doorbell rings, and she always legs it full pelt to the door. I have a fear of her bolting (remember she did that when the door opened and she was a tiny puppy). Now we have to grab her collar tight and hold her back when the door bell goes. Then of course she tries to jump all over the person there. (the jumping thing I'm working on by getting visitors to simply ignore her till she gets down then letting them say hello when she is sitting) 

I'd love to train her not to do this with the door bell but have no clue where to start. BTW, I live in a town house, her crate is in the kitchen on the middle floor, the front door is two flights down stairs. Ideally I'd like her to go to her crate when the bell rings, or ignore it, or at the very least just sit by the door and not move

We are in the middle of training the stay command, and she is getting there but when the bell rings, it all goes out of the window!


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## Cat 53 (Aug 26, 2012)

The only thing I can suggest is when the bell rings you distract her with a very high value treat. One she cannot resist and give it ti her only when she is sitting quietly in her crate.


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## susanb (Jan 19, 2012)

I read somewhere of a chap who trained his dog to go and sit on a mat when his doorbell rang. He had a friend come around and ring the doorbell over and over again many many times. Each time he gave the dog a treat on the little mat. Eventually the dog got to the stage where the doorbell ringing made it think it would get a treat on the mat. 

I did start on this but I think you do need to have help to do it repeatedly in the same day in order to have a chance. I do believe that you could get if to work fir you if you have time to keep practising.


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## BeckyP (Mar 21, 2012)

yes we need to work on this one too. When the doorbell rings and he sees me heading for the door he flies out to answer it first! I either have to hold him back to stop him bolting out which is not ideal as it's usually a delivery which i need to sign for; or i have to wrestle him back into the kitchen before I answer it, and listen to him whining and hurling himself at the door. I think I need to get someone to stand outside and ring the bell so we can practise and get it right. Think he will get there in the end, it just takes that time to practise because to be fair, he has no idea how I'd like him to act right now.


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## flounder_1 (May 12, 2011)

Lolly also goes mad when the doorbell goes and jumps like she has springs in her legs to look out of the window by the front door to see who it is. I have trained Lolly now to go into the living room before I open the door (I shut the living room door which is glass so she can still see what is going on). We tried the mat by the door and only opened the door when she was on the mat and would shut the door again without letting the visitor in when she got off it (we also kept Lolly on the mat until we told her she could go and greet our guest but again this only really worked with family and relied on us always having a supply of high reward treats by the front door. We had some success with that but it was only practical when it was one of the family at the door who understood why we were shutting it again in their face! Asking her to go into the living room works much better.


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## MillieDog (Jun 1, 2011)

flounder_1 said:


> Lolly also goes mad when the doorbell goes and jumps like she has springs in her legs to look out of the window by the front door to see who it is. I have trained Lolly now to go into the living room before I open the door (I shut the living room door which is glass so she can still see what is going on). We tried the mat by the door and only opened the door when she was on the mat and would shut the door again without letting the visitor in when she got off it (we also kept Lolly on the mat until we told her she could go and greet our guest but again this only really worked with family and relied on us always having a supply of high reward treats by the front door. We had some success with that but it was only practical when it was one of the family at the door who understood why we were shutting it again in their face! Asking her to go into the living room works much better.


So that's why you closed the door in my face  and there was me thinking I'd offended you 

I didn't help the situation, by peering through the window so Lolly knew it was me and very probably Millie too


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## Joshinjune (Nov 4, 2012)

Have you tried playing the 'find it' game with treats? U basically throw treats on the floor one at a time away from her so she has to seek them out, saying 'find it' to prompt her to look. Its a way of turning giving them treats into a game. If she's really in to food this might work. If she's too busy sniffing round the floor fr treats, she won't have time to bark! It's a brilliant distraction game to play in a variety of circumstances. X


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## tessybear (May 1, 2011)

I have to shut mine behind a stair gate if I don't want them to jump all over people who come through my front door. It just seems the easiest thing. Once they are in they calm down and I can let them out.


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

While mastering this, it may be an idea to keep a spare lead by the front door - then if the bell goes and she dashes to the door you can at least put her lead on before opening the door... 
It may well be that she is already trained to sit before the lead goes on and trained to sit before the door opens and letting you go out first, before a walk?
If so then you can use this training before opening the door to let people in - work on the sit on lead and if she gets up, close the door...
When you are putting on her lead before you go out for a walk introduce a mat a few paces back from the door where she has to sit while you put on her lead and open the door...
All great in theory!!


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## span (Nov 11, 2012)

I had a similar problem a few months ago and it drove me absolutely insane. It took a while but now I just say 'stop' and she does!! I don't know anything about training compared to most folk on here but this is what I did and it worked for me.......eventually! 

I basically had a friend do the things that sent her crackers over and over again for what seemed like days! (It was probably about an hour and a half in real life!) When she started to bark and jump etc I'd stand up and say STOP! Then wait until she went quiet, wait another couple of seconds (just to make sure it wasn't the fact I'd stood up quickly and spoken that had put her off for a second for her then to carry on yapping), give her a treat & praise and go and open the door! Generally, she was so busy retrieving her treat she didn't realise the door was even open!

Don't get me wrong, it didn't work every time! She would ignore the treat and carry on barking, not stop barking at all, or, run round like a maniac, but eventually it clicked and now I just say STOP! 

I use 'stop' for most unwanted behavior and as soon as she hears it she just sits looking at me. I hope she doesn't think her name is actually Stop  She must have heard enough times!!

H x


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## wellerfeller (Jul 12, 2011)

What you are talking about is mat training. It's teaching the dog to go to a place and be calm, rather than get all worked up and excited.
Here is a video clip that can help you get started but search You Tube, it's great for seeing training in action.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tVGaslyGaGE


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## Chumphreys (Oct 1, 2011)

Malie doesn't bark at the doorbell but she does bark at anything that moves outside of our front garden.Last night I took her out for her last wee at about 10 and she seemed to bark at every sound.She also barks at people if we are out walking in the dark and at people who walk by in the mornings.Hubby says she is just protecting her home but it drives me round the bend as I worry about the neighbours (
XClare


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## Cat 53 (Aug 26, 2012)

So yours is called 'STOP' and mine is called 'NO'. Great names. Lol


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## KCsunshine (Apr 16, 2012)

thanks alot for all the great advice!


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