Last week, I outlined the first steps in teaching your dog to wait for your permission to go through doors when the dog is with you. Many good reasons exist to teach your dog this behavior, all of them having to do with safety for the dog and peace of mind for you.
This particular skill helps your dog learn what is called “impulse control”—the ability not to act on impulse in situations where control is needed. The dog’s impulse is to run through any open door ahead of you. At worst, that behavior can put him in danger. At best, it can make you mad at him.
Instead, your dog will learn to “wait for further information” as a default behavior when you and he are together and you open a door in front of him. When you have worked through all the steps outlined in Part One of this information, your dog should be waiting attentively as you reach for the doorknob. He should not leap forward when you touch the door.
Now it’s time to open the door!
Start with the door inside your home where your dog has had the most success with learning to wait. That may be the door to the most uninteresting part of your house, at least to the dog (which rules out the door to wherever he gets fed, for example).
As you add a new step in any learning process, your dog’s behavior may waver. When he sees a few inches of space as you open the door, he may lurch forward. Don’t reprimand him, please. If his behavior regresses, go back several steps and work through them again to refresh his memory.
Consider, too, if you might unconsciously be doing anything that could indicate to him that “All bets are off, make a dash for it!” Ask a helpful family member to observe your body language, for instance, to see how you might be giving the dog the wrong information.
Don’t give up, and don’t blame the dog or yourself. You are both learning something new, and you both deserve patience and praise for trying. No punishment, no recriminations, no “What’s wrong with you today!”
Your goal now is to open the door a few inches—enough so the dog can clearly see the space between the door and the jamb, but not enough so that your dog is encouraged to lunge through the opening.
Does your dog continue to wait, attentively and at least somewhat patiently? Congratulations! He deserves a great deal of praise (if he likes praise) and a jackpot (more or better treats than you usually give at one time). In fact, so do you, but you can defer that reward until later, when you can pat yourself on the back and treat yourself to something you really like. Good job!
This part of the training continues much as you would expect. As you see the dog respond correctly—waiting, not lunging forward—to a door open a few inches, experiment with opening the door further (four inches instead of two, say) in very small increments.
At each new increment, practice as many times, over as many short sessions, as you and the dog need to be sure that step has been accomplished.
Should the dog regress, go back a few steps and work up to the more open door as the dog succeeds. Move your training location from door to door, as well.
You may find that life interferes with training this behavior as many times a day as would be ideal. You may even miss a few days of training. Don’t give up!
Go back a few steps—even all the way to the beginning—and practice those steps again. Give the dog a chance to get back up to speed on what you’re trying to accomplish. Set the dog up for success, never for failure. Sure, it’s great to practice this exercise multiple times a day, every day, but that’s not always going to be possible. Adjust!
What you ultimately want is to be able to open the door all the way and have your dog still wait, attentively and patiently, on the inside of that door with you.
At this point, you have not stepped through the door yourself—that’s very important right now. Stepping through the door yourself might make following you almost irresistible to the dog, and we don’t want that at this stage of training.
You should be able to settle the dog on the inside of the door, you at his side or in front of him (depending on the space and what works best for your dog). Then you should be able to touch the doorknob, open the door slightly, open the door more, and finally open the door all the way without the dog’s breaking his position, whatever it is. Accomplish that and you’ve come a long way!
Next week, I’ll outline how to get you out of the door while your dog waits inside.
