Door Manners - After the Door

Most of the time, when I talk about manners at the door I'm talking about people coming to the door, or the dog bolting out the door, but in this case I'm looking at the dog's behaviour once they pass through the door.  This topic is on my mind as Tristan has been charging out the door on alert for something in the yard recently.  Once I recognized the pattern, I remembered Leslie McDevitt's reorienting exercise in her Control Unleased Book.

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Tristan's behaviour at the door inside the house is fine, so I started working on his behaviour going through the door.  Normally, you would just cue your dog that it is okay to pass through the doorway while standing still inside, wait for your dog to turn back curious about why you aren't moving, mark and reward.  Continue to practice until it becomes a habit for your dog to check in with you after going through the door.

I modified this exercise a little for Tristan because he's been bolting out to scan the yard for moving things to bark at I didn't want to just wait for him to turn back to me in case he saw something else first so I started by calling his name.  He would turn back so I could mark and reward.  After some practice with me calling him, I paused to see if he would look back and he did - mark and reward.  Now we're back on track with offered attention after going through the door.

If you have a dog fascinated by the world, I hope this post helps. 
​Happy Training!

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