Holiday guests are coming: two weeks to fix the door.

Every December the same three calls come in: the dog barks at the doorbell for ten minutes, the dog jumps on the grandmother, or the dog bolts through the open door while the luggage comes in. All three are door problems, and all three are two-week fixes if the dog has some structure already.

The two-week fix

• Days one to four: place at the door with the bell, no guest yet, twenty reps a day in one-minute sessions
• Days five to nine: a family member plays the guest, walks in, ignores the dog until it is calm on place
• Days ten to fourteen: real guests, leash on the dog, place first and greeting second, every time
• Every day: the door does not open until the dog is on place. No exceptions, including Amazon

When two weeks is not enough

A dog that growls at guests, guards the hallway or has bitten is not a two-week project, and December is not the month to find out. Manage it: a gate, a leash and a crate in a quiet room for the guests' arrival, and a call to our team in January for a real plan. The families who come to us in the new year for guarding at the door usually wish they had booked a stay in October.

The house rules for the guests

Half of holiday dog problems are guest problems. The uncle who squeals at the dog and then complains it jumps, the cousin who feeds it from the table, the child who chases it into a corner. Send the rules before anyone arrives: ignore the dog until it is calm, no food from hands, and the place bed is off limits to children. Say it plainly and say it once, and then hold the rule yourself, because a dog learns the house's real rule in about three guests.

• Greet the dog only when it is on place or sitting
• Nobody feeds the dog anything, anywhere, including the grandmother
• The crate room is closed to guests; it is where the dog goes to rest
• Children do not lie on, hug or wake the dog

Rehearse with real people

Ask the neighbor to ring the bell and walk in three times in one evening. Ask a friend with children to come for coffee. The dog does not learn the door from you pretending to be a guest; it learns it from strangers arriving while it holds place. That is exactly how door work runs in the training home, with real deliveries and real visitors, and it is why the go-home session covers the door in your own house. Two weeks of real rehearsals beats two months of theory.

Written by

Best Dog University Team

Board and train trainers in Cypress, Houston. 16+ years, 900+ dogs. About our team