PURPOSE: To lessen your dog’s anxiety upon hearing the door bell ring or someone knock on the front door.
1. Pair the ringing of the door bell and/or knocking on the front door with tasty food treats.
2. As soon as the sound occurs, stuff your dog with tasty food treats. At first you may feel like you’re rewarding barking. However, don’t worry about this as you have to start somewhere. It won’t be long before your dog starts to understand being quiet results in tasty rewards.
3. You will find it helpful to do this exercise on leash so your dog can’t run toward the front door. Additionally, you may have to start this exercise with your dog in a back room or basement so that the volume of the door bell is reduced at first.
4. As your dog begins to settle down and concentrate on the food treat, hesitate a few seconds between the door ringing and the delivery of the food treat to be able to reward your dog for quiet behavior. You can mark the quiet behavior by saying “yes”, “good” or pushing the button of a clicker and then offering the food reward.
5. Most people want their dog to bark when there is a strange sound. So don’t worry, the above exercise will not teach your dog not to bark. Instead, it will help him/her to be in more of a thinking state of mind instead of an uncontrollable reactive state of mind.