How to stop Goldendoodle from scratching at doors to open them - help!

[Kelsey T]

We have a beautiful 5-month old mini goldendoodle who unfortunately has developed a habit of scratching at doors to open them...any doors. Our front door, the elevator door in our apartment building, the door in the lobby.

We are partly to blame as when he was a puppy and wanting to be near us all of the time, we would leave the doors open a crack so he learned that he could paw at them and they'd easily open. But now, he throws his entire body at the doors scratching them when it doesn't open quickly for him. Even in the elevator which takes less than a minute, he has no patience and will start freaking out scratching the door.

Does anyone have any tips on how to stop/prevent this? Just worried about bringing him to our summer house which has screen doors as he will claw through those in an instant if we don't correct the issue.

Thank you!!

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

I think you just need to correct the issue when it occurs. I used a sharp, "AH-AH" for any unwanted behavior, followed by a redirection and both dogs responded well to the correction. It works best when dogs are young, before they develop a habit of bad behavior.

[Kelsey T]

Thanks! We've been trying that but recently he's been acting out a bit in that area and others (sneaking out shoes/toilet paper/clothes and chewing them all, not listening to commands) - it's almost like he's in his terrible two's already and going backwards from all of our training we worked so hard on!

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Sounds like you need to set boundaries and limit access to rooms and items. Get things off the floor you don't want chewed up, close doors and if necessary, utilize gates and barriers to confine puppy to specific areas. You can always expand the area later after the puppy stage.

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

Seems simple - but just don't used closed doors to pen him in.  Use a crate or a long rope tied to you until he is old enough to be trusted anywhere in the house.

For closed doors that you must use - like elevators - teach sit and wait beside you.  The opening door is NOT a signal that he can leave his wait postition, he must wait until you say okay.

For other doors that you must close him on the other side of you need to first teach him to wait in a sit when you open the door before he goes through the doorway.  The door can be protected during this time with a sheet of plastic screwed to the door from bottom to above jumping height.  This plastic sheet is available in large hardware stores and they will often cut it to fir for you.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Great advice.  I usually go to bed at night before my husband, and I close the door to the bedroom.  Murph stayed with my husband because he takes him out right before bed.  Murphy developed the habit of then running upstairs and scratching at the bedroom door for me to let him in.  I started putting the baby gate in front of the door and that was all it took for him to get the message.