Inappropriate Greeting At The Door

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

One of the things we're struggling with is how Murphy responds to guests when they first arrive.  It usually starts with Guinness hearing someone at the door (before they knock or ring the bell).  He (Guinness) gets excited and runs to the door.  That sets Murphy of and he runs, following his brother and barking the whole way.  We keep leashes at the door so that we can immediately leash him up...but he's already in a his "zone" at this point.  It's very difficult to control him, even with the leash...he's jumping and just going "crazy".  Now at this point, Guinness gets all upset himself, and he starts.  It takes a good five minutes of struggling before I get the two of them calmed down enough to do a sit/stay.  Sometimes the visitor is still outside during this, and other times they're standing at the door looking horrified.  After this five minutes of "crazyness" things are fine, and the dogs relax and are great with the visitor.  Anyone else with this problem....how do you handle it?

[Ronna, Murphy & Wilson]

Hi Jane. What I did with my Murphy is taught him to go to a certain "place" when the door bell rings. We started this by picking a spot that he can see the door from and placing a small rug in that spot. We would lure him to his "place" with treats, toys, whatever and once he hit the rug we said "place" and immediately treated. Once he figured out that "place" meant his rug (and this was over a couple of days) we introduced the doorbell. My husband and I took turns and also inlisted any neighbor or passerby that we could get. As soon as the bell rings we would say "Murphy Place" still luring him there anyway we could get him on the rug. Once on the rug, treat and praise. After about 30 or so repetitions (again, many days of practice) he started to associate the bell to the rug or "place". Then it was time to add a sit or down stay until the door is open, guest is in, and he is released. Now he is so hung up on the sound of the bell that if a door bell rings on TV he goes to his place and we have to pretend to open the door. If you go to our page there is a video of the end result. Hope this helps!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

It helps a lot. Here's what I'm not sure of....if the bell rings and he goes to his "place" and gets a treat, how do you respond if he then leaves the rug and runs toward the visitor excited and jumping after being released?

[Ronna, Murphy & Wilson]

Once he understands the association of the bell and his place make sure that when he hears the bell you are putting him in a stay on his rug. Practice holding the stay in small steps...first while you go to the door. Once he holds it that long practice holding the stay till he hears the door open, etc. While you are practicing with friends, neighbors etc, instruct them not to make eye contact with Murphy at all. This will help. If he breaks his stay before released you must not let him get away with it. Immediately put him back in his place and make him hold his stay until released. Your guest might have to stand out side for ten minutes while he gets this but that is why practicing with friends and neighbors that know what you are doing is so helpful. If he is not allowed to break his stay on his own terms he will learn to stay until released. This is very hard for them especially once the person is in the house. It just takes repetition and no matter how annoying it is don't let him decide when to break his stay. It will become much easier when you start to do the individual steps instead of looking at the big picture. And like anything, don't make each practice session last for more than 15 minutes or he will get bored and stop listening to you. Start slowly and build up..he'll get it, I promise!

[Ronna, Murphy & Wilson]

Oh..One more thing....If he leaves the rug to go to the visitor before released YOU have to be more exciting than the person at the door to get him to follow you back to his place. Sometimes this entails acting like a crazy person to get the dogs attention off the door. Run, jump, squeak his favorite toy, etc. This is why it helps to tell your visitor not to make any eye contact with the dog. Keep me posted on his progress, Good luck!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Okay, that was my other question. It sounds like you don't have a leash on him. Do you keep treats right by the door so you can reward him immediately when he goes to his place and sits?

[Ronna, Murphy & Wilson]

Yes! His place is in the doorway of our kitchen and the kitchen counter top is right there. We always keep a little plastic baggie of training treats within reach. When we grab one to treat him for going to his place and sitting we grab a few extra in case we see him getting ready to break his stay. Part of the success is never letting him break the stay on his own terms so if he looks like he is getting ready to break..fidgeting, etc., we will walk back to him, say good stay, and treat, reinforcing the stay.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I have this same problem, and it has been escalating recently. Jack is enormous and charges the door like a locomotive. If i know someone is coming over, I get him leashed ahead of time and hang onto him, but this is only a stop-gap measure until I can get some serious training work done with him. I intend to be able to put him in a sit-stay or down-stay eventually, but I know that's going to take a lot of work and time, as "stay" is JD's most challenging command.
Fortunately, he does not jump up, ever. So if i have him on leash and in my control when the person gets into the house, he is almost always fine after that. The exception is strange men, particularly servicemen. Lately, he gets closed in my bedroom when a serviceman is here. Once inside my room, he is very quiet and sits waiting to be let out again. It bothers me a lot; I have never had to close a dog in a room before when someone was in my home.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Karen, what does JD do when the "strange men" actually come inside? He doesn't jump...does he give off "aggressive signals" or is he just excited? I could include something really funny right about now in terms of the "strange men", but I'm thinking it's probably not the right time. LOL

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Lunges right up toe-to-toe with them and barks like a maniac, really snarl-y, scary, teeth-baring, non-stop barking, right up into their faces. Doesn't jump, but does those little hops at them, like a kid stamping its feet. Even with all four on the floor, his mouth is waist-level on most people. If someone's dog acted that way towards me, I would be terrified.
Obviously, I prevent him from getting close to anyone since it escalated to this level.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Okay, thanks. Yes, I can see how that would be frightening to most people who don't know him.

[Jamie Petro]

We experience almost the exact same thing except throw in an excitement pee and a dachshund who is barking madly! Gee it's no wonder we never invite anyone over! :o) They are both fine after about 5 minutes. I am definitely going to try the "place" rug.

[Carole (*Koda*Monty*Bindi)]

We have this problem with Gaston-Cramer and, unlike Jack, he WILL jump up on people. I'm looking forward to trying some of the techniques Ronna used with Murphy :). I have found though that the biggest problem seems to be with people that come to the door and say "Oh it's ok...I don't mind! He's just hugging me! " and they proceed to rough house with him. By the time I've told them that GC's behavior is unacceptable and they stop trying to get him to play, GC's lost interest, walks away and the teaching moment is gone.

Rosie on the other hand could care less....she's of the point of view that people are the ones that are supposed to jump up and down and greet HER when they walk in the house LOL. She's turned into a true southern belle. LOL

Thanks for starting this Jane...I think it'll help alot :)