Door Manners: Safe Exits, and How to Train Them
Have you ever gotten your dog ready for a walk, and the second you crack the door, they are in their own world and just pulling you along? Not only is this kind of behavior annoying, it can also potentially be dangerous, especially in slippery weather conditions.
Jesse and Yggie demonstrating a “stop” behavior before going on their walk, Halloween ghosts and all.
Two main elements will help you and your dog exit the door as a team versus two individuals embroiled in a low level tug of war: lowering excitement and rewarding safe behavior. First, lots of dogs see the door as a “start button” for excitement, which leads to the pulling. That’s why it’s important to bring the overall excitement around the door down. Also, when dogs have learned that the door is the access to all kinds of fun things, then going through the door becomes a reward, which means that whatever comes before going through the door is rewarded and will likely be repeated by the dog. And, yup, you guessed it - if that’s doing backflips on the leash, those are more likely to surface in future door exits. For this reason, creating desirable behavior around the door can set you and your dog up for success, especially when it comes to leashed walks.
Step by Step Approach to Safer Door Exits
As with everything, building up desirable behavior step by step is important - especially in this case, where a reward is involved that’s a bit harder to control in the shape of the door exit. You need to start where your dog can be successful and then over time ask more of your dog when they have learned to control themselves more. If something doesn’t work out, go back to where you and your dog can find success. That’s not actually admitting defeat - that’s just really good training, which will make the behavior stronger overall.
Step 1: Building Eye Contact
The first step is to build eye contact by the door. It will be easiest to start this without your dog wearing their walking gear. I like using a game called “up/down” developed by Leslie McDevitt in her groundbreaking book “Control Unleashed”. It’s very simple but also very effective. Here’s how it works:
Put a treat in front of your feet.
Most dogs will look to you to see if another treat is forthcoming. Mark (with a clicker, a marker word, etc.) your dog for looking up at you.
Place the treat in front of your feet again.
Repeat.
Once your dog has learned to consistently offer you eye contact in front of the door, practice this with your dog’s leash and harness on. Once you’ve mastered this, you can progress to the next part.
Step 2: Opening the Door
Now, you will reward your dog for offering eye contact while you’re interacting with the door. In the past, even just touching the door meant to your dog that they would get to party, so begin slowly here, for example by just reaching your hand towards the door or touching the door knob. Work your way up to opening the door a crack. Once your dog can sit by the door and offer you eye contact as you open it a crack, add a release cue to the door exit, for example “free” or “ok”. Say this right before you open the door fully and think of it as the reward for looking at you.
If your dog rushes towards the door, simply close the door and evaluate - what made this so hard for your dog? Is there something you can do next time to help them be successful?
Work this step until your dog can give you eye contact while you have the door fully open.
Step 3: Building a Stop after Door Exit
Once your dog can sit with the door fully open before being released, it’s time to build a “stop” into the door exit. After releasing your dog with their release word, mark them with your marker word or click, and then toss a treat inside the house. Work on this step until your dog pauses a little before rushing out the door. Once your dog offer the pause, mark and treat for stopping after exiting the door.
Step 4: Playing a Connecting Game
After building a stop, it’s time to ensure that your dog is with you before you head on a walk. For this, you can choose any focus game you and your dog know, for example the up/down game listed in step 1.
If you’ve accomplished all of this with your dog - pat yourself on the back! This is no mean training feat. I bet having safe and controlled door exits also changes how your walks go - so enjoy a more focused and connected jaunt with your pup friend!
