Door Dashing – stopping your escape artist in their tracks

Is your dog an escape artist with the best of moves to slide through any crack of space when a door is opened?  You stick your leg out, shuffle your body to block the escape but to no avail, they are off to the races.

This behavior is beyond frustrating, especially if you are in a hurry to leave and now need to chase your pup around the neighborhood calling their name and shaking a treat bag in hopes the adventure will end soon. Beyond the frustration, the excitement around doors is a simple opportunity for your dog to practice more self-control and learn to be more mentally calm.  Any time you can add structure to these emotional moments in your dog’s life, you will become less overwhelmed and help your dog gain better behavior not only on the specific issue at hand, but overall in life because all behaviors are connected.

Here are a few steps to take to help build better all around behavior with the door and with life in general.

1. Start training with doors that have less emotional connection such as interior doors to bedrooms or bathrooms. Keep your dog on a leash initially.
2. Open the door only a couple inches and wait for your dog’s response.
3. If the dog begins to move through the slightly open door, close the door before they are able to move past the threshold.
4. Repeat this open/close process until the dog slows down their entrance and has hesitation before choosing to enter the doorway.
5. Once your dog is learning to slow down around interior doors, move to a kennel door, the door to the garage or any door that has slightly more emotional appeal than the interior doors.  As the dog has overwhelming success with these next level doors, then you can try an exterior door.

BONUS: wait the dog out and use a release word such as their name so they know it’s a proper time to enter.  We also like to wait for the dog to make eye contact, then say their name so they can be permitted to go through the door.

MYTH BUSTING: owners should always go through a door before their dog to make sure the dog isn’t asserting dominance.  FALSE!! Alpha mentality is just that, one perspective on dog behavior.  Making emotional resilience and the dog’s ability to think about their choices before jumping into action, like bolting out a door, your training priority will ensure you developing a well-behaved dog.