Boundary training.
When we get a young puppy, a fear that can very easily develop is them rushing out the door in that quick moment that no one’s watching. Teaching dogs that they’re not to walk through front doors without receiving a verbal cue form their owners is a really valuable and live saving skill.
To teach your dog boundary training at the door it is important that they first know a sit & release. Please see the ‘Release cue’ training plan first. Another important point in this training plan is that for it to be effective you must require your dog to wait for the release cue every time you move through the boundary (front door). You mustn’t allow your dog to move through the front door as they please and then other times get frustrated for non compliance, this confuses them. If you’re teaching your dog to wait at certain boundaries (in this case the front door) you must reinforce this each and every time to keep consistency. Ensure everyone within the household is aware.
Start with your dog on lead, approach the door and lure them into a sit, release. Practice this a few times over, moving yourself away from the door and reproaching to practice the exercise.
Ask your dog to sit and practice opening the door while keeping them in that sit position using the release and proofing behaviour training plans. You may need to start this with the door cracked open slightly and slowly increase to having the door opened more and more. Slowly increase your duration expectations as your dog becomes more settled in the sit and develops impulse control in this scenario.
Once your dog is keeping a sit with the door open and you standing near them, practice opening the door and moving away from the dog and out the door. Slowly increase your distance. If the dog is not keeping the sit you are moving too quickly through the proofing process.
Slowly increase both duration and distance using the proofing behaviour training plan.
