You can’t overemphasize the importance of door work with your dog and the impact it has on your relationship. It all comes down to space—either you claim it, or they will. Nearly 99% of behavior issues stem from space-related conflicts.
When the doorbell rings or someone knocks, both humans and dogs often rush to the door together, mirroring each other’s behavior and reinforcing equal status. In other cases, the dog runs to the door, barking until the human arrives to open it. This unintentionally teaches the dog that their barking controls access, lowering the human’s status in their eyes.
Take Kylie, a first-time mom to baby Sophia. She had been working with us to manage her pack, particularly Bug, the Pitbull, who had aggression issues toward Rio, the Corgi. Unsurprisingly, these incidents were almost always triggered by door and space-related tensions. Whether it was the front or back door, whenever the pack crowded the transition point between inside and outside, Bug would target Rio. With a baby on the way, Kylie needed a solution fast.
As a longtime foster for Apollo, she was committed to making it work. And the solution? Much simpler than she expected.
When a newborn arrives, the home turns into Grand Central Station, and dogs assume all visitors are there for them. This leads to herding, barking, jumping, and other disruptive behaviors. To fix this, we used a simple tool: a piece of masking tape on the floor, marking how far back the dogs needed to stay when Kylie was at the door.
Frank would go outside and knock or ring the doorbell. At first, the pack lost their minds, charging toward the door. They never even considered looking back—because Kylie was in the habit of rushing the door with them. This had to change. Instead of reacting, she waited. When the dogs realized no one was coming and turned around to look for her, something clicked. Since they were barking at the door, turning away also meant stopping the barking—they saw it wasn’t working to get them access to the door or what was on the other side.
With their attention now on Kylie, she calmly walked toward the door, turning her back to it—claiming not just the door but the surrounding space. If any dog crossed the masking tape, she silently stepped into them, guiding them back behind the line with quiet body language—just as dogs communicate with each other.
Once all eyes were on Kylie and all dogs were in place, she began opening the door. If any dog moved past the line, she closed it and reset. The process repeated until the dogs automatically gave up the space and focused on her instead of the door.
No commands, no treats, no frustration—just using canine communication and culture to shift the dynamic. This method doesn’t require dedicated training sessions; it simply becomes the way you do things. And yes, it really is this easy. No more chaos at the door. No more yelling “sit” with no effect. No more fights between Bug and Rio.
Stop living with unnecessary stress. Call us today—because a pack must be trained together. After all, one dog isn’t going to attend training and come home to teach the others.