Why Dogs Bark at the Door
Dogs barking at the doorbell isn’t necessarily a sign of fear but some dogs learn that the sound of a doorbell means a person is arriving and may be excited to greet whoever’s at the door. If your dog barks whenever the doorbell rings but doesn’t seem to be afraid, it may only be doing it out of excitement. You can know if your dog is excited if it shows the following signs:
Learning to read your dog’s body language will help you manage its reaction to the doorbell.
Why Your Dog is Scared of the Doorbell
Let’s start by investigating the dilemma of your dog’s doorbell and the reason behind it. Some dogs are simply startled by loud noises and the doorbells are designed in a way so that you can hear them over the noise of your household. If your dog is barking excessively, it could be a sign of stress. Some other fear signals in dogs are:
If your dog shows any of the signs mentioned above when the doorbell rings, chances are that it’s scared of the sound.
They are Protecting You and Themselves
Regardless of how domesticated they are, many dogs still see themselves as the self-appointed ‘guard’ of the home and your family.
When the doorbell rings, that’s an interruption of the status quo and potentially someone coming to upset your Lab’s environment.
By barking, they assert their authority and alert the intruder to their presence as a guard.
Your Lab knows that there’s either something good or bad on the other side of that door.
There could be an intruder, but there also could be a family friend who might like to pet them, or – better yet – a pizza delivery!
Their barking indicates a mix of excitement and warning, depending on the circumstances.
It’s worth noting that your dog will often take its emotional cues from you – if you’re excited to greet a friend at the door, they’ll be excited too.
If you’re worried that someone’s arrived to threaten you, your pup will probably sense your fear and react the same way.
There’s an easy way to tell if your dog feels scared or whether they think that their territory is being threatened when they bark at the door.
The Humane Society say that canine body language reveals a lot here: if their ears are back and their tail is low, they’re likely scared, while a threatening posture with a high tail and ears up and forward indicates territorial behavior.
Try and work out the motivations behind your dog’s barking as that will better equip you to train them out of it.
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HELP! – My Dog GOES CRAZY When the Doorbell Rings!
Doorbells are intrinsically exciting for dogs,” says the head of the Tufts Animal Behavior Clinic, Stephanie Borns-Weil, DVM. “They signal something is about to happen, so it’s associated with arousal.” Some dogs will even run to the front door when they hear a doorbell ring on television. There are dog owners who can list all the ads on TV that have doorbells and all the episodes of television shows during which a doorbell is rung.
But also, Dr. Borns-Weil says, because dogs are territorial by nature, they know the doorbell ringing means someone is going to come on their property, and “it signals a red alert.” For a fearful dog the reaction can be particularly strong, she says. While confident dogs might wonder if someone is coming over specifically to play with them, a dog who is afraid worries instead that a scary person will be entering who may want to try to pet him even though he doesn’t want that to happen. He will bark and jump around to try to frighten off the “interloper.”
It’s good to keep these two kinds of reactions in mind, the doctor says, because it helps you adjust your own attitude. Your dog’s barking when the doorbell rings isn’t just an annoying noise. He is performing a function — either to greet someone for what he thinks is a play date or to protect himself.
Still, either way, you want to ease your pet out of reacting to the doorbell as if it’s something for him to handle and not you. Visitors do not want to be barked at (sometimes for several minutes), jumped on, or otherwise be reacted to aggressively. And you want to be able to welcome someone peacefully, without having to devote all your attention to calming your dog down. It’s easier to do if your dog is happy when the doorbell rings rather than afraid. But either way, a dog can learn how to stay calm when a visitor signals that he has arrived.
For dogs who are so excited by the doorbell that they wouldn’t be able to pay attention to your verbal cues, you might want to begin with your pet on leash and a bag of very high-value treats. Leave the door open and have someone ring the bell so the dog can see exactly what’s going on. “That takes the mystery out of it,” Dr. Borns-Weil says.
When the dog finally quiets down, tell him what a good boy he is and proffer a treat. From there you can go to closing the door just a little bit at a time and having someone ring the bell. Apply the strategy randomly here and there until your pet is no longer so intrigued by the sound that signals someone has stopped by.
If you have a digital doorbell, you can also make a recording of it (dogs can usually tell the difference between an actual bell and a recording) and play it intermittently so the dog learns that the ring tone is not always about someone visiting and will calm down about it. You can start by playing the recording softly, then making it louder, then softer again, then louder, and then graduating to the actual bell at the front door. Whichever strategy you employ, always reward your pet for not barking and jumping with a delicious treat and warm praise. He needs to know that there’s something in it for him if he remains calm.
Once your dog has learned to settle down a little at the sound of the doorbell, there’s a four-step process you can follow.
This approach can take weeks. But it has a very good chance of working if you stick with it. Each day must be like the first. You can never lose patience or show any dismay.Will my dogs behavior get worse before it gets better?Your dog’s behavior may get worse before it gets better. If he is used to receiving a lot of attention from you when the doorbell rings — even if it is negative attention in the form of yelling and flailing about — he might up the ante to try to continue to get a rise out of you. Or he might mistakenly think you have been raising an alarm with your strong reaction to his behavior, which will also increase his arousal. Either way, once you stay calm, he will give up the agitated response after a while.
The above strategy could potentially work for any dog. But a dog who feels afraid when the doorbell rings might need additional training so that he can do something to help him feel safe. For instance, you could teach him to run to a room away from the front door so you can toss him a Kong filled with peanut butter or perhaps some frozen yogurt. Some dogs might like to be taught to go to their crates, or to a particular couch or chair. Whatever the solution, it teaches your scared pet that he does not have to stand there and defend himself; something better awaits.
It may take a little longer for a scared dog to get the hang of it. Fear is a pretty potent motivator. Over time, however, the routine should work — your dog won’t feel like a sitting duck as people come in and try to pet him and give him other unwanted attention, Dr. Borns-Weil says. He will not only feel protected by you but also more closely bonded to you.