How to teach your dog great manners at the front door

Everyone has that home they avoid visiting because as soon as you walk through the front door you get jumped on, wee'd on,  scratched by, and slobbered on by their adorable dog.  We love dogs, but it is always so much nicer to be around well mannered dogs.

Prevention is better than avoidance, simply putting your dog away when guests arrive is not the answer, nor is restraining him by holding on to him.
In order to train your dog to have great manners at the front door, you need to start by making the front door an area that you train your dog. 

 Often we leave it up to our dogs to work out how to behave in different situations, and then we just end up only responding when our dog gets it wrong. 

Our dogs are not learning how to behave, they are just learning how not to behave.

 So in order to have a dog that is well-behaved the front door, we simply need to show them exactly what we want them to do there and reward them for getting it right.

Training steps:

1. Go to the front door with some treats in your hand, wait for your dog to sit without any commands or prompts.  Reward him for sitting.
2. Then tell him it is time to move off by saying a release word such as “OK”. 
3. We then want to go to the front door, wait for your dog to sit down without any commands or prompts, and then move away from him without saying anything at all, move back to him and if he has stayed sitting reward him and then tell him he can move off by using the release OK. 
4. Next you want to make sure that you can walk away and open the front door without your dog moving.  Wait for your dog to sit without any commands, then move to the front door, open it, shut it, and then return to your dog, reward him and then release him with an OK. 
5. Lastly you want to add people coming and going to the equation, first start with people that are familiar to your dog and then do the same training techniques with new people. 
6. Ensure that people coming into your home ignore your dog so that he doesn't think people coming and going is any of his business.

Note

·        Make sure you reward your dog with a high-value reward such as cheese or ham for getting it right

·        Train step by step slowly, make it more difficult over time.

·        If your dog gets it wrong, simply start again

·        Training sessions should be a minute long each time.