Someone's Knocking At The Door..........

One of my friends was  having problems with her dog, Molly, a pitbull mix, jumping and barking every time the door bell rang, to the point that her friends did not want to visit. She asked me for advice and I wrote up this plan for her and am happy to report that Mandy has all but stopped jumping. She will still bark some, but as I told her, that is her voice and as long as she stops after a couple of seconds, I wouldn't worry too much. Pretty much all dogs want to let their people know when someone is in their territory and I think it is a good thing, especially when a stranger is at the door.
The following is the exercises I set up for Molly.

You will need to set up scenarios so the person coming to the door knows what to do ahead of time.

Have the person come to the door – ring the bell/knock –

Open the door – let the person come in – If she attempts to jump – the person should already know to put their knee up – Molly will see that this is not acceptable after it is done several times. The minute she stops jumping – ask her to sit. Once she is sitting – with butt completely on the ground – the person can acknowledge her – until then – the person shouldn’t talk, touch or even look at Molly.  Try to do this several times with the same person – once she is being appropriate – ask another person to do the same – and have them react the same way – exactly. Be consistent.

Another approach – if you do know when someone is coming to the door – have Molly on a leash and keep her on the leash until the excitement is over of having a new person in the house. You can give the company a couple of treats and have the company ask her to sit and let them give her the treats.

 

The key to any behavior you want to improve upon is consistency. Of course this may not work with all dogs, all dogs are different, just like people are different.