Expecting Visitors for the Holidays? Teach Your Pet Front Door Manners.

Manners for the front door are very important for most dogs so here are a few tips one when the doorbell rings.

Firstly, Stay Calm. So what normally happens someone's at the door, the pet parent says, "Who's at the door?" then they go run to the door and the dog gets really excited, and then the pet parents says "calm down", setting up the dog to fail. 

So instead, when the front door rings just calmly walk to the door. When you get to the door take a couple yummy treats treats that takes them a little while to chew, and as you open up the door just toss the treats behind you. With repetition what your dog will learn, and instead of running out the door or jumping on guests they will look on the floor for some yummy treats.

If they do jump, make sure all guests just calmly turn their back and ignore their dog. I call it "Four on the Floor", which means dogs don't get attention unless all four paws are on the floor. 

Finally, practice makes perfect. If you just wait for a guest to come over to try, this it's never going to work. So at least once or twice a day, have a family member go outside and practice this routine. Then when your guests, your neighbors, your family comes over, your dog is well behaved.