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Dog Barks When People Approach Crate

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Dog Barking in Crate

Dog Barking in CrateThis can be scary for both people and dogs. As with any dog behavior, the more it’s practiced, the stronger it becomes so let’s teach your dog that quiet behavior and guests bring goodies!

How to Keep a Dog Quiet in Her Crate

Provide a Food Stuffed Toy

Give your dog something else to do in her crate. Provide a food stuffed toy when someone arrives at your door. When the doorbell rings, which usually produces a barking explosion, give her a stuffed toy, then answer the door. By pairing a yummy treat with guests arriving, she’ll learn guests mean cream cheese stuffed toys!

RELATED: Introducing Your Dog to House Guests

Put Up Visual Barriers

If your dog is afraid of people, provide visual barriers along three sides of her crate. Blocking your dog’s view will usually stop barking. If dog barking in crate continues, try placing your dog’s crate in a room further away from the front door and living room, and play soft music to drown out voices. Don’t forget to give her a food stuffed toy to keep her busy.

Dogs bark for many reasons. Most are excited and others are nervous so determine the reasons why your dog barks. Check out this offensive aggression article for suggestions. If your dog is scared and she can’t get away, she’ll do what it takes to scare someone away.

Play the Toll Game

If your dog is overly excited when guests come over, play the toll game. Dogs can’t bark when eating treats–well 99 percent of them can’t. 🙂 So your dog learns to be quiet and anticipates your guests walking over and giving treats.

  • Give your guest a small bowl of tiny yummy treats.
  • Ask your guest to walk past your dog’s crate and toss a treat inside. Ask him to repeat three or four times.
  • Now, raise your criteria. Ask your guest to stand near your dog’s crate and toss a treat inside when your dog stops barking. Practice for one minute, then give your guest and dog a break. Pop into another room and enjoy your guest.
  • Before your guest leaves, ask him to pay the toll again. 🙂

If your dog becomes too excited and explodes into barking, ask your guest to leave the room. Once your dog is quiet again, your guest can pop in and give your dog a handful of treats. Don’t forget to practice with several different guests. I usually ask each guest to spend two or three minutes playing the toll game upon arrival.

You may also like: 4 Tips for Renting with Large Dogs

Introducing Your Dog to House Guests

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Easy Tips for Introducing Your Dog to House Guests

Introducing Your Dog to House Guests

Guests are coming over. What should you do with your dog? Follow these easy tips on introducing and socializing your dog to visitors so you can enjoy your party.

Keep Your Dog Leashed

If your dog jumps up on people or becomes overly excited, leash your dog before opening the door. Don’t forget to reward your dog with yummy treats for keeping all four feet on the floor when greeting people.

If your dog becomes overstimulated during greetings on leash, put him in his crate with a food stuffed Kong. Once everyone arrives and settles in, then you can try again.

RELATED: Best Dog Training Leash and Treat Pouch

Keep Greetings Away From the Door

About five minutes before guests are due to arrive, I crate my dogs with a food stuffed toy. Once everyone arrives and settles in with a beverage, I leash my dogs and introduce them to our company. If the dogs become overly excited, we take a few steps back and wait until they calm down. Once calm, we walk back toward guests and continue greeting for a few more minutes.

After everyone has hugged and squeezed each dog, I put our dogs back in their crates. Sobek and Stella are young dogs. Once they master “I’ll say hello and then take a nap in the corner,” they will continue to practice polite greetings.

Enjoy Your Party

Once dogs are back in their crates, chewing on luscious food stuffed toys, I return back to guests and enjoy the party. Before everyone leaves for the night, I leash both dogs again and bring them back to the party, as we say good night. Some pet parents may frown at this idea because they would love their dogs to enjoy the party, but I’ve learned my lesson the hard way. During a party, a well meaning friend slipped my dog a large piece of fried chicken skin. That night and the next few days were terrible. My dog’s tummy was tore up! It’s best to keep everyone safe.

If you would like your dogs to attend your party, I recommend supervised tethering. Leash them to the chair you’re sitting in and provide a wonderful food stuffed toy to enjoy while relaxing with guests. Not only are they enjoying the party, they’re also learning to relax around a large group of people while practicing polite manners.

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4 Tips for Renting with Large Dogs

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Renting with Large Dogs

Finding a Rental with a Large DogWe’ve been homeowners for years so when a new job opportunity popped up, we were faced with renting a home again. But wait, we have a Rottweiler and Bull Terrier. No one will rent to us, right? Oh, it was not easy, but we found the perfect home and I learned a ton!

Check Out Rental Websites

When looking for rental property, I scoured rental websites. My favorites were Zillow and HotPads, both of which have filters that drill down pet-approved rentals while zeroing in on specific mapped locations. Check daily. You never know what will pop up, and pet-friendly rental property goes fast!

Consider Renting a Home

Many renters share their homes with dogs, and with the soft housing market, it seems many property managers are opening their doors to pets. Using property rental websites, you can view a listed home’s buying, selling and rental history, which is interesting. It seems many rental homes were listed for sale at one time, then after a few months on the market, they were removed and listed for rent. Plus, who wouldn’t want a backyard, right?

Stay Away From Large Property Management Companies

Personally, I found large property management companies discriminating against specific breeds of dogs, such as Rottweilers and Bull Terriers, so I quickly crossed them off my list. One of the frustrating parts of searching for rental homes is about half of rental listings were managed by these folks. And we all know it’s not the breed; it’s the owners of the dog. (OK, I’m off my soapbox. Grr.)

Create Doggie Resumes

When searching for rental property, I stumbled upon this darling idea. Pet-friendly landlords want to know about your dogs so this quick attachment gives them a pretty good idea of your dogs. Take this moment to brag about your dog’s accomplishments, such as graduating puppy and basic manners classes. Once completed, save as a PDF file and forward to landlord before viewing a property. Add a color photo, keep it short and address your landlord’s concerns:

  • Is your dog up-to-date on vaccinations?
  • Does your dog bark excessively?
  • Will you confine your dog to his crate when left alone?
  • Is your dog potty trained?
  • Is your dog friendly around people? (Have they bitten or tried to bite someone?)
  • References (Vet, dog trainer, dog savvy friends, etc.).

Good luck and have patience. The right house will come around!

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My Dog is a Messy Eater

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What to Do if Your Dog is a Messy Eater

Dog Eating

Oi, some dogs insist on spilling or carrying kibble to another spot to consume and I’m not exactly sure why this happens, but it does. So let’s tidy up our dog’s eating habits.

Place Mat Under Dog Bowl

If your dog picks up and chews her food next to the food bowl, try placing an easy-to-clean mat under her bowl. Not only will a mat catch crumbs, it’ll also protect flooring from moisture.

For food-relocating dogs, try adding a floor protector over their coveted eating location to protect flooring and keep the area tidy. This works 50 percent of the time and the other relocating percent finds another area to eat in peace.

Try Food Stuffed Toys

Stuff your dog’s daily meals into a food dispensing toy. My favorites are Kongs and the Kong Wobbler. Not only will this keep things tidy, but your dog will also be exhausted after each meal.

For food forging dogs, play along and scatter their food along a rug. They’ll sniff, hunt and chew each kibble. When they’re done, pick up the rug.

Add Yummy Stuff

Sometimes, adding yummy stuff, such as canned food or yogurt, encourages your dog to finish his meal quickly, meaning eating out of his food bowl. It’s worth a try!

Feed Him in Crate

Nothing like having raw bovine liver dragged across our white carpet, huh? My raw fed dogs eat in their crates. It’s super easy to clean afterwards, using a gentle disinfectant, such as Seventh Generation’s Lemongrass Spray. On nice days, try feeding your dogs outside. This works well for raw meaty bones.

Calm and Assertive Pack Leader? Nope

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Teach Dogs Polite Behaviors Instead

How to Assert Leadership

If you’re researching this topic, you’re probably following a popular TV personality who discusses dog training. I’m beyond thrilled you’re searching for dog training tips and would like to provide my take on the thought process of a calm and assertive pack leader.

I Wish It Were That Easy

Oh, how I wish! If it were that easy, pleading pet parent emails would disappear from my inbox and dog training blogs across the world would become silent. My phone would stop ringing and classes would be empty because pet parents would learn to be calm and assertive and their dogs would learn to listen to commands.

Beware of quick fixes in dog training. I wish with my entire heart that I could wave a magic wand and dogs would magically learn polite manners. Trust me, I’ve tried and it hasn’t worked yet (big grin!). Training dogs is not as hard as you think–that I can promise you.

Remove the pressure of walking with assertive energy (seriously, what does this mean anyway?) and take a deep breath in and out. Don’t you feel better now? Good! Now, fill your pockets with yummy treats for your dog and, by all means, walk in a normal pace and posture. Click and treat your dog for good behaviors instead.

RELATED: Clicker Training for Dogs

Stop Blaming Pet Parents

Wow, pet parents are riddled with stress, guilt and shame. They’ve been told, “If your dog is bad, it’s because of you. You caused it.” I can’t tell you how many pet parents break down during group class in actual tears and occasional sobbing. They’re worried their dog or puppy isn’t normal. What caused this fear? Who’s subconsciously telling pet parents their dog or puppy isn’t normal? Whoa, let’s stop and take a moment to bring reality back.

I honestly believe when folks know better, they do better. Someone doesn’t consciously decide to teach her dog naughty behaviors. Now, there are fruit loops in the world who make bad decisions everyday and I really don’t think they would spend time researching dog training blogs, do you? So I’m talking to you, the pet parent, trying to learn the easiest way to teach dogs polite behaviors. 🙂

Can you unknowingly teach naughty dog behaviors? Yes, it’s quite easy actually. 🙂 So shake the guilt and shame off, and learn what really works!

What Does Work

Puppies and dogs don’t come with an instruction manual nor have they read one before arriving at your home— oh I so wish they did! It’s our job to teach puppies and dogs polite manners instead of assuming naughty behaviors are plots to take over our home and lives.

Dogs are a lot like children. We spend time teaching kids where to potty, touch lightly (same as puppy nipping), play gently, self settling, behave politely in public and when guests come over, and so forth. Bingo, it’s the same with dogs! 🙂

Can you imagine walking calm and assertive around your teenagers? They would giggle and learn how to manipulate a situation for a specific outcome. That’s called learning. 🙂 Walking with your head held high and chest puffed out doesn’t teach your dog anything. Instead, spend time teaching your dog (and teenager) polite behaviors instead. Remember, there is no such thing as dominance between dogs and humans. This myth was dispelled over a decade ago.

Putting the time in now will pay huge dividends and shake off that “my dog is trying to boss me around” and “my puppy knows what I want, he’s just not doing it.” This is not what your dog is thinking, I promise. Instead, assume your dog is confused and teach him polite behaviors instead. 🙂 Dogs get confused, especially when we don’t provide clear details, so take a step back and make it easier.

Polite Manners

Looking for polite behaviors to teach? Enroll in a group class and take a peek around. We have hundreds of articles to help! Blogs are extremely helpful to reference during and after graduation, but they will never substitute a great group class and fabulous expert dog trainer.

I’m not selling anything here. I want to provide easy, honest and current dog training articles that will help you and your dog lead peaceful and happy lives. That’s worth its weight in gold for me!

READ ALSO: Feeding Multiple Dogs at Once

Dog Training Nation is a dog training blog for pet owners and dog lovers. We cover a range of topics from puppy socialization tips to dog aggression to dog health. It is our hope you share our content to make the world a better place for dogs.

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