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LOL I have the exact opposite problem. I am trying to get my girls to STOP barking when someone is at the door. GOOD LUCK!

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Since Thayer is a rescue dog, you don't know what was ingrained in him before you got him.....He might have been trained (ingrained!) not to bark! We had a German Shepherd when I was quite young who would not come into the house further than the laundry room (entryway). If my dad carried her in further, she would whine and cry and slink back to the entry......no amount of treats or enticing could get her to come in. I am thinking that her previous owner used treats left out to trick her when she was young and then punished her severely when she entered the forbidden territory to get them - can't think of any other reason for the fear.....

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that is what i think had they had done with him...not the entering the house but for barking...thayer almost NEVER barks and the only time he does is when he is outside and someone walks by the house with a dog, then he barks but other then that...nothing i would like him to bark when he is in the house when someone knocks at the door...it is really hard to train him to do this and so far i have had no luck...

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OH MIRROR! You silly woman!! Just have Bud come over and your done! He is highly overprotective and will train thayer right away!! lol!! No ~ seriously! When my old dog didn't bark~ever~ I had her listen to a recording of other dogs barking and when they bark~ i told her bark or speak~ after a while of this she picked it up and only barked when you said speak or bark.The longer I had her the more protective she became and I think jus naturally decided to use her voice when someone knocked at the door~so then i'd say ~ good girl/bark and follow up with Whos there? til we got to the door and she found out it was someone she knew then she would stop or upon saying no barking! My other dog was jus as easy! when he barked i recorded it then did the same thing pretty much~ jus label the action..bark or speak...then let them know when its ok or not ok. Also there was this old record when i was a kid with some dogs singing jingle bells and on the other side oh suzzana and our old g.s. learned it and sang it every year with them!! so flippin cute to see and hear!! as for thayers past maybe he does have an issue with barking or possibly he doesn't! this is an easy ~harmless way to see if he will do it! let me know if it has an outcome for u guys good or bad!! hope that helps!

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I'm glad to have a dog that doesn't bark at the door, seriously she's the best rescue dog I've ever seen. She doesn't even attack me when I get home from work until after I get my jacket and shoes off.

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My foster dog Trinity will bark at shadows but at the door not at all UNLESS my kids are in the room and I am not. She is a built in alarm slash nanny. LOL she thinks I have her back when I am in the room unless she is being scared then she'll grumble a bit but thats it

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I think that your message is so funny since I am training my 11 month old dog, 'Bianca" not to bark when someone comes to the door. I think that the dog is such a family,loyal guardian that if there was some sort of threat then they would let you know. They are working and behaving for us because we Love them! I am only thinking you asked because of a security reason for yourself; but if you have your best friend in the house they will tell you always if there is a threat or danger to you. the way it works is ...we protect and feed and love them and they protect us and their home. Never underestimate the love and loyalty of Man's best friend... Ever!

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Bring Thayer here and I'll take him and Twister for a car ride....Twister will train him how to bark like a pro in no time...and he'll even throw in a free "how to fart on command when in the car" lesson!! Kidding aside.. I think Twister was trained not to bark inside as well..he only barks in the house when someone knocks on the door, and I'm home...if I'm not home, he hides in the bedroom when you knock on the door. I've seen dogs that have been trained to bark on command... it could be usful.. Holly, a friends shepard, was trained as puppy to bark on command...you just say "defend" and she's barking like there's no tomorrow..however, there's no followthrough, which is good. Her bark is enough to warm would be bad people to stay away. I taught Twister to pee on command, or at least lift and pretend...haha I just said good pee! Every time he was going for about 3 months, then slowly started telling him to "go pee" and now he does, sometimes nothing come out, but the leg is still up like he's trying! hahahaaha Maybe try that when he does bark.. if it's ok that he's barking (in the right situtation) praise him for it.. GOOD BARK!! GOOD BARK!, and then say nothing when he barks at the wrong time... I learned that "punishing" for unwanted behavior doesn't work, it just gets him sad. BUT praising him when he does good REALLY works well..

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This is embarassing to admit but to train Maida to 'speak', I would "bark" at her and say speak. She looked at me like I was crazy, but eventually she caught on. When she would 'speak' on command I'd reward her with a treat. (she's a glutton...she'd do anything for food!!) Now Vedder will bark at any little noise that startles him. After he barks, I will say in a calm but authoratative voice "enough" and call him to me for praise, which distracts him from the sound. He doesn't really know about treats so positive reinforcement (kind words, a scratch) is enough for him. This communicates to him that a) it's okay to 'notify' me of someone at the door, outside, etc b) his job is done c) I'm in charge and I'll handle things from here Try having a friend knock on the door, and if Thayer makes any noise reward him. Repeat this a couple of times a day for a few days/weeks until he realizes what it is you're asking him to do. He'll catch on. And if not at least you don't have the opposite problem

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tracy, that is really good idea! i think i am definetly going to try that!! thank you! any more ideas to get my dog to bark when someone comes to the door? i know it is an odd request cause as few of have said it is usually to train the dog to not bark but i try not to run with the pack. lol

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well today it is official that thayer was trained and beaten til he learned to NOT bark in the house...he was at the glass doors that lead to our back yard as i was in the living room and he started barking so i ran to check cause he never barks and as i walked into the room he cowered and sank so low to the ground i knew someone had beaten him til he knew barking in the house was a big mistake so to help him understand that he was not introuble and was allowed to bark, i praised him SOOOO much and gave him a cookie and told him must have been a 100 times tyhat he was a good boy for alerting me. my poor baby was abused!!!!! and i am devistated and upset!

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what I did was I would get someone to knock at the door or knock on something in house and say "Thayer whos there?" or "Did you hear that?" then start baring myself. Then I would say "You watch em!!"They caught on really fast! Now I know if anyone is at my door or at the gait!! Oso even likes to bark if a leaf fall from a tree lol!! Good Luck

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While I do not believe training a dog to bark at the door is a good idea, any behaviour can be trained. Wait till the dog is doing the behaviour and give them a treat. In this case barking. Then When the dog associates the behaviour with the treat, you can work on making them bark on command. Associate a word to the barking. Once that is done and they do that with some regularity, you can then command the dog to bark when someone comes to the door. A few times of this should get the dog to have the idea that this is what you want.

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Do you guys think that an older dog can be taught to bark when somebody is at the door? We live in a house that's so big that I seriously can't hear the door when somebody's knocking. Our dog just lays on the floor, raises his head (sometimes) and that's it. He's not a very protective breed. Yay... he's a very large boy with big teeth, so it's a good thing. However, I'd love to know if somebody's at the door! (no doorbell allowed... ever)

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this is the reason why i wanted to train thayer cause if i am in the back room or downstairs, i dont hear the knock at the door but since we have gotten blazer, who barks when someone knocks, i have let thayer be. i think you can train any dog no matterthe age anything...some just take more time and patience. good luck and never give up!

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Hi Tracy, I did teach my dog to bark the same way. The old I bark you bark. It worked out quite well. The only problem was I also made an effort to get her to howl, using the same technique. I howled and she howled. Unfortunately she started to howl at a few different things like sirens. It drove the rest of my family crazy!! Oh well, I thought it was cute.

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Well I think that if you do this properly, it may be a useful tool for you if you are somewhere in the house where you can't hear knocking. An alert bark is perfectly acceptable, protection barking (constant bark) is not. The difference is the emotional state of the dog. If your dog just barks once or twice as if to say, "hey mum! There's someone here silly!!" Their emotional state is still quite normal. Whereas if there is constant barking out of a feeling of threat or fear ("watchdog syndrome") their emotional state is not normal, happy or balanced. Here is the way we teach the "speak" cue for film. We grab our bait bag or treat pouch as it is most commonly referred as (a necessary tool!), our clicker and of course our pup and head to an area that is seen as fun or exciting! We will tether our student to a pole of some sort and take a couple of steps back! If there is no sounds we may grab a toy to arouse the pup and try to get a bark. Or perhaps we will take a few more steps backwards. The instant the dog makes a sounds we must mark the behavior and reward it! Shaping is a method of training that takes baby steps towards an ultimate goal by slowly raising the criteria. So to start if I hear a whimper i will mark (click!) and reward the behavior. You will see that the dog will try harder and harder to earn rewards and soon enough he will be barking with all his might! Now pair the behavior with a cue, such as "speak" or "talk to me." Sometimes if you make a quite, "sssssssss" sound with your voice it helps to bring out the speak! Once you have a reliable "speak" cue now you can pair the speak with a knock at the door. Again for this exercise we are only looking for one or two alert barks not a choir of sounds or constant barking that changes the emotional state of the dog. If your dog barks more that two times he does not earn a reward. Here's how it will go: Have someone knock at the door Immediately upon hearing the knock request a "speak" Your dog delivers a nice tune and you mark the behavior "click" and then reinforce the behavior (make it stronger and more reliable). Repeat! Make it fun! In no time your dog will be speaking on "cue" and the cue will be "knock knock!" Just a final note on clicker training is that once the behavior is learned the clicker is no longer needed, nor is a fixed schedule of reinforcement (rewarding every request). A clicker is not a remote! It is a tool to use when teaching new behaviors only!