A couple of years ago, I did a behavior consultation for a young hound mix I’ll call “Tilly.” 

As behavior issues go, her main problem was fairly benign.  She didn’t bite family members, lunge at other dogs, or destroy the house when her owner was gone.  Rather, she had a tendency to get excited – very, VERY excited – whenever the doorbell rang, or someone new entered the house.  Putting on her leash for a walk or car ride, or having family members arrive home, was also guaranteed to set off a frenzy of loud, persistent barking that didn’t stop until everyone was settled again.

Her owners had two school-age children, so having people in and out of their home was a daily occurrence… along with conversations at the front door, unexpected arrivals through the garage, and pick-ups and drop-offs of friends, homework, and lunch boxes.

All accompanied by piercing barks, and a 40-lb dog racing wildly back and forth with excitement. 

Scolding, time outs, leash corrections, and two separate bark collars had failed to put any significant dent in the problem, and the entire family was frustrated.  Her owners were nice people, and they loved Tilly.  They just wanted to be able to go about their daily lives in peace.

When I arrived at the house, Tilly was friendly towards me with no signs of anxiety or aggression – all wagging tail, wiggly body, and eager sniffing of my shoes and clothing.  I can also confirm that she was LOUD! 

She took treats happily when I offered them, and was able to relax and stop barking within a minute or two once I had sat down and everything was calm.  Overall, a friendly and well-adjusted dog… she just had an unfortunate (from a human perspective!) habit of announcing her excitement to the entire neighborhood at the top of her lungs every time someone came in.

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As a behavior professional, I love the process of training.  And so, it’s often tempting in cases like this to jump in and start designing a fancy training plan to address the unwanted behavior. 

For example – we could teach Tilly to station herself on a mat, hold her position there even with really difficult distractions, and train the doorbell sound as a cue for this new behavior!  Which would be a perfectly reasonable solution.  It would also look quite impressive, as a finished project – a beautifully trained dog, holding a quiet stay on a designated spot until released.

Or, we could train her to run to her crate at the sound of footsteps on the front porch.  Her owner could give her a frozen Kong and shut the door, to keep her contained and occupied while visitors came and went.  This would still require a certain investment of time and effort, especially since she wasn’t already crate-trained, but would likely be a shorter process.

But based on what I had observed so far about Tilly during our visit, I had a hunch that something simpler might work.

First, I put the question to her owner.  Did she want a trained dog who would wait nicely in a particular spot while guests came in and out?  Or did she want a “quick and dirty” solution to stop the barking?

Different owners have different goals, so it’s always important to ask!  There’s nothing wrong with going through one of the training plans I mentioned above – both would be great potential solutions, for some families. 

Tilly’s owner said that she just wanted the barking to stop.  She didn’t care if the finished product looked impressive, and as a busy working mom, she had very little time or energy to spare for training the dog.

So, this is what we did:

As an experiment, I asked Tilly’s owner to grab a handful of her regular dinner kibble.  Then I went outside and rang the doorbell, and she tossed the kibble on the floor.  I heard a few barks from inside the house, but they quickly stopped. 

The door opened, and I walked into the foyer.  Tilly, having finished snarfing up every last morsel from the kitchen floor, came trotting happily down the hall and barked a few more times.  Her owner tossed another handful of kibble, and her nose went into action again.  All was quiet.  We sat back down at the dining room table. 

Tilly finished the second round of snacks, wandered over for a few quick pats, and then stretched out on the floor for a nap.

Her owner was ecstatic.

“That’s the best she’s ever done, with the doorbell ringing!  She hardly barked at all!”

Together, we made a plan.  She would put some kibble in several Tupperware containers and stash them in different rooms in the house, so that there would always be one nearby no matter where she happened to be when someone arrived.  At the sound of the doorbell, she would call for Tilly and toss a handful of kibble on the floor for her, then go and answer the door.  If Tilly finished eating before the visitor had left or sat down, she would repeat the process with another handful. 

By that time, Tilly would have calmed down enough to greet the person politely without barking, and then go about her business.

Before leaving, I double-checked with the owner that she didn’t want to work on any kind of training plan with Tilly for the long term.  No, she assured me – this was great!  She happily paid my consultation fee, and I left.

A couple of weeks later, I received an email update from Tilly’s owner.  Things were going wonderfully!  They’d had several opportunities to try out our new plan, including pizza deliveries and babysitter arrivals.  Her husband had also been parking on the street after work and ringing the bell to come in, to provide some additional practice.  Tilly was now looking expectantly to her owner for treats, rather than barking and charging the door when she heard someone arriving.

Overall, the family was very pleased and felt that this was going to be a workable strategy for them going forward.

A good day’s work, all around. 😊

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Now, don’t get me wrong!  Not every behavior issue can be resolved this easily.  In many ways, Tilly was the exception – not the rule.  There were a few specific reasons that this plan worked so well for her.

First, she wasn’t fearful or aggressive towards strangers, just excited.  Dogs with underlying emotional issues to work through generally require a more nuanced behavior modification plan.  Secondly, she was highly food-driven!  Because of this, even relatively “boring” food like her regular kibble was effective at holding her attention while exciting things were happening. 

And finally, she was able to calm down fairly quickly once visitors were in the house and settled – it was just the initial excitement of having someone at the door that was hard for her to manage.  So, we just needed to keep her quiet and focused on some other activity for 2-3 minutes at a time.  A dog who had a more difficult time settling would likely have needed some additional work to help her learn to relax in the presence of visitors. 

But if simple works?  Don’t be afraid to go the easy route!

Tilly’s consult was one of the easiest cases I’ve ever had, and also one of my favorites.  It stands out for me as a reminder that you don’t always need a meticulous training plan with lots of fancy new skills and diligent practice sessions to change behavior.

And that ultimately, it’s the client who decides what “problem solved!” looks like for them.