Enoch is now 4 and half months old. He is always tethered to me or my brother. I notice that anytime someone comes to the front door he pulls towards the door. I don't want him to run to the door when someone is leaving or coming once he gets older and is not tethered to me anymore. How do I teach him not to pull towards the door and more importantly how do I teach him not to run to the front door when he is no longer tethered to me?

practice sit and stay. Once he learns that, practice with a family member/friend. Have them come over to the house and repeatedly open and close the door, come in, leave, etc. It will take a bit of repetition, but your dog will learn quickly. One of Ed's podcasts says it takes minimum 30 repetitions for a dog to learn a behavior. As with other training, I would do it for 10-15 mins each day.

Another thing is each time he hears the knock on the door or the bell, and perks his ears up, correct that. Stop the excitement at the most basic level.

ANY BEHAVIOR YOU REWARD YOU REINFORCE

this is so important for all dog owners to understand. If a dog is nervous and you pet it and coo 'it's okay', the dog learns it's okay and good to be nervous, my master said so.

How this relates to you is: Don't let your family member/friend pay him any attention until he is calm. This teaches him to politely greet someone instead of barging the door.

Hi Maisha: Like you, I'm a dog owner, not a trainer, but perhaps my experience will help. My pup, Niko, is now 20 months old. We also had this challenge - he just wanted to greet everyone (and lucky for me, lick them and piddle for them too). LOL.

We tried several approaches suggested by trainers, for example, walking him to the door then putting him in a down and stepping on the leash so that he cannot jump up, and a few other ideas that seemed to make sense at the time. None of that worked. I would strongly suggest getting (if you have not already) Ed's videos on Puppy Training and Establishing Pack Structure. One of the keys is not to introduce him to things that he is not able to successfully handle (or be successful in doing) at this age. Focus on the things he can do/learn succesfully so that you can encourage and praise and build his love of learning and confidence; avoid those things that are going to lead to frustration for both of you - he's just too young to control his impulses. At that age my pup was not able to control his eagerness and enthusiasm in greeting people(and he still is learning to fully do so - it takes time for them to mature). I was terribly frustrated, got help from this blog, and we followed Ed's advice and used the crate. When someone rang the doorbell, I placed him in the crate. He was not allowed to interact with others unless calm (keep him in the crate; release if calm; if he gets excited, nicely/kindly/calmly place him back in). As your puppy continues to mature, as your pack structure becomes well established and as your obedience work is into/past the distraction phase, he will be better equipped to respond to your commands when someone comes to the door (high distraction level). That's just my humble opinion. I am sure you will get lots of good advice here.

 Quote: jennifer skeldon

How this relates to you is: Don't let your family member/friend pay him any attention until he is calm.

This is basically what the crate reinforces. I did not have much success if he was loose/on leash because he would get very excited and the best way for us was to just take him to his crate and come back and address this as he matured (at intervals over time). As his obedience progressed and he matured a bit more, I would do the sit/stay approach Jennifer mentioned and at the first sign of excitement I would calmly say NO and then walk him to his crate. Over time, you can take him out (on leash) and try the intro, each time only reinforcing calm behavior and crating when he can't control himself (it is better than constant NOs or leash corrections). He will get to the point that he can better control himself but you must be patient and not expect too much too soon. Now, Niko will still get excited if the person is not calm when they greet (esp if they bend down to "receive" him so to speak); and some people just seem to have some sort of energy that says "let's play" or something! In these cases I tell them ignore the dog completely (no look, no pet).And if Niko isn't calm, or doesn't quickly calm, I will still place him in his crate, and tell them to not look at the crate or approach the crate. He has improved markedly over the months and I know it is just a matter of time and maturity.

I forgot to add that, when he was sitting calmly in the presence of the guest/greeter, I would mark the good behavior (treats always handy)!

 Quote: mel lane

I forgot to add that, when he was sitting calmly in the presence of the guest/greeter, I would mark the good behavior (treats always handy)!

Yes indeed.

It helps to train what you DO want when the bell rings, and mark/reward that. I like to train something I want rather than say "no no no" to what I do not want.

And I don't open the door until what I want is in place. I call "Just a minute," and I don't deal with the visitor, the door, and trying to command the dog all at once. Took me a while to stop thinking that I had to open that door instantly.

 Quote: connie sutherland

And I don't open the door until what I want is in place. I call "Just a minute," and I don't deal with the visitor, the door, and trying to command the dog all at once. Took me a while to stop thinking that I had to open that door instantly.

Isn't that the truth! I used to feel bad about telling people "Just a minute, I'll be right back to open the door." But, I got over that pretty quickly! LOL. Now that Niko is progressing, we use a Place command for him (he sits on the stoop where he can see the door but is out of immediate "striking" range. He knows to go there when the door ring, and we mark the good behavior. But depending on who comes in the door, he sometimes cannot hold the position; so he gets a NO and gets walked to the crate. Back to square one sometimes!

I like the idea of putting them in the crate!! I've only worked at training older dogs, but I can imagine a puppy not quite understanding to be calm. I'm going to try keeping them in the crate next time I have this problem with my fosters.

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I'm just looking ahead. There are five people who live in the house, coming in and out, and I was just trying to figure out how people keep their dogs from running to the door when the dog hears the person about to open the door. Enoch can hear a family member approaching the door way before I can. He is always tethered to me so it's not a problem when he tries to pull to the door. But everyone here gave me some great suggestions. I know this aspect of house manners takes time, maturity and consistency.