How to Stop dogs barking at door!

[PhoenixKoi]

I have two Jack Russell Terriers the male is Furgus and the female is Cami. We have had a lot of issues with our dogs freaking out at the door. We are currently using the Sit means Sit program and thats works fine on walks but we dont want our dogs to have a vibrating collar on all day incase the doorbell rings.

I know this is a very common issue but we have tried everything and they just wont listen. As soon as that doorbell rings all heck breaks loose, Cami and Furgus rush to the door and start barking then they try to push their way out of the house to get at the person. They are not aggresize dogs and by no means are they trying to stop people from coming in, they simply want to meet new people.

A lot of times after or while the door is open one of them will start a fight and they both start barking and lashing out at eachother and since my mom has lots of meeting calls during the day this is deffinitly an issue. Cami is a fairly nervious dog when she goes out to meet other people and dogs, Furgus on the other hand is fine around people but totaly goes crazy and trys to attack other dogs if they are nervious.

The reason we had gotten Cami was because we had two other dogs and they passed away leaving Furgus the only dog and after afew months he kinda went insane without any other dogs and thats when he started attacking them. Before the other dogs passed away he was fine and i'm not really sure what happend. If anyone knows some training method to keep the dogs off the door that would be awsome! (and could someone tell me what happned to Furgus?)

 

[CatMom1994]

Welcome to the forum.

Dogs grieve just like people. That was what happened to Furgus.

 

[Alpha1]

@PhoenixKoi, if Furgus was okay before Cami came into the picture, could Cami be triggering that behavior? If she's hyper and the one behaving badly, Furgus is likely just feeding off of her energy. Hard when you have two dogs and one is a nervous barker, hard for the other one not to join in the excitement.

I can just suggest you do some serious training. Perhaps have a neighbor or someone come to your door at a planned time. Be there to correct their barking, etc. Put them on leashes beforehand if needed. Put yourself between them and the door and calmly, but in a confident voice, tell them Sit and No Bark. When you say no bark, it helps if you make a motion with your open hand, palm down, from left to right over their heads or in front of their faces.

This training will have to be repeated several times a day at specific planned times, so you're there for the corrections. Definitely do act excited yourself or raise your voice, they will feed off of your energy also. Good luck with them, hope you have help with the training, when everyone is on the same page it's usually successful.

Give that method at least a week or more to see if there's progress. If you need an assist in calming them, you may consider using a water squirt bottle on medium stream. Squirt simultaneously when saying no bark, focus on the dog who is the bigger problem, I'm thinking it's Cami.

Remember, stay cool, confident and in control yourself, they'll sense if you're nervous, excited or angry.

 

[Aimitertyso]

It is interesting to read the responses here. Definitely would benefit a lot of pet owners, thanks for sharing.

 

[PhoenixKoi]

Thank you all for the help and I do have some new info. One of the things I did notice is that usually furgus starts the barking though somtimes it is Cami so its not just one of them starting everthing. Right now we are working on some updates on our house so its a little hard to do dog training but I will continue to do some training while on walks. Again thank you Aimitertyso, Alpha1, and CatMom1994!