A disturbing video shows why the door rule can be life-saving

Dogs are curious and follow their instincts, which unfortunately can very often get them into trouble.

One of the most magical things about dogs is their curiosity. It’s frankly delightful that they retain a healthy amount of curiosity going into old age, like a puppy. (something we owners could learn a thing or two from, by the way). But it’s this desire to explore (along with the instinct to hunt) that can easily be a problem especially if the owner does not teach the dog the most important rules. Perhaps one of the biggest fears of dog owners is an accident happening to their pets. Unfortunately, some things are out of our control, but others can be prevented by consistent teaching.

In the video below, you can witness several issues, but the first boundary the dog crosses is the entrance to the home. Fortunately, the dog survives the accident, but that is down to sheer luck for the dog and the owner. The video can be quite scary, so if you don’t want to watch it, just fast-forward through it. No harm to the dog, but some people may be upset by the events. To prevent this from happening to us, it is very important to teach all dogs the “door rule”. Not so that we can control their every move, but so that we can keep our pets safe.

@sohslick

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How to teach your pet the door rule?

It is relatively easy to teach dogs not to run through the door. For this there are several techniques, Here are two. The aim is to make the dog aware that they cannot go out the door without permission.
This concept can be a little difficult to make clear with dogs that come in and out, especially if they can go out into the garden without question. Therefore, it is worth practising at the door, before walks or independently of walks, to make them aware that they cannot go out of the garden gate into the street without permission. You can call it a door rule or a gate rule, the point is basically the same: keep the dog out of trouble if the door is open to the outside world. In this article on our hungarian sitem we have already shown you a tried and true method, summarised in the video below:

Sit and wait technique

This is one of the best-known interpretations of the door rule because, for many owners, it’s all they need.
It’s a technique to make it clear to your dog what your expectations are when you go through a door together, say at the start of a walk. However, this does not necessarily teach the dog not to go through the open door in any way, it is more of an etiquette for them.

1. Before opening the door, sit the dog down.
2. When they are seated, put your hand on the handle and open the door.
   Here the dog can react in two ways.
3. If they don’t move towards the door but keep their sitting position, they will be rewarded.
   However, if they move towards the door, we close it in their face and they get no reward.
4. If they are good at it, sit down and listen to us, let’s go through the door together.
   We can also attach a command word, like “go”, “come” or “okay”, which we like and haven’t used with anyone else.

Repeat these steps, often, several times a day. Be consistent, even when you are tired. If you expect your pet to sit down before you go through a door, make them comply. After a while, the dog will learn what their job is. Some people do not make their pet sit down, but stop it on the same basis and teach them to wait for the “go” signal. Some take it a step further and teach their pet to look back at their owner as soon as they walk through the door. Everyone has slightly different expectations and ideal behaviour, but the most important thing is to be consistent with your own rules. Watch the video below to see what this looks like in practice:

Invisible border method

There may be some puppies for whom the previous approach is enough to keep them from going out the door without question, but some may need to approach it from a slightly different angle. The invisible boundary method, which is a more dynamic approach to the door rule, so to speak, is a good way to do this. Suppose we designate the door leading to the street as the boundary. This requires a slight modification to the video below, but the basics are the same.

To be on the safe side, have your dog on a leash and in the beginning practice at a time when there are few distractions. The point of the invisible boundary is to make it automatic to stop at the door without a warning from the owner. This is not something your dog will learn after one session, so it is worth practising a little every day until it is mastered (and even afterwards sometimes as a reminder).

Although it is not part of the method, before you start practising with your pet, you can let them know that just because the door is open, it does not mean they are allowed to go through it. This should be done in a similar way to the “sitting” method above, but without the sitting, or more gradually. Lead the dog (on a lead) to the door, then, open the door ajar. If they do not go for it, reward them, if they do, close the door back. Slowly, slowly open the door wider and wider until you get to the point where the dog can restrain themselves and do not try to run through the door.

This alone takes a lot of concentration for many dogs, so you can take a break, go outside and let them sniff around a bit. Then we can go back to the exercise.

Step by step

When you are still practising, it is a good idea to put a rope or something at the exit to indicate where the boundary is. The method can be broken down into three steps. The lady uses a clicker in the video, which is a very useful tool, but you can teach the dog without it. Replace the clicker with the word you use to reinforce the correct behaviour.

1. Walk to the line with your pet, stop in front of them and reward them if they stay inside the line.
   We will do this many times to get them to get a feel for it.
2. Next, the dog must understand that they must stay inside the line even if their owner crosses the border. In this case, we will extend the previous steps by one step. We walk to the line, reward the dog if they stop, and while they are eating the treat, we cross to the other side of the line. If the dog moves in, step towards them so they get staggered back a little, or walk them back to the right side of the line and try again. When they have stepped back to the right side of the line, reward them. Unfortunately, if they fail three times in a row, they may have missed the point of the exercise. Then we go back to the first step.
3. We make the task harder and extend the time they have to stay alone on the other side of the line.

We test the dog at the end. Let’s be interesting, but don’t call them to us. You can also use a toy to make it more difficult. Don’t be discouraged if your pet is not a professional at it after just the first time. Be consistent and take 5-10 minutes every day. After a while, your dog will get so good at it that you won’t need to practice every day, just occasionally brush up on the skills.

Knowing the door rule is a very useful skill. But it is safest not to give your dog the opportunity to put themselves in danger. Although an obvious statement, we would stress the importance of keeping the door locked. If you find yourself in a situation where you need to keep the door open for an extended period of time, lock the dog inside (in this case, even tethering is acceptable for the length of time the door needs to be open) so that they do not have the opportunity to run outside.