The world's worst guard dog..part II

As I've posted before, Zeus has the protective instincts of a kidney bean. He doesn't even bark.

When someone knocks, Zeus just looks at the door and goes back to whatever he's doing (napping, chewing on a toy, whatever). Oh, he'll run and greet the person whenever they come inside, but until then, he won't do a thing.

How do I train him to at least alert us when there's someone in the yard or at the door? He doesn't have to bark, just come and alert us. I know they teach service dogs for the deaf to this whenever the doorbell or telephone rings. How is this accomplished?

edit: Sorry, forgot to mention that Zeus just turned 18 months old. Any chance he'll get more protective/watchful as he gets older?

Hmm... sicne I've never really heard of a BlackMouth Cur until you came, I really dont know that much about them. Since he is young, though, he probably will get more protective as he gets older because Wendy was once like that, only looking up at the door if the doorbell was rung, but now she jumps up on the door and barks and whines excitedly. Do you have a doorbell or do people just knock? I can give you a possible solution if you have a doorbell...

Have a friend come over.
Have Zues on a leash.
Have the friend go outside with a treat that Zuess could see clearly.
The friend can ring the doorbell.
You would also have treats. Everytime Zues reacts when the doorbell rings, such as stepping foreward, give him a treat.
When your friend comes back it, he or she an give Zues the treat they were carrying.

Hope this helps

Nope. He has probably already got his set personality, though I imagine you could train him to be alert when someone knocks on the door.

If you'd like him to bark, then I'd first teach him to speak, and go on from there.

How about using a clicker (or a voice marker, but I find clickers to be a bit more precise) and rewarding any attention at all to the doorbell or someone knocking? Example: If he looks up, click and treat. If he gets up, click and treat. Eventually I'd think you could shape that into going to the door and coming to get you.

Quite easy to teach actually, How we teach our Assistance/Service dogs to "Alert" we just have the specific behaviour a cue (automatic behaviour) So for example if we want them to "Alert" us when someone comes to the door; everytime someone comes to the door we would call them, get them to nudge our hand, and then asking "what" the dog will return to the door, and give them a treat, quickly the dog picks up on the fact that if someone is at the door they come and nudge your hand and return to the door, they are praised and recieve a treat.

The actual "Alert" itself is a couple behaviours combined.

You would teach it like

1. Recall (This should already be reliable and proofed)

2. Nudge (Taught by association, and meant for the dog to nudge your hand or arm with its nose)

3. What? (Taught best with syncronization, You want the dog to lead you to the point of distraction)


After you have the 3 commands/behaviours are proofed you go from gross association to refined behaviour, so after the 3 commands/behaviours are learned, consistently you have the dog do them as someone comes to the door, slowly you start shaving off commands and just have all 3 as "Alert" and after it starts becoming automatic you dont use a command at all and the dog does the behaviour automaticly, be sure to use the same enthusiasm as you would with any training, however the consistency with this is paramount.

Hope that helps you, but this is the way we do it.

*bump* for Gempress

my mother has a pitbull rottweiler mix that doesnt bark either. sure he barks at play time but at the door or strangers?? nope, someone could come in and rob the house and he wouldnt do a thing, well yeah he'd probably beg for food but thats about it.
shes tried to get his natural guard instinct out but it has failed, hes now 12 years old and still the same
so im guessing this is it for your pooch

not necessarily, the technique I posted has nothing to do with guard instinct it has to do with obedience, the dog just learns something and is obedient by making you aware that someone is at the door

Gempress, at 18 months he's still very much a pup. He may get more intense as he actually matures. Ever read that comic strip "Zits?" Right now Zeus is exactly the age of the kid in it . . .

Thanks Renee. I've always heard that dogs are mature at 1 year. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. Hopefully, he'll get to be a little more of a watchdog.

Canadian, thanks for the tips. I'll start teaching him to do that when our front gate opens.

I would be thankful for a dog that doesn't bark at a knock on the door. I find it really annoying and I end up just telling the dogs to either go away, or put them in the basement. You see, I live with a papillon, which was out of my hands because my step-mom just had to have one. I'm about to go insane from the yapping and weird noises that comes from this rat thing. (It's not much more than a rat). My brother has a Lab that barks, which isn't as annoying, but once she or my Ambur start to bark, the rat terd chimes in, which is like three dogs in one. I do the opposite of most people in that, I'm training Ambur not to bark at the door. This papillon rat barks at anything. At first, my idiot father and step-mom thought it was cute, but that's not so anymore when they got it a sprayer that sprays stuff at it's face when he yaps. I told them to get a shock collar.

My question is why would any one spend 900 dollars on a rat? I wouldn't pay more than 9 cents and then it would be snake food. BTW, I had a blood python that they made me get rid of because of rat-boy. Ratty dominates my step-mom, which she so cutely calls Napolean. I would love to see him show his dominance with my ex-pet. I would laugh and laugh.

Truth is, you should be happy in a way that your dog is quiet and not obnoxious.

A dog is shaped by its socialization, experiences, owner and training. Not purely based on breed. Please dont be so closed minded as to label a dog just because of one bad experience. Im not trying to be offending to you, am just saying the dogs outcome doesnt purely base itself on one thing, many variables affect it.

So, not all papillons, A.K.A. purse dogs, are yappers? the truth is, I wouldn't mind it so much if he did it only occassionally, but the way things are, if some one walks in to a room, he starts yapping obnoxiously. The thing is, he only yaps if my step-mom is around. He won't make a peep if he's by himself or with other people. My guess is it has to do something with protection/domination. If any one has been around purse dogs, they know the yaps can be ear-penetrating. She's also the kind of person that doesn't spend any time training him. He's around 8 or 9 months and he's not house-trained and doesn't even know how to sit. There is no controllong him. When I walk in, he starts yapping, I nicely, but sternly say, "it's just me," which then turns in to, "Leon, SHUT UP," after he's been yapping for minutes. No one has ever attempted to train him. I would work with him if I didn't hate him. My 15-week pup knows how to sit on command and is currently learning how to lie down on command as well as going through house-training.

So, I guess you're right, CanadianK9, prase the dog, slap the owner. Well, in this case, slap the owner, get rid of the dog. Isn't that what parents do when their kids don't take care of their dogs that they promised to train, or help train?

WHOA now. Easy on the Paps. Only people who -like- them can call them rats! To answer your question, no not all Papillons are yappers. Mine is vocal but he will shut up when I tell him to. (And if he doesn't, he gets to be alone in his crate or expen, where he can bark all he wants but will get no attention for it)
Sounds like your stepmom has no idea what to do with Leon and is just neglecting to train him - it doesn't mean he's an awful dog. Papillons (all small breeds, really) require a different approach to training than most take with their big dogs. You can't force them to do anything, they have to want to. So, make it a better alternative for him to shut up and behave than it is for him to yap and be a brat! Reward good behavior and make sure he gets no payoff (positive or negative) for the bad.
And you're right, some dogs are positively awful when their overpermissive owners are around. I recently dog-sat a westie-poo who had appalling behavior when her owners were home.. After a day with me she was an excellent little girl, she gave me no problems for 2 weeks, but went right back to being obnoxious after her owners returned.

Gempress.. If all else fails, borrow someone's dog. LOL seriously, that was the only thing that could get Buster to bark. He'd bark when he heard another dog bark, and eventually came to associate the doorbell ringing with barking alongside the other dog. It stuck and he always gave a few barks upon hearing the doorbell ring, but he was really more interested in seeing the person than deterring them from entering the house.