Recently, I was inspired to reread a helpful booklet, The Cautious Canine – How to Help Dogs Conquer Their Fears. It provides excellent instruction on how to desensitize your pooch to new and frightening things and is my main resource for training Miss D on our walks. And I decided it was time to refresh our crate training.
My ultimate goal in refreshing this course is to be able to send Miss D to her crate when someone comes to the door. That is, when the front door is opened from the inside by me, or there’s a knock on the door, or the doorbell rings, or someone is seen approaching the front door, I want to be able to say, “Crate,” and see Miss D scurry to her crate (and away from the door) rather than barking furiously and forcing me to step outside and close the door in order to conduct my business.
This is a tremendous undertaking with a miniature schnauzer. This breed has extremely acute hearing, making them excellent early warning systems. In fact, they are sometimes paired with German shepherds to guard sheep. The schnauzer would hear something and alert the bigger dog to its approach. So barking furiously when a stranger approaches is in Deita’s nature. Add in her natural trepidation for New Things or Movement and you see my dilemma. It’s a wonder anyone visits me at all!
To get things started, I wrote down my ultimate goal and then broke it into smaller training steps. Miss D has already learned the command “Crate” means go and get into your crate. However, she has yet to learn to follow the command unless mom is standing next to or near the crate itself.
1. Learn the command, “Crate”. Check.
2. Learn the command and hand signal for “Crate.” I’m using the ASL sign for “bed”.
3. Follow the command from elsewhere in the house (mom standing at a distance from crate)
4. Follow the command when mom is standing by the front door.
5. follow command after
- door opens
- knock on door
- doorbell rings
- see someone approaching door
Obviously, this is going to take awhile.
It will take time and is certainly a challenge but you are going about it so well. wishing you all the best and looking forward to updates
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