Dogs are very smart, loyal and beautiful animals, they’d do anything for their owners that treat them nicely and with care! I’m going to be explaining to you ‘how to train your dog to close a door’ and I’ll also give you some tips along the way. One of the best ways to teach your dog, big or small is to put some non-transparent tape or a sticky note, that is a different colour to your door, and stick it on your hand. If you want to do it this way, keep reading… you take one of your dog's favourite treats and hold the treats in the opposite hand where the tape or sticky note is. You then want to come up with a word command for your dog, here are some suggestions: Close, door, touch, push, etc. Once you come up with your command, you want to say your command with a voice that is clear enough for your dog to understand and hear clearly. When the tape or sticky note is on your hand, you want to hold your hand in front of your dog's face, not too close. If the dog is not interested in the tape or sticky note, you can smear a treat on it so it smells, the dog will then sniff it. Once you say your command, if the dog hits it lightly with their face you then give them a reward, which is a treat, you then keep repeating this until your dog knows that tape or sticky note is what awards them the treat, you can start moving and positioning your hand in different places, this might be tricky for your dog so you need to be patient, remember it might not happen in all one day. It’s very, very important to be patient with your dog, if your dog doesn't react to the command immediately, wait around 5 seconds before saying your command again. If you keep repeating the command over and over again very quickly, your dog will just expect you to keep repeating the command again, and again and will just ignore you. Once your dog knows how to lightly push on the tape or sticky note, even after moving positions, then you’re ready to move onto the door. Stick some tape or a sticky note underneath your door handle high or low enough so your dog’s face can easily touch it. Once you stick your tape or sticky note to your door, you then point to the tape or sticky note while saying your command first with the door closed, when they touch the tape or sticky note you then reward them with a treat, once they know that their supposed to put pressure on the door, you can move onto doing the same as last time except with the door open. I recommend opening it a little bit but now too close to the door frame. Even if your dog pushes it a little bit, still reward them with a treat, if they manage to push it all the way so the door shuts, give them a jackpot. A jackpot is where you give your dogs around 2-5 treats. I recommend giving your dog 2 treats when they get a jackpot or when they close the door all the way. After your dog has gotten good at closing the door, you can slowly open the door more and more. When the door and the door frame is at a 90 degree angle, you can now start to challenge your dog. Open the door a little bit, not too far, not too close to where the door frame is, and only reward them when they fully close the door, when they don’t fully close the door, wait a few seconds before repeating your command or pointing to the tape, sticky note or door. Be patient and give them a second, because they might figure it out them self. Over time your dog will start to realise that when they hear the door close, that’s when they know that they're done, and they’ve done good. When they know that they have to fully close the door, you can open the door fully, like before, and then try to get them to close the door fully again, they probably won’t get it first try (depending on how fast your dog learns), so keep trying! Remember to reward them when they fully close the door and if they don’t close it full just say your command, point to the tape, sticky note or door after 5 seconds. Thank you for reading this and I hope you will try this with your dog (if you have one) and I wish you the best of luck!
