Barking at the Front Door - Understanding & Helping Greyhounds

Activities around the front door, be it knocking or the doorbell ringing - signify a change.

Usually, that means someone's coming to visit (or maybe the food delivery has arrived, yummo) or something's about to change in our immediate environment.

And as humans, when that happens, you might not even be aware of it, but you might experience your heart racing and or a sense of interruption. Now, this is exactly the same for a dog. They get that same excitement - a way for a dog to express that level of excitement is by barking at the front door.


What emotion is the dog experiencing?

In the dog training world, excitement is usually called arousal.

It doesn’t necessarily mean the dog is experiencing a particular emotion every time the front doorbell rings. It just means they're experiencing a high intensity of emotion, be it positive or negative.

A dog might be expecting positive things when someone arrives at the door because it means they get to meet someone new and so they bark. Or a dog might expect negative things when someone comes to the door, especially if that dog's had a negative experience with a visitor.

We can't say, without knowing the dog's history, and looking at their body language as a whole, what a dog barking at the door might be feeling. However, we can say that they are experiencing a high intensity of emotion or high arousal.


Should we train a dog to bark less?

If your dog barks at the door and it's brief, and then as soon as they meet the person their excitement level dies down and you're able to carry on with your day, it usually doesn't need an intervention because this is acceptable behaviour.

It's very normal for a dog to bark at a visitor, especially at first until everyone introduces themselves and relaxes.

What we don't want is if that barking is an expression of fear or anxiety and then the dog persists in that state while someone, potentially someone the dog feels unsafe around, continues to enter the dog's space. This situation is something that lowers the welfare for all involved.

If that's the case, or if the dog isn't able to calm down, that is something you can work on behaviorally.


How can we train a dog to bark less at the front door?

The method you would use to train can depend on whether the dog is fearful or excited.

One method (providing there's no ongoing anxiety or other medical condition), is teaching the dog an alternative behaviour.

Namely, this is rewarding them for doing something that makes it difficult to bark and the dog chooses to do this behaviour instead of barking at the front door. For example, the dog can go to their bed and get yummy treats every time they go to their bed.

You could also teach the dog to hold something in its mouth.


How long will it take to see results?

This depends on the dog and how intense its reaction to the front door is.

For a dog that's experiencing a very intense emotional response, it will likely take longer for you to train an alternative behaviour. The more ingrained that behaviour is, the longer it will take to change it.

Promoting calmness in all areas of your greyhound's life (on walks, sleep, controlled play, etc) through good dogmanship - will develop a healthy crossover into other situations like barking at the front door.



Will my greyhound’s barking lower as they settle into my home?

It is normal for a dog that is in an unfamiliar environment to bark more as they don't know what things signify and they don't know the routine or the lifestyle of their new adopter.

It is likely that barking at the front door, at the very least, will lower in intensity and duration as the dog settles into their home. However, this does depend on what experiences the dog has in the home.

If the dog has a negative experience with a visitor, that might change things as well. And you might notice an increase in intensity after an experience like that.

Like people, if one of us experiences an unexpected visitor, especially at a time that could be scary, like late at night, we don't know who it is, we might respond to that fearfully. It's pretty normal for dogs to respond to that uncertainty the same way.

Read more: 7 Ways to Help a Greyhound Adjust to New Homes


Can GAP NSW help me with barking post-adoption?

Yes!

If you are having difficulties with your dog barking and you believe that your dog is barking incessantly or you want to work on that, please get in contact with us and the staff will be able to advise you on strategies that you can use.

It's important to remember though, that barking is perfectly normal behaviour and it's in the natural ethogram of every dog (except the few breeds that can't bark, howl or yodel). Make sure your expectations are realistic in that regard. 

We as dog owners should accept that our dogs will bark but if we believe the barking is persistent and is indicative of problematic arousal, emotional intensity, fear and anxiety, then that's something we should work on.