How to Stop Your Dog From Scratching at the Door

Dogs usually scratch at doors to seek attention.

Many dogs like to scratch at doors, either to seek attention, alert you to someone at the door or to burn off energy. Because this action can cause significant damage to your doors over time, the behavior should be curtailed. One of the worst things you can do is to respond to the dog when it scratches because this tends to reinforce the behavior. You should try other methods to stop your dog from scratching your doors.

Instructions

1. Ignore the behavior. Many dogs will stop scratching the door if you do not provide it with attention, because you are inadvertently reinforcing the behavior by responding to the scratching.

2. Hang a doorbell on the door that your dog can reach with its nose or paw. Train your dog to hit this object, and it can enjoy a similar activity to its previous behavior without damaging your door.

3. Mount a gate in the doorway to block the dog's access to the door. Try a pressure-mounted door rather than one you have to screw into the frame; this should be strong enough to keep the dog off the door and prevent damage to your frame from screws.

4. Provide your dog with more exercise opportunities, such as talking it for a walk. This will help it burn off energy and may change its former behavior patterns.

Tips & Warnings

• Once your dog can sit on command, you can use this technique to eliminate many other undesirable behaviors. Teach your dog that sitting makes good things happen!

• If scratching at the door to go out is a habit of long standing, it may take some time to break it. Have patience. As long as the dog has an alternative way to get what he wants--by sitting instead of scratching--it will work eventually.

References

• Dog Academy: Dogs Scratching
• Dogged Health: Ask the Trainer Door Scratching