To think it's no wonder Royal Mail delivery men get bitten by dogs so often.

[D0oinMeCleanin]

When normal people knock on my door, in a normal way, my dogs do as they've been trained to do and go to their beds.

When the lovely lady from Hermes knocks on my door in a nice, normal way, the dogs go to their beds.

When my Dad knocks on my door, the dogs sense it is him and wait patiently in the hall until I let him upon which they dive at him with gusto.

When Royal Mail knock on my door in the way at only Royal Mail do, I jump so far out my seat I almost hit ceiling, Whippy runs terrified into her crate and Devil Dog decides he must protect the house from the person trying to break down the front door at all costs, including snapping at me when I restrain him to get him into a different room, before they attempt to kick the door in again knock again, which they inevitably do.

I would complain but I have a feeling bad things might start happening to my mail but it is really necessary for them to knock so loud it would wake the dead? Really?! I can't be the only person who has problems with Royal Mail couriers scaring them half to death?

[nickelbabe]

you should tell your PO that his knock is driving your dogs mad.

they will advise your postie to knock in a better way.
it's their safety at stake here.

[Sirzy]

I guess the reason they knock so loud is so people hear they are there so they aren't missed as happens a lot.

Why not get a doorbell?

[D0oinMeCleanin]

Just knocking in a normal way would do. If I hadn't been expecting a parcel today and did not already have experience of Royal Mail and their hammering of my door, I would have assumed we were being burgled and would have joined Whippy in her crate.

It's not normal I tell, ye! It must hurt his hand too, it can't not hurt, I surprised he hasn't broken his knuckles by now.

[D0oinMeCleanin]

A doorbell? Duh! Yes, why indeed not?

Why are the obvious things always the last things that occur to me?

How much are doorbells though? It's only Royal Mail I have this issue with. I don't want shell out a fortune, spend days retraining the dogs to respond correctly to a doorbell, just because my post man is has superhuman, unbreakable knuckles

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

YABU. They knock at the door so you will hear it and open it - it is not their job to consider what sort of knock will send your dog into a vicious frenzy.

[Seabird72]

I have a loud doorbell and people STILL choose to knock!

[D0oinMeCleanin]

It's not their job to scare the crap out me either, but they do! No other delivery company do this. Only Royal Mail.

[EuroShagmore]

You can solve this problem for a tenner!

www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?isSearch=true&fh_search=door+bell&x=8&y=13&noCookies=false

[freddiefrog]

We have the same thing with our postie (and dog)

We have a doorbell which everyone else who comes to our door manages to use. Our dog ignores the bell.

Postman however always bangs on it so hard it sounds like he's attempting to break in - dog goes mad.

We've asked the postman many times not to knock like that as it winds up the dog and we then have to grab him and shut him in another room all the while postie is continuing to bang so it takes longer for us to answer the door

The bell works fine, it's loud enough that you can hear it from outside so it's not like you might think it doesn't work.

Just use the bloody bell!!!!

[D0oinMeCleanin]

It doesn't sound like they'll use a doorbell going on what other posters are saying?

I might get one anyway and hope for the best. I don't want to have to stop using Amazon and don't want to train the dog not to respond to people sounding like they are coming at my door with a battering ram, that's his job, to scare away people trying to get in who shouldn't be trying to get in!

I do apologise for the length of time it takes me to get to the door and explain to him that I need to calm the dog because he is not used to people hammering on the door like that and it causes him to become defensive but he never listens/remembers.

[GrimmaTheNome]

I have no idea how our postie (or anyone else) knocks, or if the doorbell is working at the moment - DDog detects anyone approaching the door and announces their arrival. (I've no idea how to train him out of this given that he detects the person way before I do, and I'm usually upstairs in the office.)

But at least it means we always know when someone is there and I'm pretty sure no-one will ever walk in unannounced!

[Pandemoniaa]

We've got a perfectly good doorbell. It doesn't stop one of our postmen managing to make his visit sound like a dawn raid from Special Branch though.
This drives the dog potty so it goes downstairs and scampers about on the sitting room windowsill trying to sound ferocious.

This particular postmen doesn't like dogs and there was one memorable occasion when he clearly thought I was out because he decided his relationship with the dog would be improved by shouting "Shut the Fuck Up you Little Bastard" through the letterbox.

[IsabelleRinging]

My postie does exactly the same, makes me jump a mile EVERY time, meter reader man does the same. Others just use the knocker in a normal manner and we never miss them. if you are in, you are in nd will hear a normal knock. If you are out you won't answer the door no matter how loud they knock.

[Birnamwood]

Getting a doorbell will just double the problem, my postie rings the doorbell AND bangs on the door. Black dog goes absolutely berserk and rips the back of the letterbox off. White dog just barks cos he wants to be with the cool kids.
One day, after he's waken the baby for the fifty millionth time I'm going to hand him the baby and shut the door.

[HoneyDragon]

Our posties fine. DHL man does door breaking knock immediately followed by letterbox flapping and peering through.
One day I will unleash the hound upon him mid gawp.

[Birnamwood]

Hand the baby to the postman, that is. Not white dog. White dog would just sit on ds until he quietens down.

[BadMissM]

My DH is a postman.... they are told to knock loudly, as if people miss the delivery, they then ask for redelivery, which they haven't, literally, got time to do.

He regualrly gets bitten by peoples' dogs who are left free to roam, or given free access to the back of the letterbox. Postmen don't really like dogs on the whole, as they get bitten many times a year, and Royal Mail will do nothing about the problem. They have suggested mailboxes on the edge of the property, (like the rest of Europe) so they don't have accidents on peoples' treacherous drives and steps, and they can avoid the vicious dogs, but Royal Mail refuse...

He has to deliver in rain, snow, gales (we live in a seaside town)...

Their rounds have become longer, and harder, and they have to take more and more, by foot. He used to start early and finish reasonably early. He now starts early and finishes late- not on overtime, just having to finish the round.

So, they are under a lot of pressure to deliver ever more mail, and they are told to knock, in case the doorbell is not working.

[D0oinMeCleanin]

It sounds awful for your DH BadMissM, usually I am on the delivery persons side, but this is no normal loud knock.

I have tried to get my dog to bark like that when DH has fallen asleep on the sofa with his keys in the lock and locked me out, in the end I had to go and get one of dd2's beating sticks to bash the door with, it was the only way I could create the same level of noise without breaking my hand

It does sound like it could be Royal Mail management I need to talk to about this, if the driver has been told to knock this way.

FWIW when I realised my dog had a thing for the letter box he was kept away from it until he was trained to ignore it and all that comes through it with the assistance of informed, consenting adults, not the local postie.

[MurderOfGoths]

We had a delivery this morning and the delivery driver pressed the doorbell while hammering on the door and continued hammering on the door until DH got to it to open it. Bearing in mind we are obviously the top floor of a maisonette it was pretty damn obvious we wouldn't be able to open the door the very instant he started trying to bash it open knocking.

Unsurprisingly DS's nap ended at that point.

[MurderOfGoths]

I did open the door once to find the delivery driver kicking the door rather than knocking.

[LovesGSD]

Lol this post made me actual laugh out loud! My postie rings the doorbell but rings it 5 times!!!

[maddening]

Not my postie - after he had me answering the door in hushed tones due to ds napping he now knocks v quietly.

Also if he has a parcel and can't deliver but sees my car on the way back he will pop back with the parcel :)

[MuddlingMackem]

YANBU.

We had the problem that our postie would knock on the door. Unfortunately you can only hear that when you're in the living room which, early on a Saturday morning, we usually aren't. We did manage to train him to use the doorbell, which can be heard in most of the house, although it did take a while as we only managed to speak to him if he happened to knock when one of us was in the living room.

It's a pain when we have a stand-in who doesn't know the system and, as a result, have missed a few parcels when we have been home.

I can't understand why Royal Mail insist posties knock. Surely if a household has a bell they are more attuned to listen for that than someone knocking? They really should ring the bell first and knock if no answer just in case the bell isn't working.