Anyone managed to train dog not to bark at the doorbell?

[GiraffeNecked]

Tips needed.

Easiest way is the change the doorbell sound but before you do train the new doorbell sound with a new behaviour eg
With the new doorbell when it rings treat in the dog beds
Do this gradually and always treat then the new doorbell sound in the bed.
Never ever hear the doorbell without treating to start with.
Very quickly the dog will run (not barking) to the bed to get the treats when it hears the new doorbell sound

sorted

What if you can’t change your doorbell sound? Mine’s really old. (Current dog doesn’t yet bark at doorbell, but previous one was dreadful and I’m wondering what I should have done).

Yup, what polly said.

That's genius - thank you. Off to b&q to sound out doorbells!

If you can't change the doorbell sound do the above but bring the bed nearer to the door. So doorbell rings then treats right by the door. Pracitse this without visitors so if possible one person outside one inside treating.

As they get better at it you can the move the bed further away from the door so they can get the run to bed and then treat.

It will take longer as you are changing an existing behaviour rather than creating a new one but can still be done. If possible avoid any interactions with visitors during the training as again . Yep I realise that might be hard. Maybe lockdown is the time to do this trying to look on the bright side

Polly that is a genius idea. (The new door bell idea.)

I’ve had dogs for over 30 years and have never had a one that barked at the front door or doorbell. I have no idea why, they just haven’t. I suspect it’s because my first dog wasn’t bothered and since then each dog has learned from the previous one that they don’t need to.

The next breed I’m having is known to ‘alert’ and won’t have an older dog to learn from, so I am definitely going to use Polly’s method to train them. It would be an opportunity to change to a video doorbell as well.

Its fun training a behaviour to sound. My dogs all do a bow when my mobile phone rings. I had a spare afternoon and it amuses me.........obvioulsy I dont get out much

I don’t have a dog , but watched this instead of wfh today

Hmm, just be aware that burglars often ring the bell to check if anyone is in and a big deep bark is likely to send them packing.

Get a ring doorbell that rings on your phone?

@Papergirl1968, if you were concerned about that, you could potentially train them to give just one or two alert barks, then stop.

As I said upthread, none of mine have ever barked at the doorbell, but at any one time I have had at least one big enough to stare at people out of the front room window, so I suppose they might have beena deterrent in that way. Mind you, we have someone home practically 24/7, unless out walking the dogs anyway.