Close The Door

kassidybc

Experienced Member
We have been working on close the door... But we can't seem to advance. She is at a point where i say "close the door" and she walks over to the door and holds her nose on it, but she won't push hard! In the past week or two we haven't made any progress at all, other than her maybe holding her nose on the door a little longer. Any ideas for how to get the idea in her head that she actually needs to push, not just set her nose on it?
 

Mutt

Experienced Member
Maybe start teaching her to push a soft object first (ball), adding a post-it or position yourself so that she will push the door towards you (the dog may not push hard as she wants to look back at you to see if she gets the treat, this is what my dogs did in the beginning).
 

brody_smom

Experienced Member
I taught Brody a push cue for his soccer ball. I put some treats in a little depression in the lawn, then put the ball on top of the treats. I held it with my hand a little so he really had to push with some force to get it to move. Click and treat for the pushing motion, plus he gets the treats after the ball moves. Double win! I guess you could then just generalize the cue to other objects, including the door, if you start out with the sticky note on the ball and then move it to other places. Brody always takes the sticky with his teeth, so I haven't done this yet. There is another trick thread called "make the face" that teaches a similar idea.
 

648117

Honored Member
I tought Holly to shut the fridge door, but not with her nose. She puts both her front paws up on it so her weight makes it close instead of actually pushing it. I just taught this using the "paws up" cue that she already knew to put her paws on a wall.
It could be an option to teach her to use her paws instead of nose.
 

kassidybc

Experienced Member
Thanks for the advice everyone, I will try teaching her the soccer ball thing. The wierd thing is that I first taught her to touch my hand, then I switched it to the door, but she actaully pushes on my hand, just not the door. :/ Goofy dog...
 

kassidybc

Experienced Member
I tought Holly to shut the fridge door, but not with her nose. She puts both her front paws up on it so her weight makes it close instead of actually pushing it. I just taught this using the "paws up" cue that she already knew to put her paws on a wall.
It could be an option to teach her to use her paws instead of nose.
The only issue with that is it would most likely make the door slam loudly, and I highly doubt my mom would appreciate that. ;)
 

JazzyandVeronica

Honored Member
Do you have a command or cue that means "yes you're on the right track but not quite there yet so keep going"?

I have done some Bridge & Target training and the dog is taught a cue (intermediate bridge) for the above which is very helpful. That's how I taught My dog to close cupboard doors (however even though she does it with her nose, she now does it enthusiastically and it certainly makes a loud bang!)
 

kassidybc

Experienced Member
Do you have a command or cue that means "yes you're on the right track but not quite there yet so keep going"?

I have done some Bridge & Target training and the dog is taught a cue (intermediate bridge) for the above which is very helpful. That's how I taught My dog to close cupboard doors (however even though she does it with her nose, she now does it enthusiastically and it certainly makes a loud bang!)
She does not know a command like that. How did you go about teaching that?
 

kassidybc

Experienced Member
BREAKTHROUGH!!!! I was going to start teaching her the soccer ball thing so she understood that she had to push, but I decided I would try once more with the door. I was making her hold her nose there really long, so she was getting frustrated. Usually we stop when she gets frustrated, but I decided not to. Then, since she was frustrated, she went and hit the door as hard as she could and it slammed shut! JACKPOT!! She got tons of praise and treats!! Then, she did it again!! I think she might have it! Hopefully she doesn't forget by tomorrow... :)
 

brody_smom

Experienced Member
Good work, Kassidy! Those breakthroughs are definitely exciting when they happen. Sometimes it can be hard to know when to stop, and when to try one more time. Brody usually lets me know he's had enough by walking away!
 

kassidybc

Experienced Member
I tried again today, and right from the get go she was closing the door all the way! She did it once without closing it the first time and after that she closed it every single time! She was consistently closing it, she closed it like 10 times in a row before we finally stopped! Now we are just going to work on making the door farther open when she has to close it, and me being farther away when I give the command.
 

Linda A

Experienced Member
Congratulations! WTG!! When I started teaching this trick I just opened the door about a quarter of an inch. The dog touching nose to it was enough to close the door. That way the dogs heard the door make contact with the cabinet. They learned that the sound of the door making contact was what I was after. We just gradually opened the door more and more.
 

ackerleynelson

Well-Known Member
We have been working on close the door... But we can't seem to advance. She is at a point where i say "close the door" and she walks over to the door and holds her nose on it, but she won't push hard! In the past week or two we haven't made any progress at all, other than her maybe holding her nose on the door a little longer. Any ideas for how to get the idea in her head that she actually needs to push, not just set her nose on it?
1: Put your touch stick on the door.
2: Each time he touches it and moves the door a little, click and treat.
3: Start waiting until he has pushed the door closed. Click and treat.
4: Do this until he will close the door each time. Click and treat generously when he does this!
5: Start saying "close" when he closes the door. After repeating the action several times, he should close the door at your command.
 
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