How can I get my dog to stop running out the door?

Train the people, not the dog. Make it a hard and fast rule that NO ONE opens the door until they have a leash on Kevin and are holding on to it tightly, or have put Kevin in another room and shut the door. Keep the leash on a hook next to the door. Does Kevin ever get to go on walks? or is his backyard fenced in so he can run around?

I knew someone who hired a dog-trainer and within an hour the Boxer was trained to sit on the door-rug/mat when someone opened the door. But that costs money, and you’d have to find a high-quality dog-trainer.

Another option you can try is to put a gate up to keep him in a room, or keep him blocked from the front door.

I was wondering… Do you usually keep him locked up? Because a pet dog wouldn’t do this unless his freedom is at stake. I really hope you do go out with him more often, if he’s going on a walk on daily basis then he wouldn’t go out randomly whenever the gate is open.

Putting him on leash is not a solution. I used to be a pet owner so this is just based on my personal experience.

Regards

A leash?

@rebbel In England English it’s called a “lead”; in American English it’s called a “leash.”

In contrast to the above few posters, I think some dogs will just bolt even if they’ve been walked. I would go with either the trainer or keeping him on a leash or in a room before the door is opened as smudges suggests.

By training him with a leash until he understands. “You do not give him the opportunity to fail.”
Snap his leash on and hold him before opening your door. With Persistence he’ll get it.

A dog that wants to escape WILL escape!!! Mine was an outdoor dog who had ½ acre to run & play on & he also had a playmate to entice him to play. IF I cracked the gate to step onto the driveway, he’d dash through it!!! IF he didn’t make it out, he’d wait until I was gone to climb the gate & go over it. He made a small escape route under the fence where he could dive for it in order to let himself out or get back in. I could be driving down the main street toward my house & see him standing in the middle of the road. By the time I took the side streets to get to my house, he’d be standing inside the fence at the gate looking at me like he had been there all day!!!

My first suggestion for you is to TRAIN GRANDPA!!! Ask him IF he’s trying to kill the dog.

I’m going to assume that the dog hasn’t been taught to SIT nor STAY yet. Teach him those 2 commands first. This video might help with that. There are others IF you do a youtube search “teach dog to sit & stay”. Once he’s become fairly proficient with those 2, start with telling him NO (hesitate, then say) SIT before you start to open the door. As you start to open the door, tell him to STAY. IF he so much as flinches, SHUT the door fast. Then start that process all over again. You may need to do it several times at first to get him to understand that he’s NOT to go out the door!!! You might want to keep a treat in your pocket so you can reward him when he actually does it right!!! Dogs do like to please their owner & seem to do better when they get a reward at the end. NEVER give a reward IF he doesn’t do his job properly!!!

Now, IF he does escape & makes you keep chasing him, remember that, that is FUN & GAMES for him. So, ONLY chase him for a short distance & then turn around & start home. He might just beat you there. I chased mine for an hour one day & then the neighbor’s 3 y/o daughter walked right up to him, took him by the collar & walked him right over to me. Then I walked him back home!!!

How well your dog does depends completely on how well you & the grandparents do during his training!!!

Here is a video all about teaching dogs to automatically stay inside the house when the door is open. I also agree, though, that dogs need time outdoors and will be much more likely to escape when they don’t get enough exercise and enrichment.

It sounds like you already know how to train your dog. Your problem is your grandfather, as you explained. Try a dog trainer. Maybe they’ll come up with a solution.

si3tech above. It works.

A dog that wants to escape will, especially if it’s a dog that is thrilled by chasing after small animals or any animal or even children or who likes to run after cars.
I suggest, training him not to be excited by his environment. Lots of walking and training would help.
Don’t get excited about visitors and don’t let your dog jump on visitors. The idea is to train your dog to see everything as normal and treat them when they obey a command with affection.
Some dogs though have strong prey drives that can set them off. Those are really hard to train. My current dog was like that and escaped 3 times. I had to work with her on ignoring things but she still has a bit of a prey drive. I put up a bird feeder and would have her sit next to me and tell her no every time she wanted to run over to the birds on the feeder. Now she can lay out in the yard sunning and ignoring the birds.

I found that her instinct to run after small creatures has diminished a lot and I can trust her somewhat when the door is open so long as I can tell her no. I would also hold her when the delivery came and tell her no. She stopped going to the door now and stays a few feet in now when strangers come.

It’s not going to happen overnight but everyone has to be consistent in the training.
I would also suggest you get your dog chipped just in case and make sure they always have their tags on when in the house until bedtime.
When I was visiting my mom on vacation my mom would forget about the door and my dog ran out on a cold winter day. Luckily she found someone open garage to get out of the cold and they called me. She was dirty and wet and shivering so bad. We were afraid if we didn’t find her she would freeze to death because it was mostly a wooded area. After that, my mom remembered she felt so bad after that, that she never forgot again. Tell grandpa that the dog can die or be injured running loose. Maybe he will make more of an effort to remember.

How about installing a screen door?

@Six had a good suggestion. Even better might be a solid glass storm door so the dog can always see what’s going on out there.

I can see the point of a screen door. The caller knows right away that you’re answering the door, so they don’t give up and leave while you’re securing the dog. Gives you time to grab the collar or whatever while you open up if you have to take a delivery. If you keep the screen latched, the dog won’t push it open.

Why he persists in making a dash for freedom is a separare question.

@KRD your dog loves and wants most to please you, his master This is why you give him only the opportunity to sucee (not run out the door) so you cca lavish praise on him! (the T bone steaak! lol) Trust me,, this works!

Tie him up when he’s in the house so that he can no further than the door jamb. Be sure to tie him to something sturdy/un-moveable. Make sure his collar is unbreakable/unbendable and that he can’t slip out of it. I had to make a collar for my dog out of ¼” chain and secure the collar while it was on his neck to insure he couldn’t get out of it. It wasn’t too tight, just tight enough he couldn’t get it over his head.

@kritiper we have a chain collar for him. Q: Should we get a tracker for Kevin in case does get out?

@KRD Is it a choke chain? One that tightens around the neck when pulled? If so, try a regular collar. Choke chains are cruel. It is very easy to misuse choke chains, and with all the humane, effective collars on the market, choke chains are unnecessary and should not be used.

I won’t even comment on kritiper’s idea of chaining your dog up in the house.

https://psichologyanswers.com/library/lecture/read/424100-is-it-bad-to-use-a-choke-chain-on-a-dog

@KRD It can’t be a store-bought choke chain collar. (Not even a guard dog type. It needs to be one you make that doesn’t tighten up when pulled.) If your dog is as strong as mine was, he’ll distort the rings that are at each end and he will get out of it. A regular collar might work but make sure you can’t pull it over his head.
A tracker, and/or implant ID chip is always a good idea.

I tried a guard dog choke chain on my dog and he would get the latch right up between his ears and give a shake and a pull, and the thing would fall off.

You wouldn’t have to use chain in the house, but a good quality 3/8” NYLON rope.

Try this. It’s a head harness. You’ll have to keep the dog on a leash at the front door, but every time he tries to pull, it will drag his head back to you. https://www.dobermantalk.com/threads/leash-puller-want-to-walk-without-the-gentle-leader.62460/

We do have a choke chain but it has a non choke leash clip. We also have a screen door we plan on installing this summer.

I don’t know how often you take your dog for a walk, but that, once a day, could help.

Who would tie their dog up in the house???

You just train him to sit and stay when the door is opened. It takes consistency and work. Treats help.
While we were holed up in the camper it was imperative that Cato not charge out the door. He’d knock us right off the camper steps. To this day he won’t go until I tell him to.
Good Boi.

Tying dogs up is actually quite dangerous. They can get tangled up and badly hurt. This is especially true for an energetic dog like Kevin seems to be.

My dog trainer colleague once had to literally saw through a tight leash under extreme time pressure, while the young German Shepherd was getting strangled by its own body weight. He had been unattended for only a few minutes and needed medical attention after he was freed.

Short of using rope or chain in the house, you could have a screen door built out of expanded steel industrial screen. Like bulletproof. The point is to stop the dog dead in his tracks the first time he hits the end of the rope, chain, screen, or what-have-you. It usually only takes one time. (Tough love!)

@kritiper I’m so glad I’m not a dog owned by you; your “methods” sound barbaric.

@janbb You want barbaric? Here’s a story for you.

My grandfather broke horses when he was a young man. One day someone pointed out a horse to him that would always start bucking every time someone got on him. My grandfather said he could fix that.
So he found himself a 2X4 that was about 2 feet long and climbed into the saddle. When the horse took to bucking, Granddad clobbered the horse right between the ears with the 2X4, and the horse fell to the ground. When the horse stood back up again, Granddad was still in the saddle.
And the horse turned it’s head around and took a good LONG look at that 2X4!

And never bucked again. (Of course, they could have shot the horse…)

Like people, some animals learn. Some animals only learn the hard way. Without extreme measures, some animals will NEVER learn!

So tough love can work, and so many times it JUST TAKES ONCE!

When I was a kid, I once broke a dead branch over my dog’s back after she killed a chicken. And she never killed another chicken. (It was that or shoot the dog.)

As an adult, I made a chain and a collar for my dog that my dog could NOT get out of and hooked him up with a chain he could NOT break. It didn’t hurt him, but it cured him.

@kritiper: One could always find a worse story than the present. Someone who’s 200 lbs could say “you think I’m heavy? Joe is 300 lbs!” or one who beats their child for a minor infraction could say “this is nothing compared to the way I was raised.” That doesn’t lessen the severity of the infraction.

(Of course, they could also have shot the grampa.)

@kritiper Your examples are so strange. You had a wild door dasher and a dog who killed a chicken, and that’s where you start the story? So much human error comes before that. You could have trained your childhood dog, gently, to never approach the chickens. I have a pup right now. She’s 14 weeks old and learning things like that already. I certainly won’t wait until she makes a terrible mistake and only then start training. You didn’t know as a child, so I’m not blaming you. But dog training and basic human decency have progressed to the point that most of us don’t want to “clobber” animals for doing animal things. Your door dashing dog could have broken his spine running to the end of a leash with all his power, attached by his neck.

I forget. Have you asserted, in the past, that animals don’t have emotions? Do you also think they don’t feel pain?