How to Teach a Door Wait Before Dinner (5 Minutes)

Part 1 was sit-for-dinner. Tonight’s 5-minute job is the door wait — because weeknight chaos often starts when someone opens the back door, garage, or yard slider.

Goal: your dog waits at one door for about 60 seconds while you handle the bowl, the kids, or the trash. Short. Clear. Repeatable.

Pick one door

Use the door you actually fight over — kitchen to garage, patio slider, whatever. One door only this week.

Try this tonight (about 5 minutes)

1. Stand at the closed door with a few pieces of kibble in your pocket. Leash optional.

2. Ask for a sit (or a stand-stay if sits are hard). Hand on the doorknob.

3. Crack the door one inch. If they surge, close it. Reset. Quiet praise when they hold.

4. Build the open wider in small steps — a few inches, then half open, then wider — and only move up when they stay calm. Don’t jump from a crack to walking through and calling it done.

5. At each width, count in short intervals: five seconds, then ten, then fifteen, then twenty, and so on. Feed a piece for calm at each step.

6. When they’re solid with a wider open, step one foot through and keep the same short counts. Build toward 60 seconds total across a few short reps. You don’t need one perfect minute on night one.

7. Release with “okay,” then dinner or through the door. Stop while they’re winning — don’t drill until they melt down.

Use it at dinner time

Once they get the idea, pair it with meal prep: dog waits at the door while you carry the bowl from counter to mat. Release, then feed. That’s the whole evening reset.

What “done” looks like

Door opens wider over time, dog holds, you move, clean release. Sixty seconds of calm at the door beats twenty minutes of chaos.

If you want a simple system that fits a busy week, The Good Dog Project is six in-home visits, 5–8 minute homework, $600, a $150 homework credit, and a satisfaction guarantee. Details at lifestylek9.training/tgdp, or text Drew at (970) 829-8880.

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