Close the door

Your dog shoves the door with their nose until it clicks — a trick that genuinely earns its keep in a draughty home, or when your hands are full of shopping.

🐾🐾🐾🐾 · ~14 days · 5 min/session

Learn first: Hand touch

Step-by-step

1. Move the target onto a note

   Stick a coloured sticky note on your palm and ask for a few touches until your dog bumps the note as confidently as the bare hand. Then stick the note on the door at their nose height and step to one side. Reward the first contact with a treat from your pocket, without pointing at it.

   💡 Pick a light interior door that cannot slam. A heavy or glazed door can catch a paw and put a dog off the trick for months.

2. Reward a real push

   Open the door a palm’s width so there’s something to move, and at first pay for every contact with the note. After a dozen reps hold the reward back for half a second — most dogs immediately shove harder, and that’s exactly what you mark. Licking and nuzzling never get paid, however sweet they look.

3. Ask for the latch to click

   Open the door wider and wider — a palm’s width, then a hand-span, then half open. Pay only when the door reaches the frame and clicks; if it stalls half way, wait in silence for two seconds and most dogs shove again. If they don’t, narrow the gap and carry on from there.

4. Add the cue “Close it”

   Once the push is confident, say “Close it” just before your dog heads for the door. Say the word once and don’t help with your hand — the gesture has to fade so the word can take over. Reward the instant the latch clicks.

5. Fade the note and step back

   Trim the note in half every few successful reps until only a finger-wide strip is left, then take it off altogether. Then add distance one step at a time — two steps from the door, then right across the room. If your dog gets stuck, put a small note back for a few sessions.

   💡 Big dogs often prefer to use a paw. Allow it only on a door with no glass and keep the nails short — otherwise both the wood and the paw suffer.

6. Generalise to other doors

   Every new door is a fresh lesson — restart with a palm-wide gap and a note if you need one. Practise on cupboard doors, the washing machine and the way out to the balcony. Never train on a door that can latch itself shut, and check there’s no paw, tail or child in the gap before you give the cue.

   💡 Pushing with the front paws up on the door loads the shoulders and the spine. With a small, young or elderly dog stick to the nose and to light doors, and ask your vet if you’re unsure.

Common mistakes

• Training on a heavy or glazed door — one slam is enough to put a dog off for good.
• Rewarding every contact, licking included — the door never moves and the trick stalls on the spot.
• Fading the note too early — the dog loses the target and starts guessing where to push.
• Repeating “close it, close it, close it” — the dog learns the cue is background noise, not a signal.

Problems & solutions

My dog licks the note instead of pushing it.

You’ve been paying for contact rather than force. Stop rewarding a mere touch, wait in silence and mark the first firmer shove. Sticking the note slightly above nose height helps too — the dog has to lean into it instead of licking from below.

My dog pushes, but the door stops a centimetre short.

The door is most likely rubbing on the floor or the rug — check the hinges and take the mat away. A draught pushes the door back too, so shut the windows while you train. Until it’s solid, ask for a click only from a narrow gap.

My dog closes the kitchen door but not the bedroom one.

Dogs don’t generalise on their own — to them every door is a new object. Put the note back, open the new door only a palm’s width and run the whole process again over two or three short sessions. From the third door onwards it usually takes minutes.

Reward ideas

Pay right after the click, with a treat from your pocket rather than from a hand resting on the door. For play-driven dogs, one ball throw after the close beats any food.