There are many reasons you may not want your dog to go in certain rooms or areas of the house. Perhaps your bedroom as you don’t want them on the bed, or the kitchen in case of cooking accidents, or you have a newborn baby in a nursery you want to be careful with. In a lot of cases, these areas also don’t have the luxury of a door.
The easiest way to keep your dog out of a room (even without a door) is to either train boundaries using the invisible line method, a taped line, a stair gate or train the “out” command. All easy methods with great results!
See below where we discuss these in more detail.
Invisible Line
Sounds obvious and like a lot of work, but it isn’t as long as your dog has some basic obedience training. It centres around good marker words and the use of your tone of voice for positive reinforcement.
Using a lead/leash, allow the dog to enter the space you want them to avoid. When they cross the entrance or boundary, use lead pressure to bring them back out to where you want them to be. Once positioned outside the boundary, mark with your positive marker and reward with a treat.
Repeat this until they are starting to understand where the boundary is and are waiting on the desired side of it. Try and wait a few moments before giving the treat, you don’t want them to get savvy and deliberately make the mistake knowing they will get a treat after being taken out.
Once you start to see them sitting and waiting beyond the boundary, you can train a permission command. Ensure you hold out a treat for them to come and collect from you within the room, rather than bringing the treat to them. Repeat this process of only entering when told and it will give you control of when they do or don’t have permission to enter a room. Don’t expect it to click straight away and it will take a few sessions, but be patient and it will be a great thing to have in your back pocket to use for other rooms!
Albus enjoying that he is allowed in the bedroom
Taped Line
If you want to make the boundary more obvious for perhaps dogs taking longer to get it or where you are trying to create a boundary for a large entrance space, the use of tape such as masking tape, to define the boundary can work really well.
Apply the tape to the floor and then the training begins. Some dogs may instinctively avoid the line and not cross it, but that may not happen when you remove the tape again! This method is very similar to the invisible line, but just more obvious to the dog (and allows us owners to be more consistent in our interpretation of the line, especially in a large space!).
Another way to practice this, or the invisible line, is to tempt the dog in by placing treats in the out-of-bounds area. If they try to go for the treats and cross the line, stop them from getting the treats and bring them back behind the line. Reward them only when they are in the required position on the right side of the line! Continue this until they are successfully staying outside the line, even with treats as a temptation. This one may also take a bit of time but they will get it eventually!
Stair Gate or Puppy Fence
This is very applicable when you don’t have a door to a room. You can use the same type of gate you use for young children so they don’t fall down stairs for keeping your dog out of a room or area. This method isn’t perhaps effective for training as it won’t teach your dog not to go through it when it’s open again, but it certainly guarantees that they won’t breach the defences unless they can leap over it! Most of these gates are high enough for most dogs and are very easy to install.
It’s the certainty which is also good for when you are out of the house if you don’t have full trust your dog won’t go into a room. For example, the room may not be dog-proofed and being out whilst they try to destroy a chair leg would be a disaster, especially if they hurt themselves and you’re not around. Just make sure to get one which can be adjusted to fit all openings.
You may need a couple for your home and they don’t have to be expensive. These are also pretty portable so they can be taken with you when visiting friends or family who don’t want the dog in certain areas too. A collapsed cardboard box is also a cheaper alternative but less stable!! Albus knows how to push ours over now!
Albus showing his boundaries even with cheese on offer!
“Out” Command
Perhaps you don’t mind the dog being in a certain room from time to time and don’t want to apply a blanket ban, but at times it will be good for the dog to leave. This is where the “out” command comes into its own. Maybe when someone that doesn’t like dogs enters the room, it’s good to have this trick up your sleeve.
It’s a very simple command to train. With your dog on the lead, call your dogs name followed by “out” and proceed to take your dog out of the room. When in position outside the room, repeat the command “out”, followed by a positive reinforcement marker and reward your dog with a treat.
Repeat the process on the lead until it becomes easier and easier to lead your dog out of the room. When you feel ready, remove the lead and try out your new command. It will take time and don’t be afraid of putting your dog back on the lead to go back to basics until it becomes second nature. Just remember to mark and reward in the right spots!