To prevent your dog from following you around the house or avoid getting dirty or making mischief in a room of the house, you want to forbid him access to it. But you don’t know how to proceed. So here is an article specially dedicated to teaching your dog how to ban him from a room in the house!
Why ban a room in the house for your dog?
First of all, forbidding a room in the house to your dog is part of the initial learning process of solitude. Indeed, you should know that the beginning of the learning of privacy starts at home, by creating to teach your dog to be under the same roof as his master, without necessarily being in the same room, to be alone, but not wholly, that solitude will be experienced more serenely by the dog.
Forbidding a room in the house thus allows the dog to learn to evolve alone, to become in a way autonomous, while keeping the security aspect: “my master is not far away, I know it, I feel it”.
In addition, setting up a “no-go” room in the house helps avoid the “glue syndrome”, you know, those potty dogs that follow their masters everywhere, and sometimes even into the bathroom. It may be cute and funny, but believe me, it hides a substantial emotional discomfort in the dog, and it will lead to many other problems later on.
I invite you to consult our article: My dog is sticky: what can I do? to learn more about this plague that is the “glue syndrome”, as I like to call it.
How do you ban your dog from a room in the house?
Step 1: Choose a room that your dog will NEVER be allowed in. This is not a matter of choosing a room to ban that your dog will, from time to time, be allowed to go into.
Step 2: At the beginning, always keep the door of this room closed (or put a barrier if there is no door, I think of the prohibition of a floor, for example) to not put the dog in a situation of failure during the training. However, the door or barrier should be opened/removed quickly so that the dog understands that it is not allowed to enter, whether or not access is possible. In other words, your dog must voluntarily stop at the doorway without stepping over it.
Step 3: For the actual training, get some rewards like treats or your dog’s favourite toy. Take your time, don’t do this on the spur of the moment, between appointments. Work with your dog, don’t wait until the problem arises and you have to deal with it “on the fly”.
Step 4: In concrete terms, cross the door threshold by giving your dog an indication such as “you stay”, for example.
Step 5: You then have two options:
Your dog cooperates, stays in his place while you enter the room. Come out of the room and give your dog a hearty reward. It is essential to leave the room before rewarding your dog for good behaviour. Indeed, if you start to reward (even if only verbally) your dog for respecting the indication, he will be tempted to come towards you to get his reward and, thus, to enter the room.
If your dog follows you despite your indication, then say firmly “no”, put him back in his initial place, say again “you stay”, and repeat the exercise.
If your dog does not manage to respect the “do not move” indication, I invite you to resume learning this notion by reading our article specially dedicated to understanding the “do not move” declaration.
Warning!
Be careful; the exercise should not last too long; prefer short but repeated sessions, as regularly as possible. I recommend 5-minute sessions several times a day.
Additional tip
In addition to prohibiting access to a room, don’t hesitate to work on the indication “in the basket” to teach your dog a prohibition but also a fallback solution. It’s good to say “no,” but it’s even better to say “this is no, but this is ok”. So, when you enter the room that you have forbidden to your doggie, tell him “no” and “to the basket” so that he is a goal, a mission to accomplish in a way. Don’t hesitate to read our article dedicated to learning how to say “to the basket”.
