Is there anything that creates more chaos and mayhem than doorbell rings? Especially if you have more than one dog! Let’s start a trend. Do away with doorbell-ringing. Text your dog friends!
We’ve started doing it ourselves. Whenever we go to a friend’s house, especially if they have dogs, we text “I’m here!” rather than marching up and ringing the bell. Even if our friends live in restricted-access buildings, we avoid the intercom/doorbell system and just text when we’re at the door. They can buzz us in without their dogs being the wiser.
Calm is so nice
Eliminating the excitement of an arrival leads to much calmer, better greetings and visits. If everyone can behave casually, there’s no reason for the dogs to get wound up. Just this week we had a great demonstration of the principle. We brought some homemade cookies to a dog training friend who’s laid up with a badly-sprained ankle. She also has three dogs who, putting it mildly, greet visitors with enthusiasm.
Instead, just by taking a moment to text rather than ring the doorbell, we gave her more peace. She was able to take her time to get to the door safely, without her pack dancing around her feet and possibly tripping her. Since she already knew who was at the door (we were!) she didn’t have to say anything or call out. She also knew that, as fellow dog people, we’d secured her fence gate when we came in. Worries alleviated.
Small sample, good results
It worked. The dogs were curious about who was there, but they were pretty calm. They gave us a sniff and a wiggle. We gave each a treat and then the dogs just went about their business. We had a nice visit and then left as peacefully as we arrived.
It sparked this idea for a national, or possibly international campaign to “Text, Don”t Ring!” The biggest issue we can see is identifying the residences with dogs versus those without dogs. One solution would be for us to hang a sign on our door saying “Text, Don’t Ring.” We saw one like that with a second line something like “what the dogs don’t know won’t hurt you.”
If the person at the door doesn’t have your number to text, chances are you didn’t want to see them anyway. Ages ago our neighborhood doors almost all sported “No Solicitors” signs. It may be time for a door sign revival.
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