That… actually seems like a really smart idea?
I bet you these dogs used to bark like crazy whenever someone approached the door. Training an animal to stop doing something is way harder than training an animal to start doing something most of the time. So, solution, train the dogs to start doing something like, say, picking up a pillow whenever someone approaches the door, and as a side effect, they don’t bark at the person because (a) they’re distracted searching for the pillow and (b) it’s kind of hard to bark when you’ve got a pillow in your mouth.
that’s seriously brilliant
My parents’ dog has a whole crate of stuffed toys, and he picks one for every visitor. The beagle toy is the default, but he will often dig through the box trying to find the right toy. He often brings me the crocodile which I bought for him, or a large frog. He also has four pigs, and those are for special friends. Only family members are greeted with the biggest toy he has, the Great Pig of Honour.