Dinner is not finished for your dog
You see dirty plates. Your dog smells a tasting menu. Even a scraped plate carries films of sauce, fat and meat juices that your nose barely registers and his finds intense, and the open dishwasher concentrates those smells at exactly his head height. Warm steam from the previous cycle, drips on the door and the clink of crockery all announce that something food-related is happening in a spot he has learned to patrol. Licking the door is not defiance or poor manners in his mind; it is the final course of a meal he watched you eat. Each load that ends with a few successful licks pays him for returning to the same place tomorrow.
Why loading time is the perfect storm
Timing makes this habit sticky. Loading tends to happen when the household is relaxed after eating, your hands are busy and your attention is on stacking rather than on him. He can linger, lick and wander off without anyone consistently interrupting, so the behaviour rehearses itself nightly. Some dogs also learn that being underfoot during loading earns dropped scraps, a pushed-away pat or a laughing reaction, all of which count as rewards. The dishwasher itself becomes a cue, like the fridge door: the rattle of the rack rolling out predicts flavour. Breaking the habit therefore means changing what that cue predicts, not just telling him off once he is already licking.
A redirect that gives him a better job
Decide his job before you open the door. Send him to a mat a few steps away with a long-lasting chew or a stuffed food toy, then load while he is occupied. If he leaves the mat to head for the plates, calmly walk him back, re-settle him and continue, keeping the whole exchange boring and brief. Position yourself between him and the open door where the kitchen layout allows, because blocking access quietly beats repeated verbal nagging. When the door closes, release him from the mat and praise the wait. Within a week or two of the same sequence, most dogs start taking themselves to the mat when they hear the rack, because the mat is now where the good thing reliably happens. Photograph the mat position that works best if your kitchen is small, so a partner or older child setting up for dinner copies the exact arrangement instead of improvising a new spot nightly.
Keeping plates, dog and household in agreement
Hygiene is a fair concern: plates he has licked will be washed hot, but detergent pods and rinse residue on an open door are not things he should be licking, and sharp cutlery in the rack adds a practical reason to keep his tongue out. Store pods out of reach and load knives point-down away from his side. The redirect only works if everyone follows it, including the person who finds the licking funny and sneaks him a plate to clean. Agree the mat routine as a household rule. KinsLe supports that shared approach neatly, as Care Teams lets you set the dishwasher routine as a daily task and tick off each settled load, so no one quietly goes back to plate-sharing.