[wrenny]

My puppy is just hitting 6 months. He barks whenever he see's something outside on the other side of the fence. A dog walking across the street thats nearing 100 yards away, he'll bark until its out of site.

Problem is we have lots of dog walkers that do this at 10-11pm at night. Every night this weekend it happened. Not to mention we have a rabbit family that he barks at every morning at 6am when we go outside.

I go out with him and try to sway his attention when hes barking but I quickly pull him inside because I don't want neighbors upset. I live in a city area where I can touch my house and my neighbors at the same time.

I know hes just being a puppy and a GSD protector but how do you stop it?

 

[Maraccz]

I have the same problem...my guys are 7, 6, and 21 months. you said it tho they are german shepherds...it is what they do. I TRY not to let them by bringing them in when they start. This is not hugely successful as my husband will just let them bark.
Mostly you just need to stay on top of it and keep bringing him in when he does it.
I am have neighbor issues ATM...new neighbors, shift workers...all of my others have dogs of their own.

 

[wrenny]

Yeah. It's a good feeling of safety but sometimes annoying as well.

I fostered 2 GSDs overnight a few weekends back. They were here for one night and went crazy at anyone on the other side of the fence but the second they disappeared, completely happy.

It even startled me because they went crazy at me as I was on the other side of the fence but once I came in, all lovey dovey.

 

[mastercabman]

you could try the bark collar.i did on annie,she was very bad with other dogs.
she is much better now,but not 100%.
it does work.but you also need to control the barking yourself so that you don't have to rely on that colar all the time.
good luck.

 

[Castlemaid]

If you are with your puppy all the time, you should be able to teach a "quiet" command. I did it with my rescue by holding her muzzle gently and telling her quiet, and praising and rewarding. Once she started getting the idea, I stayed alert for things that would set her off and gave a quiet command before she even started, praised and rewarded with whatever works for your puppy: let it be petting, food treats, play.

This is a long-term training project: It took me over two months to teach a reliable "quiet", and ALWAYS interupted what I was doing to be able to re-inforce and enforce the command by being there to hold her muzzle, and to reward when she did quiet. This meant dropping anything I was doing, be it eating, being on the phone, working, getting out of bed at night(!!) to be very consistant with it. I looked at it as house-breaking, lots and lots of effort to to establish a solid behavioural foundation that would serve me and my dog for the rest of her life.

Once puppy understands quiet, he will defer barking decisions to you. Keeta won't bark if I'm outside with her (which I always am), and will actually look at me to defer decision making if something that normally makes her bark pops up (like people, cars, other dogs barking). As the leader, it is MY job to bark at things, not hers.
When in the house, she will bark at strange stuff to alert me, but that is all it is, an alert bark. She knows to alert bark at people coming up the driveway, people at the door, people yelling down the street, run-away-livestock in the driveway (I live in a rural area, my place seems to be a magnet for run-away livestock, like pigs, horses, and last year, a bull and steer that refused to be caught, and was finally shot by the owner! )

When teaching quiet, and your dog starts to "get it", he may just try to bark at stuff and give a bit of a growl-bark and look at you for a reaction. A small growl-bark in my book is okay. I praise Keeta for being quiet when she does it, and sometimes I just tie her out and go inside and let her bark her head off to get all that barking out of her system.

Bottom line is, she defers barking to me. If anything needs to be barked at, I'll take care of it!

 

[wrenny]

Maybe I should try this tactic with mouthing as well.

Thanks for the tip, I'll start asap!

 

[mastercabman]

also,you may want to teach her to bark on command.
tell her to speak,she barks,give her treat.
tell her quiet,she doesn't bark,give her treat.
just an idea!

 

[wrenny]

Biggest problem is he barks at nothing! Well to me it's nothing. Last night I was standing next to him at 11pm(pretty late) and letting him bark so I could find out what hes barking at.

I think I finally figured out that it was garbage cans at the end of driveways. He's not used to seeing those everyday so hes barking. He's very alert to new stuff in different places. When he finds something in the house that's normally not there, he sits and stares at it for literally 5 minutes. Like he's waiting for it to go back to where it came from. It's pretty funny.

 

[MaggieRoseLee]

Quote: Yeah. It's a good feeling of safety but sometimes annoying as well.

Not so much. If my dogs all bark all the time, my neighbors ignore it cause can't tell if it's cause the burglar breaking in or the squirrel in the tree.

Quote: Last night I was standing next to him at 11pm(pretty late) and letting him bark so I could find out what hes barking at.

And THAT is also why you are having this problem. My young pups have ZERO common sense of mass murder vs. trash bag blowing for true 'danger' . Will equally bark at both.

And then this is where the LEADERSHIP role comes in to control the barking. It is NOT up to my dog to 'decide' mass murderer vs. trash bag and bark until they are hoarse. While they may be surprised by something new initially, and bark ONCE OR TWICE, if I am there, that's it. Cause the barking should only be to alert me, as the leader, to the fact that something MAY be wrong.

Once I know something is up (and I have to say I normally hear the first and second bark so my dog can now knock it off) then we (or at least me) are going to explore the whatever. If I have to go first with my leashed dog behind me, that's fine. So when I near the scary new large plastic trash bag my dog can see that I am in charge, I am in control, I am dealing with the situation and everything is just fine. I am the Queen of it All and the Leader of the World! Follow me and we will conquer it all in a confident and secure way.

Once my dogs know this, they rarely bark unless something crazy weird shows up. Cause they think I am constantly as alert and aware as they are. And they've seen me deal with so many new situations they are confident that I AM the leader and will deal with it. So they don't have to be afraid and bark the scary new thing AWAY.

I love when I'm out and about and notice something that puts my dog off their stride! It's a challenge for me and at 'training opportunity'. How can I get my dog over it? Slowly? With treats? Confidently? Use distance? Explore by going first? Make happy dog noises so they know it's ok? Go home to come up with a new plan to try the next day?

Barking at everything and not stopping when I say to is NOT normal. It's NOT ok. And it is NOT coming from a confident, secure and guarddog type place. And it's my job to work out the issues with classes, seminars, socialization and leadership skills so I get my dog to be the dog I want it to be.

 

[mdlcb01]

it is a pleasure to read your opinions , they are so on the money!