My new 8 month old GSD barks incessantly during training, I don't know how to correct him without confusing him.

I recently acquired a German Shepherd pup at 7 months of age. He was started in obedience work and drive development from the kennel I purchased him from. He was originally being developed for police work or high level sport. I just want him for family companion / protection work. Unfortunately I didn’t have the opportunity to develop this pup from 8 weeks old into my training and drive development or capping where necessary. When I received him he didn’t have bite inhibition or an out. He’s 8 months old now and though it’s been difficult working against his instilled training and development into my own training system I still have one training problem that has me stumped. In obedience during position changes especially from a distance and on recall he will bark incessantly. I don’t know how to correct that without confusing the dog thinking I’m correcting him for his obedience rather than his barking while correctly doing his obedience work.

Cindy's Answer

I think if he's 8 months old and you've only had him for a month I would not be doing position changes from a distance at all. Instead of letting him continue the barking, put him on a leash and keep him right in front of you and reward quiet position changes. I also wouldn't put him in any stationary position and call him to you right now. I would do informal recalls so you can reward the recall and not have to let him think barking is part of the exercise.

I'd highly recommend some of our training with food material, take him back to basics and create new associations with training. You may even want to change your position and recall commands to make things more clear for him. I hope this helps.