My young dog is in Schutzhund training and doing exceptionally well. Her barking during protection training is great but away from training she barks at new people and dogs. How can I fix the excessive barking without affecting her desire to bark during training?

I have a 13 month female GSD. She has been in Shutzhund training for 9 month and she is doing exceptionally well. Her barking during protection is very aggressive and I am happy with that. However, away from the training field she barks at new people, not a I’m going to bite you bark but more like a hey I’m not sure about you bark. New dogs however she has a violent bark until quite some time has gone by and they get comfortable with each other. My question is how can I fix the excessive barking outside of training without her losing her desire to bark during training? Last thing I want to do is hinder her progress and aggression while on the training field. This happens when she is on leash walks, outside her domain. Also, when in the car and our home.

Cindy's Answer

I would treat this as what we call 'reactivity'. Working on this should not interfere with your IGP training at all if done properly.

It's quite common in GSDs and many of the herding breeds, when they are leashed or behind a barrier (window,car,fence)

We have a really good course by Tyler Muto called Leash Reactivity that will teach you how to work on it which I have linked below, it covers the leash barking.

For the car and home issues, I don't allow dogs with this tendency to look out of the car windows. I would use a sheet or blanket to cover their crate in the vehicle and at home use baby gates or close blinds so they can't practice looking out the windows and barking.