Hi all,

I've noticed an interesting behavior lately from my 11 month old female GSD. I taught her to bark on command using Geeblout(sp ?) as the command. She has really been ripping the barking out. I hide behind a tree and encourage her to bark and flush me out... She does this very well. Well it seems she enjoys it so much she will come right up to me while im on the couch and look at me intently and barks her bloody head off.. I'm getting conflicting info.. I took her to a herding eval, and the dog sat in front of me and started barking at me. The herding instructor was really disturbed by this she even wanted me to correct the dog.. I thought this would confuse her. So why do you guys think my dog barks at me and should I discourage this behavior?

Did you also teach her a "stop barking" command?

Your dog thinks it is a fun game and you have taught this to her on purpose. She is "offering" this behaviour because she thinks YOU think it is desirable.

It would be like training her to sit and then later correcting her for "offering" a sit behaviour.

Your herding instructor probably didn't know you had trained your dog to do this.

You now need to teach your dog another desirable behaviour she can offer instead. If you are on the couch and she comes over and barks at you, IMO you did not ask her for any behaviour and she is demanding attention. In this case I would tell her to go lie down. (My dog will come over and sit in front of me and stare at me, wanting a treat, because he knows that when he sits he gets a treat. But I didn't ask him to do anything, he is just demanding a treat. I tell him to get lost.)

If you are in training and ask her to do something and she is confused and starts "offering" her barking, show her what you want instead (say "no, sit" and position her, and praise/reward when she is sitting quietly).

thanks for the quick response. I have taught her the no geeblout command and she does it usually. She just seems she gets a real charge outta barking at me. Oh and another thing, when i put her in here cage she will just stare at me for hours and once in a while she will let out a little "wooof" and i look outta the corner of my eye and she looks like she is waiting for a response from me.. Of course I ignore her. I guess i will have to teach her the "quiet" command.