A while ago I talked to Will about wanting to work on some not-PPD but commands that would give me a bit extra time in a bad situation and intimidate.

And then I haven't worked on this enough and I need too.

I plan to teach Teagan an alert bark - end goal she stand in front of me and bark on command.

I decided to start with marking the bark.

And herein lies my problem. Teagan barks in 2 situations (short of some quick 'I have to pee' barks that are pretty rare):

-feeding time. She yips.
-if she is not monitored and is looking out the window, sees another dog. Since she can't get at it, she starts barking.

So - the first situation. I don't want to mark yips for a 'guard me'. They're not very intimidating.

The second situation - I've worked hard to 'bring down' Teagan in these situations and get her to lessen the behaviour. Given how aggressive she can be.

So....the only barking that actually sounds intimidating is barking in a situation I'm working to lessen/extinguish.

Is it a mixed message, given that I'm trying to stop the behaviour, if I start marking the barking with 'guard me'?????

Teagan's unique history certainly complicates things, doesn't it?

Anything I would do would revolve around agitating the dog, which doesn't seem like an option.

I'm curious to see Will's recommendation...

She has no frustration of prey bark?

Does Teagan bark when people knock on the door? If not, maybe you can encourage it with a "what is it?"? I got Duke to bark at the door like that.

Never thought about having him do it on command though. Just basic marker training? I'm intrigued.

When you do get this worked out (and I have every certainty you will) don't make the mistake my buddy did.

His dog barks ferociously, hackles and looks incredibly mean upon the command "protection".

Unfortunately, she does all this while facing HIM, and NOT the aggressor! Oops. If you're going to teach a dog to do exactly as you ask, better make sure you ask the RIGHT THING! LOL.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!! OMG, that's hilarious.

Well, if it's a small dog she sees, it's probably a mixture of prey/territoriality frustration. I'm assuming the way she went for the kill in the attack (disembowling) is predatory....I don't even know, and I should, now that I think about it.

She's certainly not angry in the traditional way you'd think of a dog being - she does think of aggressive behaviour - vis-a-vis dogs, anyways - as fun.

I've never seen her be aggressive towards a person. I've seen her be very forward, and she did 'chase off' a guy in a mask coming towards us at midnight in a park once (I was sort of frozen in fear....she was sniffing the tree, on leash, looked up and saw him and ran towards him body and ears forward, and he took off).

edit: actually, that's not true, when we lived downtown she did try to go after a guy coming up a side street towards us on a walk. no idea what provoked it (it was snowing and I wasn't wearing my glasses) but she went for him. Again, silently.

But she's not a very vocal dog. Only when she's been frustrated in an aggressive aim, or the food yips.

Scott, she doesn't always bark when someone knocks at the door. If Luc starts barking she might contribute a bark or two but she stops almost immediately. Hummm....argh!

I think she would be good at this b/c she's already confident around people and picks up on when she intimidates them (which I've never loved, but will likely be handy here), but I want to make sure I don't accidentally mark aggression I've worked hard to contain.

That's a great story, Alyssa. I got a great mental image from that one.

Jennifer, when Duke first started barking at the door I could almost hear a question mark at the end of each bark. That was before I started doing marker training and just said "good boy" while rubbing his shoulders. It didn't take long for him understand. Now, he barks his fool head off until I say "enough"...thanks for that one, Alyssa.

I know what you mean about the aggression issues. Duke's shown fear/territorial aggression a few times (five total) and I certainly don't want to perpetuate the fear aspect of it or him just lighting up on his own.

Teagan's aggression issues aren't fearful - she enjoys trying to kill and trainers have told me that based on how she behaves and the way she attacked that she's an experienced killer. It's been a huge amount of work to get her to the point she is and give her new behaviours instead of being aggressive (which I know if she got the chance, she'd go for the attack. She can never be trusted).

I just don't want to undo the work I've done with her....I'm not sure how to proceed.

 Quote: alyssa myracle

When you do get this worked out (and I have every certainty you will) don't make the mistake my buddy did.

His dog barks ferociously, hackles and looks incredibly mean upon the command "protection".

Unfortunately, she does all this while facing HIM, and NOT the aggressor! Oops. If you're going to teach a dog to do exactly as you ask, better make sure you ask the RIGHT THING! LOL.

Oh, I LOVE that story!

If you search for GSD OLLIE on YouTube, there should a few videos of her.

I am very interested in Will's suggestions, too, with this dog's background.

I am wondering about training a one-bark alert. Does he have a deep scary bark? I understand that you want both alert and display, correct? And that display is dangerous territory with this dog.

But a one-bark -- if the dog has the right "voice," then that might be enough to give pause to an aggressor, alert you, and not agitate the dog during teaching it .... ?

My dog has a one-bark alert, after which I respond (and I always always respond) by coming and looking and saying "it's OK."

(My reason for the one-bark alert was close neighbors all around.)