hi all.

as some of you know i have a female 6 month old gsd. my sweet girl is turning into a monster.

any time she hears a knock at the door she starts to bark and runs to the door. if the door is open she will run towards anyone coming into the house, barking with hair up most of the time. once she reaches them she will still bark but goes to them sniffing them and all. will even let them pet her, but she still will bark and have her hackles raised.

if it is family that is coming home she still will bark even after she sees who it is and will some times run a little past them like she just knows therre is some one else coming that does not belong..

now don't get me wrong, i want her to protect the house and family, but does this behavior seem odd to anyone? is it to a degree that i should worry??

she also does this when we are out side the houe, at the park,,, anywhere it seems like..

on one hand i think it's a nervous act but the way she charges whoever it is it seems like she is meaning business....

thanks in advance for any comments and advice

Bounette <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Bounette:

Your "sweet girl" is maturing and entering "the punk phase". I also have a 6month GSD sweete <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
and await this phase to begin. However; depending upon where she is in the realm of obedience training plays a major role in how you handle the described behavior. Could you further elaborate? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I have a 9 mo male in the "punk phase" I'm really glad I focused on Obd in the early months, it has paid off with "Somewhat" control. But now is a great time to really make an impact on who is boss. Better now then later when he really is strong.

well Barbara, i did start very early with her teaching her commands. every one says to wait until she is a bit older to start enforcing the rules with corrections so i have just used food and toy pretty much. unless she is not listening i grab her up and she gets the idea.

but, what do i do when she does this? :

if the door is closed and i don't know who it is, then i just let her do her thing and when i get to the door i tell her to move and she does pretty good with that i guess, but still continues to bark.

if the door is open and it is plain to see after a second that whoever it is is someone she is very familiar with either family or neighbor. i tell her no....she still continues to bark. sometimes if i hear them and catch her before the fact. then i put her in a down or call her back to me then put her in a down...she does it but still continues to bark.

tell me this. she is now 6 months like i said. is now a good time to start with corrections and the proofing stage of her obedience or should i still wait.. i have a prong for her and use it with walks because she likes to pull, and the choke collar does nothing for her except help her choke herself :rolleyes:

the thing i was worried about was that everyo one was going to say " oh no your dog has got some really bad nerves".

You should definately teach your dog "Quiet" or "Shush" or "Enough". Barking at the door when the doorbell rings, or the window when someone passes by (like the mailman) is good. You want her to do that. But enough is enough. A couple of minutes of "alerting" is just fine. More than that is annoying, at least to my way of thinking. I guess it depends on what you are potentially going to do with her. I cannot answer "sporto" questions.
Being an obedience issue, I would leave a coller on her and a short leash or one of those tabs, but only when you are around. Learning door manners is a must. She should sit when you are going to open the door. If you have to tell the people outside to wait a minute, so be it. Treat her when she sits nice. She should still sit until the people come in the door. Then you could tell her "Say hello" and allow her to sniff the visitors.

hi caniche, thanks for your response.

yes she does know the quiet command, but she does not listen. she will see me giving her the eye and hear me giving the quiet command but it's like she just has to keep on woofing.

so you do recommend i start her in the proofing stage of her obedience with a prong collar at 6 months of age??

Have you tried the "Quiet" "Good quiet" with food held right in front of her muzzle. Hold it tight in your fisted hand and don't let her get it until you repeat those words a few times. That way she listens while nibbling and trying to get the food. Then reward for staying quiet.

If she won't stay quiet for food or isn't listening to a command that you issue and you know she knows, then I guess you have to progress to the next level. With my dog saying the word "ENOUGH" or "QUIET" in a louder/sterner voice (after the initial teaching of the word with food) was enough. Your pup might need a different level, but you should be sure she knows the command word before you correct her for not listening to it.

bounetteyvette,

You stated she does know the quiet command, I'm not a huge fan of avoidence training, but sometimes it is needed and is effective, I think like myself you need to use it in a limited fashon. Such as the continued barking at the door when she dam well knows to be quiet, she is getting over on you here. Here is how I would deal with this.

First have someone you know help you, tell them when you hear the dog "Yelp" from the correction knock again to get her barking. Have this person go to the door and knock as usual, when you dog starts to bark, encourage her as usual when you have had enough tell her "Quiet" (or whatever you use) give her one second to comply, then yack that prong collar, enough to make her say "WOW!!!" ok time to shut up! Your friend should then knock again, when he/she does encourage her to bark again. This way she knows that you still want her to bark but when you say quiet, that means quiet period. Tell her quiet one more time and repete correction if needed, then open the door and let your friend in and that's it.

You can do this a few times if you need to. I promise you that she will respect the quiet command from that day forward. I have used this for my out problem and it only took 2 times, "For now" I'm sure he will need a refresher course in time. (Thanks Sch3FH2! I'm passing the love on)

Just make sure you can back up the quiet command when you give it for awhile... if you can't correct for it, don't say it until she learns.

I almost forgot the most important thing! Use your best "Alpha Dog" body language when issuing the command quiet, stand straight and tall, all puffed out then say "quiet". Make sure your body is saying "I'm the Alpha Bitch here!!"

I’m not thrilled with advice that has someone "yanking" on a pinch collar on a six-month-old puppy. You can do some physical damage to the dog by yanking hard with any collar at that age. With a pinch you can freak the dog out with the high level of the compulsion. Of course this is subject to the interpretation of the word “yank.” But to me it means a pretty strong hit with the leash.

As far as the comment, “You can do this a few times if you need to. I promise you that she will respect the quiet command from that day forward.” It’s been my experience that doing this gets you a dog that will stop barking as long as he’s on a leash but he soon learns that when he’s not on a leash you can’t correct him. There’s only one reliable way to do that consistently. (Most of you knew that this was coming, didn’t you? LOL.) That’s with an Ecollar. Used properly, and that’s not just by blasting him when he barks, it will give you control of the barking.

Hi Lou,
I respect your post and think the e-collar is a viable solution and I also hold you in the "Upper class of dog trainers" but I feel I should clarify my post a little for you. "Yank" simply menaing to use the leval of correction that fits ones dog, this means it could be a tap on the collar or a 7 yelp correction. I also stated "Limited" meaning use as much as it takes to get the point across and no more.

I am going to disagree with the dog will disobay when no collar is present... if correct learning has taken place, no collar will be needed and that's a learning fact. I'm sure the same could be said for e-collar use... "if it's not on the dog will not listen" and I doubt this is the case with dogs you work on the collar yes?

Avoidence training is avoidence training no matter how you wrap it up and put it under the tree.