Can a GSD still bark while wearing bark collar. Does the collar know the difference between a real bark and a habit bark? What good is a guard dog that can't bark? I have my dogs to protect my property but for some reason they just bark at nothing at night. My neighbors are complaining.

They can still bark with a collar on, but they receive a correction each time they do. To a collar, a bark is a bark though there may be some products that respond after so many barks in a row (but the dog can pause and then start again)
Have you trained a "quiet command for your dogs? This would insure that they won't bark when you don't want them to, but can still alert you if there is trouble.

How much exercise is your dog getting? That made a huge difference in decreasing the amount of barking that my Kira did.

Keep them inside at night?

Yes, dogs can, and will, bark with a bark collar on.

The collar doesn't know the difference.

Dogs outside in a neighborhood bark at night. It's not at nothing. It's at all the nighttime activity.

Do they have a kennel they can go into?

Why can't they come inside?

What do you do with them during the day?

I'm kind of thinking your expectations might be a little high...

Dogs can bark through a bark collar.

I felt really badly one time when Coulter was wearing one. I heard him bark, then yelp, than bark, etc. Normally, if he's wearing the collar, he doesn't say a word. That night, he was actually barking at a prowler at the back fence. He has not worn it since. If he (or anyone else) barks, I go out to see why, then do what's neccessary to stop it. ie: distract, 'quiet' command, bring them in, call the cops - whatever.

 Quote: Ty Anderson

Can a GSD still bark while wearing bark collar. Does the collar know the difference between a real bark and a habit bark? What good is a guard dog that can't bark? I have my dogs to protect my property but for some reason they just bark at nothing at night. My neighbors are complaining.

If your looking for a guard dog, I wouldn't go with a no bark collar. That defeats the purpose right. Are you sure they're barking at nothing? or just something you can't see or hear?
I bet their hearing and sense of smell is probably a little bit better then yours or mine.

Limit the distance of their vision, perhaps its time for a fence. Which will also help in your security needs.

Then you have on the other hand, you can teach a dog to alert bark when they see a person, and have to be quiet any other time. You have to be careful with that though, it can backfire out in public when you don't want them to.

My house is up on a hill and all of the sounds travel up. I can hear a dog barking in the distance and my dog just keeps barking back. I have 2 GSD and they take turns. One will be quiet while the other barks and if I get that one to be quiet 30 minutes later the other one will start. There may be something still going on that I can't hear because I do live in the foothills. So do I have to train them to know the difference and only bark when people are around.

Are your dogs kept outside at night? In what manner are they kept? ( Tied, kenneled, run ... etc)

Do you want your dogs to bark at people at night? Do you want your dogs to bark at children? Do you want your dogs to bark at animals near your house? Do you want your dogs to bark at your friends?

These are things that your dogs learn to differentiate over time, and with the proper guidance from their leader.

When they bark, you should be checking to see what they are barking at. If there is nothing that you can see or hear, then they need to be told their "quiet" command, whatever that happens to be. Use marker training to teach, and proof the command. After your absolutely sure they know what the command is, and they are choosing to blow you off, then you can use corrections. Yes it's going to be a pain starting out, but over time it gets better if your doing it right.

You only correct for disobeying the command, not for barking. It needs to be black and white for your dogs, and your dogs must know the command for quiet, or they could interrpret it as your correcting for barking.

One last thing, when your dogs bark and you go to check, I would make an effort to see or hear anything that might be out there. They might be barking for nonsense 1000 times, it's that 1001 time when someone is actually out there and they're doing what they're supposed to be, then you correct them and it sends mixed signals. Which confuses them, and your training is going to be alot harder. Just be sure.

I used this method with my girl, and now I know when anyone is in my driveway , walks into my home, my neighbors are outside, or someone is outside my fence. Intensity goes way up if someone walks onto my porch and she can't see who it is. She only barks when something of that sort is going on though.

I work for an e-collar company and there are different types of bark collars..Meaning how they are set to work. Some ramp up in intensity, most of the Innotek ones do this. So not one for you. I would look at Sportdog or any one that "you" set the level of correction. You want to stop nuisance barking. But want the dog to bark if someone comes around. A lower setting will stop the dog from nuisance barking because he is mostly barking to bark and the e-collar correction will annoy him uncomfortabley. But it will let him bark when he really needs to and he will most likely not even feel the correction. ie training my dogs e-collar correction works on a low setting to stop unwanted behavior but takes a higher correction when the dog is chasing a deer, he doesn't even feel a low correction. For you though you'll have to play around with what level works for your dog, high enough to stop nuisance barks but low enough to let him bark when needed.