Hey everyone. I have a general dog training question regarding barking.

My male GSD is 7 months old now, and is doing very well with basic obedience, leash skills, and socialization. When we're out walking he does a great job of not interacting with people unless I allow it, and I never allow him to interact with other dogs (except for my neighbors' dogs which I know very well; they play great together). So when we're walking and pass people and dogs, he stays calm and walks right with me.

When he's in the yard though, it's a different story. He'll charge the fence and bark at people and/or dogs as they walk/run by. I've got 2 questions about this.

1. Is this behavior associated with a certain "drive"?

2. If I do start to correct this behavior, should I be concerned about squelching that drive (or protection instinct)?

Thanks in advance.

 Quote: Joel Smith

Hey everyone. I have a general dog training question regarding barking.

My male GSD is 7 months old now, and is doing very well with basic obedience, leash skills, and socialization. When we're out walking he does a great job of not interacting with people unless I allow it, and I never allow him to interact with other dogs (except for my neighbors' dogs which I know very well; they play great together). So when we're walking and pass people and dogs, he stays calm and walks right with me.

When he's in the yard though, it's a different story. He'll charge the fence and bark at people and/or dogs as they walk/run by. I've got 2 questions about this.

1. Is this behavior associated with a certain "drive"?

2. If I do start to correct this behavior, should I be concerned about squelching that drive (or protection instinct)?

Thanks in advance.

http://leerburg.com/bl100.htm

My two Dobies are both GUARDY of the house, the car & me -- I live alone, so I do WANT this behavior, especially Indoors at Night ... But I do NOT want Nuisance Barking out in the yard !!!

So I bought two "no-bark ecollars" from Leerburg shown on the above LINK

These are THE BEST -- My dogs learned on DAY ONE that there were No More bark-a-thons Allowed (Period) while wearing those ecollars ... This is a GOOD form of being "collar-wise":

With their "keep quiet" collars ON, they do NOT bark -- When NOT wearing these ecollars, they WILL bark while on Guard Duty ... It is NOT confusing to the dogs & does NOT inhibit their Territorial Barking while un-collared

What "Drive" is this ??? I dunno, LOL, I'm just a pet owner -- I might call it 'den guarding' or 'pack defense' or 'territorial drive' ... They want to run off intruders & scare them away from our property (whether 2-legged or 4-legged) by aggressive barking & charging displays.

What's happening is more then likely simply barrier aggression and it's common in most dogs in a house or behind a fence.

Meeting the same dogs or people outside the fence will most likely be a totally different reaction.

Most dogs today don't have a strong protection instinct without good training.

A dog from good working lines "may" have the instincts but still require good training for the job.

That's exactly our case!

Our braindamaged dog doesn't react on people or dogs passing by, but the other 3 do it fiercely. The bigger Pit runs first to the spot, where the possible "intruder" is, the others follow. But they all never bark at people or dogs when we are on a walk.

Inside the Yard though, the smaller Pit barks for hours during the night. Since we have kennels it is all much better. But one of the Pits is always free within the Yard. My husband wants it like that, because we have already been attacked once by a burgler.

The problem: like that we can not supervise them and teach them, when they have to stop barking. They seem to see it as their job to guard the area, In my opinion this can have at most a certain deterrent effect on intruders.(??? )

A no-bark collar would not solve the problem in this case, because my husband wants the one who is lose to bark. At the same time it enerves him awfully.

I'd be very very happy to hear your opinions/experiences about this. Though I doubt there is a solution. Either we put all four in their kennels or we support the noise.

If a barking dog isn't disturbing anyone other then the walkers and other dogs going by I wouldn't worry about it.

I'm worrying about my hubby, because the barking annoys him so much. He wants to unite two contradictory things: Barking and keeping them quiet. LOL. I know, this isn't a problem which can be solved from someone else. He has to make a choice for what seems more important to him.

Fortunately the neighbors here don't feel disturbed, for almost anyone here has dogs in their yards, who bark when someone/somedog passes by.

 Quote: Christina Stockinger

I'm worrying about my hubby, because the barking annoys him so much. He wants to unite two contradictory things: Barking and keeping them quiet. LOL. I know, this isn't a problem which can be solved from someone else. He has to make a choice for what seems more important to him.

Fortunately the neighbors here don't feel disturbed, for almost anyone here has dogs in their yards, who bark when someone/somedog passes by.

Bob Scott has GREAT SUCCESS teaching his dogs the "!Be Quiet!" command -- In other words, he may allow a Little Bit of barking, but then says something like "!Enough!" and they STOP ... That's way above & beyond my Training Skills

So, if I had a dog on Guard Duty at night OUTDOORS, then I would obviously NOT use a No-Bark ecollar on it -- But I would use an owner-activated Remote Control ecollar:

http://leerburg.com/EZ-900.htm

After a few barks, command "!E-Z!", and if the dog Continues Yapping non-stop, give it a NO-NONSENSE stimulation -- You must be able to Accurately Judge what your dog sounds like if some Intruder is actually TRESPASSING on the property & then allow the guard dog to Escalate its Aggressive barking at that time ... But for nuisance barking, give a Serious Stim if it does not obey your "!E-Z!" command.

IMHO, husbands are much More Trouble than they're worth, HA-HA

If my dogs, now dog starts raising hell in the back yard a simple tap on the window shuts them up.

I can't really say how or when I started doing that.

I probably tapped and hollered "quiet" and just started cutting it short with the tap but it's been successful for many dogs over the yrs.

Does that mean they will stay quiet?

Depends on the reason they are barking but if they start again, the tap shuts them up again.

Haha..works for mine too, BOB.
I know for mine it will also call them back up on the deck if they are over in the side yard out of my line of sight.(not necessarily barking)

Oh God, Candi, that's what I'd like to achieve. My dogs know the "Quiet!" command PERFECTLY, haha. In the training sessions.

Another thing is real life. I've tried to train it, it worked with one dog to a certain extent and only with little distractions. But not with all three barkers together. (The fourth, thanks God, rarely barks.)

I know, a question of gradual training. But I have to train a lot of other things too, so I don't find the time. Besides this I would have to be oonsistent 24 hours! I can not get up all 3 minutes in the night. They'd learn in the night that excessive barking is allowed.

Thanks for the link. Sounds very tempting. It would be probably be useful when we have guests, the dogs are not used to. So we could have them with us, instead of putting them in the kennel.

But I doubt, that at night the signal would penetrate through the walls?? And even if, I would have to stay awake. Sometimes I do need some sleep.

By the way: "IMHO, husbands are much More Trouble than they're worth, HA-HA." I'm glad you said this and not I! He'd put a non~bark collar on me! Without joke: Trouble sometimes referring to this topic, yes! But he's still worth some trouble. Don't know exactly why.