My white swiss shepherd shepherd will be 1 in a couple of weeks and has recently decided his job is to guard the house. I feel like I'm letting him decide how to go about doing this and would like some advice or suggested training resources on how to hone the behaviour.

The behaviour is not a big problem, but I don't feel like I'm in charge. He spends most of his indoor time in a 10 sqm pen in our living room. When guests come he will have a good woof and if ignored he will normally settle down and relax within a minute or so. Recently though he has also started barking if household members go in and out and sometimes if he hears a badger or similar outside.

Don't get me wrong, I want him to guard the house and let us know when there's someone about, but I would like to be able to reliably switch it off. Especially when he's woofing at a badger outside and our 2 yo is asleep. She's used to it, but it makes her jump and say "man coming". Adorable.

Just looked up white swiss shepherds, what beautiful dogs!

I don't have much experience compared to others here, but are you sure it's a guarding behavior and not looking for attention or nerves? He is still fairly young.
At night I would think it was an alert, but the barking with your family could be something else.

Our GSD is 1yr 10 mos. and discovered her 'big girl' bark around the same time. We spent a few months walking over to look out the door or window with her and then giving her the OK at which point she ignores whatever it was. We use 'ok' as a release for other things and most of the time would distract her and reward to make sure she didn't refocus. She seems to have settled into that behavior easily with practice. We often have somewhat scary people in our neighborhood so for us an alert bark was not something we wanted to discourage.

You might also search here for teaching your dog to bark. I have read others suggestions that the way to teach quiet is to also teach the opposite.

Just some thoughts to get you started- best of luck!

 Quote: Marit Winther-Janson

My white swiss shepherd shepherd will be 1 in a couple of weeks and has recently decided his job is to guard the house. I feel like I'm letting him decide how to go about doing this and would like some advice or suggested training resources on how to hone the behaviour.

The behaviour is not a big problem, but I don't feel like I'm in charge. He spends most of his indoor time in a 10 sqm pen in our living room. When guests come he will have a good woof and if ignored he will normally settle down and relax within a minute or so. Recently though he has also started barking if household members go in and out and sometimes if he hears a badger or similar outside.

Don't get me wrong, I want him to guard the house and let us know when there's someone about, but I would like to be able to reliably switch it off. Especially when he's woofing at a badger outside and our 2 yo is asleep. She's used to it, but it makes her jump and say "man coming". Adorable.

http://leerburg.com/barkcollars.htm?nav=dropdown&content=shop_05022017

Hi Marit, and welcome to the board! I think there are a lot of people here who would like to help you, but I feel like we could use a bit more information from you in order to really give you the proper advice.

The first question I have is: How much exercise is this dog getting? I am concerned when you say he spends most of his time in a pen in the living room. A young working breed dog needs exercise, exercise, exercise. It is needed for physical health, of course, but exercise is also of great benefit to their state of mind.

The second question is: How much structured training has this dog been getting? Are you familiar with marker training as taught here on the LB site (and practiced by most of us)? I'm talking about training in general right now, because it will all play into your ability to control his barking.

You say you feel like you're letting him decide how to go about with what he's doing and that you don't feel like you're in charge. General training for household manners and basic obedience commands will go a long way in your ability to communicate with your dog. There is no magic way I can tell you right now to stop him from barking, or to only bark when you want him to. That doesn't happen overnight, it will take time. It can be taught, but the training foundation must be there. That foundation of teaching him how you and he will communicate with one another through training is a very necessary prerequisite. There are no shortcuts.

The consequences of not training and exercising a young, large working breed dog can be very unfortunate for everyone involved.

So that's a long-winded way of asking you to please let us know what type of training and exercise regimen your dog is on now.

Ditto with Cheri!

Exercise and structured obedience.

With Marker training the dog can learn that good behavior will be rewarded and and non compliance is consequential.

Marit, are you still with us? We need a little more information in order to try to help you.

Sorry, I posted a long reply but it doesn't seem to have worked, first time user issues. Let me try again.

Re training and exercise regimen. We have used marker training since we got him at 8 weeks. So that process is well established, I'm just not quite sure how to break this one down. Do I mark woofing and silence? Should I try to create artificial scenarios and then treat real life scenarios as distractions? He doesn't bark at much so not sure how to lure the behaviour.

He seems a very content dog, I don't think this is a nervous tick sort of thing. These days he gets 2 x 45 min walks in the forest. 2 x 30 min play sessions in the garden with ball/tug/search play. 3-6 x 5 min obedience training sessions. Time to explore the house freely when we can supervise him and set him up to succeed (read not eat toddler toys) . The pen is in the middle of the living room so he is very much a part of the family even when confined and he gets chew bones and puzzles to entertain him in there. He seems to relax and seems quite content in there.

Right let's hope this post goes through! Thanks for all the advice so far!

Okay, so it sounds like you are doing marker training and it is working well for you in other aspects of your life with your dog. It also sounds like he is getting adequate exercise. Your dog, being a Swiss shepherd, is a dog that was bred, in part, to be a family protector -- and I don't mean in the sense of a guard dog or protection dog, only that many of the working and/or herding breeds out there have this natural instinct to be alert and attentive to their surroundings and to warn off predators or intruders. It sounds like you understand this and do not want to completely eliminate it. Good! Your dog is at that age, transitioning from puppy to adult, where these instincts are starting to really kick in, so now is the time to teach him that you appreciate his vigilance, but you are still the one in control. A solid training foundation is necessary for this, and it sounds like you have a good start.

Over the years, there have been many threads here on the board covering nuisance or excessive barking. In the spirit of me not trying to reinvent the wheel here, I am going to start by referring you to some of those threads. Here's a good one, and even though there is discussion about the use of a no-bark collar, I'd like you to consider trying other methods first. I am not against no-bark collars, in general. I think they are appropriate for some dogs, in certain circumstances. Sometimes, they are absolutely necessary, for example, you live in an apartment, you're away at work full-time, and your dog barks all day long. But I'd suggest you first try to teach your dog what acceptable behaviors you expect from him, using tried-and-true positive reinforcement training methods, before resorting to an aversive training tool.

Please thoroughly read the posts by Connie Sutherland, starting at page two. What she describes is very similar to my approach with a barky dog, but she is much more articulate than I could ever be. There is such a wealth of information to be found here through the search options. I'll find some more links when I have a bit more time.

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=18973&page=1

As a follow-up, I feel like I forgot to ask you one important question. What are you doing now, if anything, to try and stop the barking? Is there anything that works or anything that makes it worse? Knowing this might help with specific suggestions in your particular case.

Also, please feel free to post any questions you might have in response to the above thread I linked, after you've had a chance to read it.

One thing I would say is that if a person is caring for a young dog, and a toddler, that I think sometimes a person can get into the habit of paying attention to them in the same way.

If your toddler yells out, you respond. The dog makes a ruckus, you respond.

Maybe a little time of NILIF for the dog would be good. Not EVERY time a young dog "demands attention" ( barking with a 'someone's there' voice demands attention ) should that dog get attention.
Maybe putting the dog away in a crate part of the day, getting him out for training and play only, when YOU decide you have time, might be good.