This isn't exactly basic obedience but I wasn't sure where else to post. My GSD is a very discerning barker: he only barks when someone comes up on the front porch or to the back gate and he only barks when someone's home with him. I'd like him to hush once he's sounded the alert and I'm on it. Any suggestions on how I go about teaching that?

Nice to have a dog that only barks when there's something to bark at! Before my great border collie experience, my family had owned Shelties since I was in my early teens. I swear, if you could Google "cute but bloody annoying breed of dog that barks its fool head off at cars/people/dogs/cats/trees/food/planes/clouds/leaves/birds/vinyl siding/its own fur" you'd get approximately 150,000,000 Shetland Sheepdog sites. No lie. But I digress.. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

What worked best for me/us is a distraction technique. Once the dog began to bark it was immediately called away from the door or window and told to sit (in the 'front' postition, its back to the door and facing the person who called it.) Once its attention was taken away from the door, it was then quietly praised and given a treat. The trick was to act calm, no raised voices (so the dog didn't pick up on any anxiety or change in behaviour from us when the doorbell rang) and make sure the dog's undivided attention was on the person with the treat. It didn't take long until the dogs no longer viewed the doorbell as something to go nuts over. They'd give a bark or two as an alert then search out the nearest person in the house for food.

It worked pretty well with our food-crazed dogs, hope this is useful.

I do what Corey recommended with my dogs. They don't divert their attention until I call them to me, but they now come to me calmly instead of jumping over the couch, trying to go through the front window to get to the object that they're barking at.

Thanks for the suggestions but since I posted there was a prowler around the house about 2am and I decided Rosco can bark all he wants. Once we're at the door and I down him he quiets so I'll just deal with the noise from the back of the house to the front even if it wakes people up. Can't risk ruining a good thing! Anyway, the UPS man is trained just to throw the packages up on the porch and wait for me to come to the truck to sign.

My husband who is still really not into the dog thing became a believer last night because Rosco sounded two alarms and he heard something outside just before Rosco took off to the front door the second time. May there be no more discussion regarding the cost of Kongs!

No kidding! Those darn things are expensive! Worth it though! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> Good thing he alerted you!