Alright here's the deal. I have this 4 month old czech bloodline GSD that has a little barking "problem." I have ALL of the leerburg videos pertaining to my dogs age (8 weeks..., basic dog..., raising a wor..., etc) and have searched and searched this board, and read all the Q and A and haven't really found an answer I think fits my situation.

The dogs crate is in my room, it has always been in my room. I live on the 3rd floor of an apartment with 2 roomates. Now, my puppy isn't a psycho barker at all. Most of the time he'll go in his crate and when I walk around the room, go outside of my room (granted I close the door behind me) he wont bark. He loves his crate and will jump in there willingly. But every now and then he will bark for 2 or 3 or 5 minutes when he just seems to be saying "dad, come on I'm in here again, let me out." Usually he'll settle down, but I'd really like to stop the barking all together. One weird quirck is that he barks when I go to the bathroom (even when I leave the door open so he can see me) but not if I run the shower. I take him to work with me, where I leave him in a crate in the bed of my truck for a little bit when I first get there, and he'll bark then if he sees me.

Once in a blue moon on a bad day of both his and mine I might say "No" when he barks, which will shut him up temporarily, but about 99% of the time I just ignore it, don't look at him, nothin. Everytime. I feel like this shows since he never really barks for that long.

But basically living in an apartment complex with roomates who aren't total animal people, it's gets on their nerves sometimes which stresses me out big time. So I just want to know, is this just puppy behavior? Should I be doing something differently? How much longer will he do this before he gives up altogether? I've thought about using a no-bark color since Ed recommends them, but I realize they're not for dogs under 6 months of age. But might this be an exception?

I want him to be a schutzhund dog, and he definately has the prey and food drive. But I just NEED him to have manners. If I had my own house it would be different, but living in a communal setting I can't tolerate too much crazyness. What are your thoughts?

For me, I always used a modified crate training thing. Since I KNOW my pup is a pack animal, and KNOW they want to be with me when I'm home, it's not surprising they bark/whine if I leave them crated when walking around the house. They want me, so they call to me, and since I'm 'obviously' deaf and an idiot, they KEEP barking to get me.

Instead, I only use the crate at nights, when it's beside my bed and I can IMMEDIATELY correct them if they bark or carry on. And last thing when I'm leaving the house.

Otherwise, I either leash the puppy to me in the house, or close off all the other rooms with the doors or baby gates so I'm always in the same room with the pup and can monitor the play and the housebreaking.

My dogs love their crates. I still use them at dog shows. And so that's what worked for us. (and my neighbors appreciated it also).

Hi Jeff, 3 to 5 minutes of barking for a 4mo. old doesn't seem excessive to me at all, throw a kong filled with whatever you want to put in it, and keep ignoring him. as for the roomates, if they think a couple of minutes of barking is "crazyness" and they're not animal people, that's likely to be a bigger problem in the not to distant future, when your pup starts acting like a jerk, you really don't expect a 16 wk. old puppy to have good manners, do you? maybe get new roomates, puppies are chick magnets, <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> enjoy the puppy stage, it's over way to fast, good luck, AL