First let me say, all of the experience that I've had with dogs has been with "pet" dogs. I've never owned or even spent much time around a real working line animal.

My question is about my 3 dogs... We have a 3 year old, rescued Black Lab/Beagle mix. A 1 year old pure bred boxer and an almost 4 year old, rescued German Shepherd. They're all fairly well trained in basic obedience, and fairly good at looking mean when they perceive a threat around us or around the house. But none of them are particularly good at determining what is and is not a threat.

For example... Deuce (lab/beagle) has terrible eye sight so he's a little nuts and barks at anything until he knows what it is. He started barking at popcorn in the microwave earlier. Sometimes he even barks at us if we walk into a room where he's sleeping without making a noise he recognizes. Lexi (the boxer) has recently started barking at our reflection in the bay window and sliding glass door at night. I tried to look from her perspective, and what she's seeing is basically a reflected silhouette of one of us walking around. But she *thinks* it's a bad guy walking around outside the window. And Titan (GSD) is a couch potato most of the time. He only gets up to be protective when the other two dogs tell him there's something to bark at (sort of the blind leading the blind).

I'm open to suggestions… any ideas how I can help them understand that something is not a threat without discouraging them from barking at a real threat?

i'm not a professional trainer, just a very experienced pet dog owner. here's what i do.

whenever your dog overreacts to something that isn't a threat, he is, whether you realize it or not, also looking to you for clues as to how he should react. so what i do is adopt a light, happy, silly tone, to let him know that i'm not afraid of the reflection, the visitor, whatever.

"silly boy. what is that? huh? what do you see there? you are such a goofy boy."

pretty soon he's looking at me and wiggling all over at the sound of my "happy voice." he might give a parting woof to the reflection in the window, but then goes and settles down. repeat as necessary. but i find usually they learn quickly that the perceived threat is not a threat by watching my body language and listening to my voice.

one book i read, "the cautious canine" (which i recommend) suggests singing "happy birthday" to the dog. whatever will get your voice and affect into a light, happy mood. the dogs really do pick up on this and drop their anxiety.

do this consistently with all mistaken threats and you should see them fall away.

That's basically what we've been doing. Sometimes, we start laughing hysterically. But so far, the dogs just haven't caught on. I should mention though, that we just moved so their whole world is shaken up a bit right now and that may be contributing to the recent spike in goofy behavior.

Alice: DNC (do not concur). What you describe is a reward mechanism for the behavior, not a deterrent. The corresponding decrease in "anxiety" may not be that at all; in fact, it's probably a positive response to the reward you administer. That's fine, if you want the behavior to continue (that which is positively reinforced is more likely to occur again).

The rationale you state is sound, in that the dog cues on the handler. Along those lines, the dog could just as easily cue on you not reacting at all to the perceived threat. This method also avoids inadvertently reinforcing the behavior.

Ryan: The change in environment will definitely have some effects. Wait a while and let them adapt.

that's fine, captain. in my long life, i've found there are so many competing philosophies in this realm, i've given up arguing over them. what i'm doing has worked very well for my dogs, and helped them get accustomed to lots of "strange" phenomena. possibly you are reading something into what i'm doing that isn't there. i agree it would be a mistake to praise the dog in such a situation. a happy, "up" sounding "what is that?" is fundamentally what i am recommending.

if this isn't working, or doesn't end the behavior with your dog, then try something else. different handlers use the same tools differently, and not all dogs respond the same. it can take a while to uncover what works for you and your dog.

i agree that the new surroundings are probably a major contributing factor and the dogs need a chance to settle in.