A good dog will always keep you on your toes! Perfect is no fun.

 Quote: karissa tepp

The Problem:

1. He anxious barks if someone comes in/knocks on door
2. If I try to correct him, he SCREAMS bloody murder and bares his teeth at me

He barks frantically if someone knocks on the door. They come inside. He keeps barking frantically. I understand this is a guarding breed, and I don't mind a few barks, but it needs to end at some point.

First thing I would try to figure out is if the dog is doing what he's doing because he's overly reactive, or if he's doing what he's doing because he's saying "F you lady, try to stop me and I'll nail you".

Based on the rest of your post, it sounds like he might be overly reactive, but I don't know the history, based on other parts of your post maybe there is a dominance issue?

First thing I would not do is let him bark/scream for "a few barks" Reality is, if you want the barking, it will be there. Especially with a vocal Mal. So for now, I'd stop it immediately. Sounds like he has a good "place" command, so the second the doorbell rings I'd be telling him "place" and making him go there. Don't even open the door until he's on his place and if he leaves it after you open the door, go and put him back. Let your guests know you are working on training the dog, so they may just have to wait a moment. Maybe even put the "place" at the opposite end of the house from the front door. And he can stay there, until he settles down and shuts up. Then he can come out and "meet and greet". Any barking starts again though, put him right back on his place, until he learns that only quiet/calm behavior is going to get him his freeding.

I have a very reactive puppy right now that I'm raising. Vocal is her middle name. When she barks, if she doesn't shut up when I tell her to, I squirt her with a water bottle. A friend uses Bianca spray with her extremely reactive dog. Something hands off, that breaks the "spiral up" cycle, and gives the dog a second to think.

But I am also spending a lot of time teaching her turn it on and off on command. I take her to training, let her watch another dog at the end of the leash, and scream/bark her head off. For 10-15 seconds. Then I call her, make her down, and stay there quietly for 10-15 seconds. Then I release her to go be an idiot again, call her, release her, etc. We've been doing this for a month or two now, but she's getting very good at it and will come to me when I call her, lay down, stay down (I give her food rewards), occasionally look over her shoulder back at the action, but not leave until I release her.

It does sound more like your dog is just very reactive, but a reactive bite hurts just as much as a dominance bite. However, I'd consider taking him to a trainer to have the situation evaluated so you really know what you are dealing with. Because how I would react to the situation would depend on if this is dominance, reactivity, or a combination of both. And I can't really tell based on your post.

Have you thought about teaching an appropriate greeting behavior? With my Collies it was to sit until told to "go say hello." Then they would go sit in front of the guest and offer their paw to shake hands.

Thanks for all the insight everyone!

I forgot to mention that "place" was not the command I used to SEND him when the doorbell rang, he is in the place command period if he is in the house...

We've been working on it, and some days it goes better than others. His energy is much more relaxed now that he knows we want him to be calm in his spot inside the house.

A few days ago I needed to wash the blanket that we use for him to lay on, so he was allowed to roam around the room for a while. He kept going to the "place" spot looking for his blankie and looking up at me all puzzled and confused. Then he went and stood in that corner until I brought the blanket back! :P