The occasional barking they don't mind. Our chocolate lab will bark non stop. So I'm worried that a high drive gsd might do the same.

Duane, we have a member with dutchie that barks non stop and he uses a bark collar at night and just tells his neighbors to F off during the day. That's where I got the idea from. It doesn't effect his dogs barking in schutzhund.

I think at nine weeks what he's doing is pretty normal, I would probably treat it as an outdoorsy separation anxiety. I would also just gradually get him used to being out there, throw some super high value treats in there, etc. If there is another dog barking they will feed off each other.
We used to suggest for dogs that barked excessively in outdoor kennels, to try putting up some plywood on the lower half, sometimes if they can't see the leaves blowing it will stop them, it will also help muffle any noise. jmo.

Honestly, I think if you're proactive in training and management then you can teach him to settle in his kennel. Teach him to settle in everyday life, give him short rewarding kennel sessions now, block his veiw of things that set him off as he gets older. After you've proactively covered those bases, if issues arise, then use a bark collar as needed. Reading the description of the DS at your club - I really wonder about a person's managment style or a dogs temperament if the dog barks all the time except when it's wearing a bark collar. Honestly, owning a dog like that would drive me batty.

Jodi, I actually thought about putting some plywood all the way up all 4 sides of the kennel to see if that would muffle it some.

Mara, Well, the dog was recently given to him by the original owner and that's who actually handled the dog that way. I was just trying to keep it simple. The current owner is one of our helper/trainer. He doesn't do that with the dog. I'm not exactly sure how he handles it at home but the dog barks, not non stop, but close to it in the crate at the field. His obedience and protection work are awesome though.

I've run into a bit of similar trouble with my GSD pup (20 weeks old tomorrow). She crates very nicely at night, when I am gone (camera system shows her sleeping), and in the car. When I am home or if she comes to work with me, she barks her head off.

At home, I don't worry about it so much because she does eventually quiet. She does get some fun things to do, like a stuffed kong.

At work, I have a crate set up and everything yummy is in there. She is learning to keep herself occupied while I work, so I have some things like bully sticks, etc. around. In order to eat those, she has to be in her crate. We've worked up to her having her chewies and the door being shut with me being in the room. She also gets special toys in there. She'll happily stay in the crate and busy herself/sleep while I'm in the room. I can leave the room for about ten minutes before she barks now. This progress has happened over the course of about 3 eight hour work days...quite quick all things considered.

I have used a bark collar with my older GSD, who likes the sound of her own voice. She'll bark no matter how much exercise/stimulation she has had. I think it helps her to stop barking while it is on, but hasn't taught her a thing. I actually prefer a regular e-collar. I wouldn't put either on a puppy though.

I do want to address one thing from the OP...

Being a high-drive working line GSD will not make the dog any more likely to be a barker. Actually, the better-bred dogs are typically more stable.

I'm with Mara on the management aspect. That is also the reason why I originally did not understand the neighbor's concern. Obviously, any neighbor would want you to silence a non-stop barker.

Ok. I'll start working on it now then. Hopefully that will work. Maybe I'm jumping the gun on this. Just wanted to be prepared rather than scrambling to come up with a solution if it happened.

One other thing to remember; the handler at your club is having a differentn a young developing dog issue than you, if I read your posts correctly. He has a dog that has developed a bad habit, which may possibly be the result of how it was trained to bark for sport. IMHO, that may be different from suppressing a behavior in a young developing dog, especially a behavior that you may want to recall later.

More experienced sport handlers may have seen it done differently. I wouldn't even want to chance it if there was any other alternative. Bite suppression doesn't usually inhibit bitework, so I could be off-base.

That is one of my concerns because I did things with my rottie before deciding to try schutzhund with him that I believe inhibited things in his bitework. One of them being barking. That's the main reason this pup is going to be primarily outside once he's old enough. I want to make as few mistakes as possible. His dad was on qualified for the nationals when he suffered a back injury and had to be retired. There are many many dogs on both sides of the breedding that were national champions and world team competitors from several countries. Plus there are at least 2 really good dual purpose K9 dogs closely related to him that are very good at what they do. I know its still a crapshoot with a puppy but at least I know I'm starting with a solid breeding and I want to take this guy as far as I can in the sport.