We have since a few weeks almost the whole day workers here and have to leave the front door open, as they have to transport constantly cement from outside. Means for the dogs: they must be tethered all the time. Except when I go for a walk or train them. But this too means they have to be all the time on-leash.

If I'd let them free, Socks, the more active Pit, would bolt out and the Labmix, whom normally can be lose even with the door open, then follows her. Gladly they sleep/relax a lot but at the end of the day the really get fed up with this. Socks begins to bark awfully and continuosly. But also during the day she barks a lot under those circumstances.

I've been recommended from a trainer (not LB) I should use the CALM FREEZE. Has any one ever heard that expression? It means to calm the dog down going to him but ignoring him. no look, no word, no touch.( (But going to him and crouching down beneath him is not ignoring, it's already giving some attention. Isn't it?) Hold the fingers slightly under the colar underneath the chin and wait like this calmly is in my eyes also a touch . All this in order to transfer my calmness to her.

Well I tried it and I really was calm. But she didn't calm down and resisted my touching her underneath the colar. She let herself fall to the side and then turned on her back. I would have had to use force to continue, which can not be the sense of that method.. So I let her go.

Why didn't she calm down? Is it the wrong method? Is it, because I have tried that "Calm Freeze" the first time? Would she have needed to get used to this in some less excited situations? Or should I have given her a time out?
Or should I have put all dogs from the beginning in their kennels?

I really love to learn something new. But I'm not really convinced, which perhaps is unjust, as I must admit that I perhaps expected success without having started at a much lower level,

All comments are very welcome! Thanks to everyone for giving me his opinion.

I've not heard either good or bad about Calm freeze but turning on her back sounds like submission/stress.

I own up to never having heard the phrase 'calm freeze' but I am not well versed in all things dogs.

I'm not sure you are talking about dogs barking when strangers are coming and going in the house or a general issue with barking.

If it is the former, I think I'd be more tolerant of the barking. I have no problem with 'strangers' fully understanding the dogs are present.

If it is the latter, and a general issue with dogs barking, I'd work on more basic commands like down, for a long down. My experience with only my mutts, over the years, is that a long down is a quiet down, until released. I have kind of an extreme expectation for down, in that it is down until I release.

If I work with a dog and it goes onto its back in a situation when it isn't looking for a tummy itch, I'd be concerned I was being too demanding, and the dog was being submissive as a negative reaction to my approaches to training.

My experience with calming a dog starts with it focusing on me. If it focuses on me, to the exclusion of the distraction or unwanted behavior, it redirects its energy and gets rewarded for it. I don't reward first and direct later but that's because I am a bad person, probably.

Make no mistake, I dote on my mutts but expect that my commands will be followed.

In truth, I'm not exactly sure of what you are trying to accomplish. Then too, I have never heard of 'calm freeze.'

Hi Mike! The Calm Freeze I have from an online course. I think it is just an expression which is used there. I didn't name the instructor, because I don't know if this is allowed and I didn't want to lead anyone of you in the akward situation of critizising him.

I was talking about the situation when we have people (here workers) whom the dogs don't know. The same thing happens, when we have guests they're not familiar with. But I'm almost sure the reason of this awful never ending barking are not the strangers, but because Socks is chained. My other Pit, Slippie, too, but because of the fear of the workers. Fortunately Slippie calms down much quicker, she is generally no great barker.

To put a dog in a down stay during a training session works quite well with 3 of my dogs including Socks, IThey don't break it , also with me going out of sight for a while and with some distractions.

You bad person convince me much more than the method of Calm Freeze. I also trained my dogs to focus on me and to redirect. A long down under high level distractions though will never calm down Socks. (Not yet) She will break it long before I release.

I think my mistake was not to train this enough with gradually increasing distractions. I guess I'll have to go back to such exercises.

What Bob says: "it sounds like submission/stress", could also easily be, but I have more the impression Socks thinks I'm coming to play with her, as she is certainly bored.

Thanks a lot, Mike and Bob for you're comments. Great help to think things over.