My dog loves my 70+ year old houseguests, but he also barks at them when they walk away or walk to the bathroom at night, its like he's fine with them being here as long as he can run around them n play with them, but the second they leave his sight he seems to get very edgy n alert, he very clearly doesn't like me having free-range guests in the house, n when he first saw my male guest his first instinct was letting out a growl, but this instantly turned into wanting to play with him, wagging tail, jumping up, etc. I'm confused about what my dog's doing. I like the fact that he's not happy about strangers being in the house, but out of courtesy to my guests I feel I should make an attempt to stop him barking at them when they leave his sight or walk to the bathroom at night. I don't want to teach him that everyone that comes into the house is ok - but like I said, I want people to be able to stay at my house (however rare houseguests are for me) without them thinking "oh god he has that dog that keeps barking when I walk away, let's not stay there".

How do I teach my dog that these specific people are ok, but not everyone is ok and that his barking at strangers being in the house is a good thing, but not at THESE strangers? I'm still amazed he growled at my male house guest, he's usually super friendly to everyone, he's getting older I guess and he's starting to use his judgement instead of assuming that everyone's his friend.

Your questions depend on what you want from your dog and what kind of training you have planned out.

"Back to basics"-I would start by teaching him the out command, which also means stop barking. I can't speak for everyone, but to me OUT means get it out of your mouth, even if it's a bark.

So you want your dog to magically guess who's friend and who is foe? Not gonna happen that way. You can teach him to alret to people only when you say so. That's one option. If your guests are thier regularly, he should become familiar with them and realize they not going to harm you or him. If your long lost pal comes over, and he's only going to be at your place for a few hours, use your obedience commands to control his behavior. Such as; DOWN,STAY.

The bottom line is, you know your dog better than anyone, be a responsible dog owner and make sure your guests are safe at all costs. If that means having him on a leash when you have guests, then thats what you gotta do. Don't worry about "making the dog less protective" by correcting him for barking at your guests.

AND, remember, you are the leader, you decide when play time begins and ends. Maybe that's not clear to your dog and thus causing him to bark out of frustration, or to get more attention when people walk away from him after playing with him. Teach him.

So are you saying that is is not reasonable to expect the dog not to bark even though the guest came over (assuming hours ago), and the dog has observed you comfortably interacting with him?

Of my 3 gsd's my working line bitch acts like this too sometimes. My daughter has a male friend that my 10 month old pup has met quite a few times. Last night she was fine with my daughter and her friend while they were sitting down in the family room, but every time he would get up she would bark at him. Not quite sure what that's all about?? Any ideas on how I should handle that. Thanks.

Chris,
Of course it's reasonable for a dog to bark, that's what dogs do, they bark..lol
I'm just saying, step back and look at the situation. There is an appropriate time for the dog to bark and there are times when barking is uncalled for.

I don't know, I guess it depends on what you are willing to tolerate.