# Barking at neighbors and house guests



## LedZep (May 4, 2008)

My 8 month old has developed a fondness for barking at neighbors when he's outside (or any noise he hears) and also now takes a defensive posture to house guests. 

He is starting to get the idea with "No! Quiet" when outside, but it still takes a few minutes to quiet him. When people come in (even people he knows) he has the watch dog bark for a good five minutes or so until he settles down. I don't want to use a tactic like having guests give him treats because I don't want him to just automatically be friendly (part of the reason for having a GSD is to scare the bejesus out of unwelcome guests, right?). I want him to take a que from us and hush when told to hush.

I know that practice, practice, practice is the key - but what have others tried that worked (or didn't work) to help control "greeting" behavior?


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## sprzybyl (May 15, 2008)

I'm attempting to teach my 5 month old to bark on command. Then I can teach her a command to NOT to bark. Does that make sense? 

We're still in "the process" so I can let you know how it goes...

She barks at house guests and neighbors but quiets as soon as she makes contact with them. Same as you- i don't want to change the "alert" that someone is around, but i know even with the friendly introduders not everyone wants to approach a barking GSD!! i need to find a way to make her stop if I want to!

I'm curious to see other's responses


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## LedZep (May 4, 2008)

I like that concept....


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## HomeYield (Jul 11, 2008)

We're relatively new to GSD's so take it with a grain of salt, but from one book I read, they're trying to alert the Alpha that there is something suspicious going on. We live in townhouses so we have quite a few numbers coming and going. Our dog parks when there is another door opening and closing. They would primarily bark at the door, so we started getting up and looking (that generally quieted them) and saying, "I've got it." Now, if they bark at a noise outside, they'll keep it up until my wife or I say we've got it, even without us getting up to look. 

Now with guests, it's a different story. We've not yet figured anything out yet, in that regard.


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## LedZep (May 4, 2008)

HomeYield - interesting take also. Might even be a good sign for those of us trying to constanly reinforce our pack status with our pups!


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