# Does Your GSD Bark?



## DeadEye (Nov 9, 2016)

I was just curious to see how many yes there will be, my puppy is 16 weeks old and he doesn't bark except for very rare conditions


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## Julian G (Apr 4, 2016)

don't think too much about it. some bark more than others.


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## DeadEye (Nov 9, 2016)

Oh no I'm not worried about it I'm just curious 


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## CatChandler (Jul 25, 2016)

My puppy didn't bark until she was 6 months old. She also started to grunt and groan around that age. Took her to the vet to see what was wrong - nothing, she just learned to vocalize.


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## Nikkia (Jul 27, 2008)

Mine bark very seldomly. It's to the point that when they do bark it sometimes startles me because it generally isn't without reason. Although GSDs are sometimes known to "talk" a lot. Kavik, my GSD - Husky mix is my little chatty kathy, she is also my tantrum throwing dog. Haha I'm sure most of that comes from the Husky side of her. Nikkia, my full GSD, is more of the silent type. Doesn't talk much, doesn't whine much (unless she thinks we're on our way to the beach! Haha) and rarely barks.


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## Nurse Bishop (Nov 20, 2016)

It depends. If it is about dogs barking in the distance or the horses running or our milk cow the dog is given the Enough command. If it is someone walking or biking on the road down there it is investigated, then suppressed. If it is the aggressive bark while leaping into the air this is checked out with the What Is It command. The What Is It command is seldom used because it is so important. She used to do mindess puppy barking while riding in the truck, barking her head off at other dogs or people in a parking lot. She no longer does this at the age of 10 months.


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## Lilian Meyer (Mar 14, 2017)

Bea only found her bark around 6 months, scared the **** out of me because she sounded like a fully grown male GSD. Before that she yapped a bit when we played and that was about it. 6 months is apoarently when they start to develop their insticts to pritect, and will usually bark at loud noises or someone driving up the driveway etc. Before that time, though, I'd have to say apart from barking when playing around, they don't generally bark much, in my experience.


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## astrovan2487 (May 29, 2014)

Copper rarely barks, she is still very vocal though, she makes this weird yodel or grumbly noises like she is trying to talk to me, it's pretty amusing. She even has different yodel phrases for different occasions. The only time she will bark is when she's really excited, when she sees me grabbing a toy or during protection training. I think many dogs bark out of boredom but there's also dogs that just bark a lot regardless.


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## SamsontheGSD (Dec 23, 2016)

Samson started barking at strangers coming to the door around 4.5 months. He barked at the cat a few weeks prior to that, but only because he wanted to play. He doesn't bark at people or dogs when we're out and about, and generally isn't much of a barker.

He does talk a lot though. Very vocal.


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## np307 (Feb 22, 2017)

Roscoe is still young (14 weeks) but he finds stuff to bark at. He barks at his ball if it rolls away from him. He pulled over a fireplace screen today and was not happy about it. He growled and barked at it for 5 minutes afterward. He has started half-growling-half-barking when cars pull into the driveway, but he doesn't go crazy or anything. And then, of course, he barks when we're playing.


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## Grez (Feb 11, 2017)

My 14 week old GSD Male Puppy barks occasionally but not often. Normally when I tell him off for been naughty and tell him No! It's like he's trying to back answer and argue with me....lol ?


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## Shooter (Nov 19, 2016)

Mr Ranger is a talker but he loves to bark at cars that have the audacity to pass us when he is in the back of the jeep. (Im a slow driver too.)

I have heard the phrase all my life... "Thats just enough food to make you mad.". Well I have seen him clean his food bowl the get mad and start barking at his bowl when its empty. Its fun to watch that little show. He is the Jethro Bodine of GSDs.


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## car2ner (Apr 9, 2014)

my boy has a nice deep bark, like James Earl Ray. My she-pup has a high sharp bark that take people by surprise, and subsequently scares them. She also likes to "talk" she has a range of vocalizations that almost sound like she is trying to make sentences. Today she had a low rumble that turned out to mean,"come over here quietly and look. there is something in the next door yard..." There was a deer standing by the fence. 

My boy will also "tell secrets" on demand. They bark when signaled. My next attempt will teach them how to count my fingers up to five. I taught my ridgie mix to do that many years back.


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## akared (Mar 6, 2015)

Mine only barks when some one is at door or can hear some one outside.


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## tim_s_adams (Aug 9, 2017)

My puppy didn't bark at all when I brought her home at 12 wks, and honestly I was a bit worried about it. When people came to the door she'd run over to the door and sit wagging her tail. Even when the neighbor's little dogs barked at her she'd just look at them.

One night, after she'd been with us a month or so, I was taking her outside to do her business, and the neighbor was out in his yard uncharacteristically late in the evening. She spotted him immediately and barked and advanced toward him. So I stopped worrying. 

She's now 8 months old and she still is very quiet for the most part. But she's very good at picking up on things that don't seem right. And when that happens she let's them know she's watching!


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## Grez (Feb 11, 2017)

My GSD rarely barked but now he has just turned 6 months and he's always barking at people going past my house and other dogs he hears. Quite often I'm sat hearing nothing and he jumps up and starts growling and barking at stuff I can't hear. ?


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## RZZNSTR (Jan 24, 2015)

Does my GSD bark?


Does a bear poop in the forest
Is a pig's hind end pork
Is the Pope a Catholic
Is a frog's butt water tight?


Moderately! yes!


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## Misha111 (Oct 31, 2016)

My pup has the biggest bark for a small girl. Thankfully she saves it for people at the door. My last girl barked at everything if she had the chance!!


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## montse (Jun 21, 2017)

Mine doesn't bark all the time, but whenever she hears a dog in front of our home or something she doesn't like, she barks. This can also happen when my husband or I (mostly I) are upset about something and we raise our voices.

She can also be very vocal. This morning she was hungry and when she saw we had finished breakfast she started whining because she wanted to eat her food. It's funny to see, although it's not a behaviour we encourage.


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## KaiserAus (Dec 16, 2016)

He doesn't bark often, he will bark if we take too long to make his food or if we are putting something particularly yummy in it. He is very chatty tho and has a range of noises that he makes to get your attention or to get you to play or when he is playing... almost like a bear cub noises... very cute.

He is also naughty in that he will go up to the fence where two staffies live, and bark once... that is all it takes to make the staffies goes mental, they bark and growl and launch themselves at the fence... he looks very pleased with himself for getting such a reaction from one little bark... he gets told off for doing this though and brought inside. The staffies owners do nothing.


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## Heartandsoul (Jan 5, 2012)

My boy use to have the strangest vocal sound I ever heard. It was as if he was trying to quack like a duck but in a high pitch Barky Whiney tone. He only used that bark to try and get our elderly girl to play and once in a great while the cats. It must have been a puppy bark as he hasn't barked like that in years. Wish I had gotten a vid of it.

He reserves barking for alerts while in the house or on property. Chooses to stay silent while out and about.


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## BOSKY (May 14, 2016)

I feel like this is one of those, "Does a bear poop in the woods" type questions, where it's rhetorical and the answer is obvious. 

My GSD barks. He has different barks for different situations. If he's in the house and you're outside and he doesn't know you, he will bark at you. He will bark at you if you walk by our fence. But if you're in the house or in the backyard, he won't bark. He will just bring you his ball over and over again. My GSD also has request barks. If it's quiet and squeaky, he has to use the restroom. If it's demanding and he is looking right at you, he's hungry or has to go to the bathroom and this is my final warning. If it's kinda whiney, he wants to play. If he sounds like a hyena or a monkey, it's because there is a dog outside that he wants to play with. If it's aggressive and in quick repetition, there is a person outside who shouldn't be there. That's the classic GSD bark. 

He does not bark all the time but my GSD does bark. However, there is always a reason for it and if I pay attention, we get along just fine.


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## Kalie92 (Aug 17, 2017)

My puppy is only 4 and a half months old. She found her bark really early (at 3 & 3/4 months old). She barks at my neighbours gsd, she barks and whines on walks, she grunts when she lays down and she grunts and moans whenever she gets a fuss. She is a very vocal dog, and being that we live in a quiet cul-de-sac, I don't think it will go down well with the other neighbours.


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## Pan_GSD (Oct 2, 2016)

all the time...
with even the slightest acknowledgment from my part...


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## Richmond Custodio (Jan 28, 2017)

I have a 1 year old shepherd but when he was 6 or 7 months he barked like crazy. He was just curious dog. When a car would drive by, he would bark. When a mouse moved, he would bark. After bringing him everywhere and socializing him, he only barks at big people he doesn't know (weird I know). When we go hiking and lets say a man that's 6'5 and pretty built walks by, he'll start barking. I don't know why to be honest lol oh and he'll also bark at night when homeless people sleep near by (on the other side of my wall is a bush that homeless people love to sleep at.


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## El_rex (Jan 14, 2016)

Mine barks rarely. Sometimes he emits random barks when someone at the door. Barks when heavily teased by other dogs, but he's stable enough to mostly ignore them 
Interestingly, he didn't bark until the age of 5.5 months. His first bark was induced by swan's attack..


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## Jenny720 (Nov 21, 2014)

Max will bark when someone he knows is at the door. I can tell if it's a friend or family as he wags his tail and doesn't bark. He barks at the sprinkle system when it goes on at night he looks forward to doing this to- it makes a screeching sound like something is under the ground. If I put his leash on he will just listen to it and contains himself. Luna will often do a perimeter bark in the yard when I first let her out -from any wild life i suppose -I never saw a dog who will bark and pee at the same time.


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## tryzub (Apr 7, 2017)

so funny mine is just like it, the stare of "hey buddy you forget something" is unreal. The warning bark to unknown people is like a loud growl gets folks attention in a hurry.


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## Dunkirk (May 7, 2015)

My dog has a very well developed guarding instinct, no one comes to the front door without him barking. Every 2 months we have our lawn treated, Nitro doesn't bark at the man spraying our yard. 

Nitro whines underwater, I didn't know dogs could do this. It happens when he finds a (stuck) large branch or small log underwater and he's trying to pick it up, so I can throw it.


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## Stormy (Apr 14, 2007)

Storm would fall under the rarely barking category. Now Berrin would fall under the bear pooping in the woods category. Storm howled at sirens while Berrin barked at sirens. Lucky for us the fire chief lived just up the road from our house lol. Berrin barked at blue jays. They always and forever seemed to piss him off lol. He was much more talkative with the family as well. From his play barks, perfectly timed sighs and huffs. He would even slip in that last little bark when he got the enough command.


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## stepkau (Jan 4, 2016)

Sully was 5 months before he found his voice. Now he barks when people are at the door, when he is anxiously waiting for his food, and when the kids get too far away on walks.


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## lonestarghost (Oct 3, 2017)

*Ghost barked as soon as we brought him home.*

When we first introduced Ghost to our cats, he let out this tiny little puppy bork. When he saw his reflection in the oven window, bork. He barks when someone knocks at the door. He gruffs at people walking by our house at night or early in the morning when it is still dark. Once we weren't getting off the couch fast enough to let him out and he barked to let us know he needed to go RIGHT NOW. He is fairly vocal and will howl at the town sirens. He sometimes "talks back" to us. We manage it by teaching the "hush" command.


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## GandalfTheShepherd (May 1, 2017)

Huh looks like our guy is that 1.27% that doesn't bark lol. I keep wondering if it's an age thing, he is only 10 months right now do they start barking more as they get older? I can't remember. Personally I like a dog that barks at the door... deters people. My husband hates the noise and says he prefers a dog that looks out the window quietly, he thinks it's creepier and would scare off more people. Funny enough I was able to teach him to bark on command but that's the only time I ever hear a peep out of him.


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## Levi T (Oct 10, 2017)

Use to be worse but has got a lot better, he will bark at anything at that moves at night, and sometimes at cars driving down the road other then that its not to bad.


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## Mihai (Jan 14, 2018)

Mine started to bark at 6 months old at a lot of things: other dogs barking (close or in the distance), stray dogs roaming on the street, neighbors, cats (not mine, but stranger cats on neighbors' territory). It seems to have gotten worse now, at 8 months old. I'm trying some desensibilization and "Quiet" teaching, but I don't really know if it works. Hopefully she'll get used to at least some of these stimuli in time.
Oh, and this:


Lilian Meyer said:


> Bea only found her bark around 6 months, scared the **** out of me because she sounded like a fully grown male GSD.


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## andywhite (Dec 18, 2017)

I got my GSD puppy when he was 2,5 months old. And he barks from the second day! Like a fully grown dog.

First time he did that I was like WTF?!?!? He noticed my confusion and started twisting his head and lifting his ears, like they are doing when they are trying to figure something out. It was like: BAAARK!!! "WTF What was that? Was that really my little fluffy puppy? Or was that from outside?" "What are you confused about human? I'm GSD!"

And barks ever since. Like at least every 2 hours.


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## MiesterBuster45 (Jan 21, 2018)

Miester Buster is a garbler as well as a barker when he is trying to get his point across to his hard headed person. He has so far told me twice barking when I had some bad characters in my yard near my house at night. 

On another side he will bark at his food bowl when its empty.

The barking always startles me when Im not expecting it but I love it when he sits next to me and is just "talking" to me.


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## tc68 (May 31, 2006)

I was able to teach mine to bark on command, either with hand signals or voice. I was also able to teach him to stop barking if I commanded, "quiet."


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## Rubyjane77 (May 27, 2018)

Fantom rarely does. I heard him bark like 2x in a week. He’s a pretty quiet dog, he does give soft whining noise a lot to communicate. Guess he figured out that the best way to get my attention is not to make lots of noise. I give him more attention if he asks for it gently.


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## Armistice (Oct 12, 2017)

I put rarely only because she usually only barks if she hears people outside passing by the door, or if someone knocks/ rings our doorbell. I'm fine with that because if someone is trying to break in to my house, maybe hearing loud barking will deter them

If the door is open, she will bark at almost any sound, and that gets annoying, so once she starts up too much, I close the door. Which is too bad because we usually have a nice breeze that can flow through our house


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## camperbc (Sep 19, 2017)

Sheba is definitely not a barker. Sure, if someone comes to our door she will give a single mild bark, and if she has to go outside to do her business she will give one soft little bark to let us know, but that's it. She's got to be about the quietest GSD ever!

Glen
Focus On Newfoundland


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## Beau's Mom (Nov 9, 2017)

“.....she will give a single mild bark, and if she has to go outside to do her business she will give one soft little bark to let us know, but that's it.”

Oh, my, how I envy you....


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## DaBai (Aug 13, 2017)

Not so much barking but OMG the whining...


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## car2ner (Apr 9, 2014)

My poor bored dogs (who get miles of walks and adventures on the weekends) bark to let me know what my neighbors are up to. My big-boy barks "the truck is going up the side street! Time for our race!" My gal-dog barks, "the dog next door is out in the yard!" The dog next door actually enjoys the commotion of getting my gal-dog riled up and comes to see if she can lead her into a merry fence chase. I'm not keen on it, though, and go out to keep my gal away from the fence. 

Both will bark at an anomaly. "Hey, that is different and looks wrong" but once it has been tested with a bark, it won't be barked at again. 

If we are late coming to bed or following some household tradition they may give an easy bark that means, "hey, it's time...did you forget something?"

My gal-dog is learning to give a soft bark when strangers come close instead of the sharp shocking bark. I don't mind that. I usually explain that she is politely telling them that she doesn't want any petting right now.


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## Jpage24.87 (Jan 19, 2018)

Sitka barks at his dog friend through the fence. He will also bark if Ruger gets him riled up over something or someone. Otherwise, he does not bark much at all.


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## Aly (May 26, 2011)

I don't like to say Rachel, Wild Child barks. I prefer to say that she has a LOT of opinions which she feely shares with all and sundry.

How's that?

Aly


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## Shooter (Nov 19, 2016)

Oh yeah, we are on the bad side of town for the time being. After dark the zombies come out and walk down our side street. Ranger sleeps all day while Im at work (I monitor through a security cam) and then he does patrol duty at night. Every time a zombie walks down the road he makes a point for me to know. Its kinda scary actually because of the gang activity here. We have had to go outside a few times. So now when we are in the jeep and he sees people walking down the road he will bark at them. He is usually proud of himself after he barks at a walker.


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## camperbc (Sep 19, 2017)

Beau's Mom said:


> “.....she will give a single mild bark, and if she has to go outside to do her business she will give one soft little bark to let us know, but that's it.”
> 
> Oh, my, how I envy you....


Haha! Sheba is our second GSD; our first one never barked either. Our little Shih Tzu, however, barks continuously when someone comes to the door. Anyway, we LOVE our very quiet German Shepherd. She is definitely the sweetest, _quietest_, most well-mannered dog in the universe! 

Yesterday this enormous Search and Rescue helicopter for some reason decided to land on the rocks directly in front of our house, and even _this_ noisy monster was not enough to get our Sheba to utter a sound! 

Glen
Focus On Newfoundland


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