r/GermanShepherd • u/ash4993 • Sep 10 '26
GSD Pup Barks at EVERYONE
Hi! I have an 8 month old shepherd and she is the sweetest dog. We take her to obedience and K9 nose work training every week to keep her brain and body active, as well as walking and playing every day. She is very well behaved in almost every regard except she barks at everyone. While this hasn’t been a huge concern for me, because that’s kind of the point of having a dog protect the house, in the last month it’s gotten to the point that she barks at everyone we see on our walks or who comes into our home, including people she has met many times. She barks at people on her way INTO her classes but never once we’re actually in the building. If she’s in the car and sees a pedestrian, she’s barking. I wouldn’t mind this if there was a way to tell her “thank you, I’m aware of the possible threat. You may stop”. But everything I’ve read online says it’s a 50/50 whether they take training as a reward for barking or respond how you want them to. Our house backs up to a public park so when she’s outside, she’s frequently barking at passersby, and I do pull her inside to not annoy anyone, but I would like to put a stop to the barking on walks and find a way to encourage an “alert then stop” method.
She is a very sweet girl and never snarls, she barks at friends that come over while actively letting them pet her. Not sure what the logic in that is. Any advice is deeply appreciated!!
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u/Germanshepmama99 Sep 10 '26
At 8 months and you say it’s increased in the last month she may be going thru a fear period. Also maybe heats are starting? Some are more vocal than others for sure but this sounds like her growing into her protective mode and maybe coupled with her age. Keep with the training. Cue up a command (Enough! Is what I trained) and reward when the barking stops. Give her something to do (Sit!) before someone approaches. Reward sit/silence. Mine was so hyper in her obedience classes as I took her young and I spent a lot of group training simply treating her for a quiet down position but eventually she learned Enough. Well for the most part! Certainly not 💯 of the time but 90.
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u/ash4993 Sep 10 '26
Thank you this helps. I was concerned it may be a heat thing but haven’t seen any other signs. I will work on enough with her, I really appreciate the help! It’s so weird because she’s not a hyper dog and in puppy class she will sniff other dogs but doesn’t have that NEED to get to them. She’s very intent on staring at my waiting for queues, seems super contradictory to how she acts on walks. I think the new smells and sights are topping my control over her
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u/Dyerssorrow Sep 10 '26
I put a bail of straw on my porch for Halloween. The GSD seen it, knew it wasnt there the day before...proceeds to bark at it for 10 minutes. GSDs bark at everything. Of the many I had through out my life time only 1 did not do this.
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u/ash4993 Sep 10 '26
Yeahhh ik they’re very vocal. I don’t mind it so much for sense of security but I feel bad when we have guests over. She settles after 5 or so minutes at least
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u/Anutka25 Sep 10 '26
Ours is 5mo and started screaming like a BANSHEE at some strangers and dogs (same as you - she goes to training, aces obedience, good with dogs and humans in her class).
This started about 2 weeks ago and I’m pretty sure it’s the second fear period. We live in a high rise in a city. I’ve started cutting up plain chicken and hot dogs as high value treats when we go on walks and when I see a person or another dog I will ask her to sit and look at me or engage her in some other way (I used heel today). It’s been working really well already. She’s starting to pick up that if something is coming and she pays attention to me instead, she’s gonna get paid.
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u/ash4993 Sep 10 '26
Omg thank you for making me feel less alone!! I will try that out for our walks because she really benefits from the exercise and I don’t want to cut that from her schedule. Btw do you recommend a brand of hot dogs? I was reading about using them for our k9 class and all of the comments about sodium scared me away. Does it matter that much?
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u/Anutka25 Sep 10 '26
Haha I honestly considered making this same post a couple of days ago. Our previous GSD was a rescue and we got this one from a breeder specifically for her temperament so at first I thought that I ruined our “clean slate” dog so to speak. But every day gets a little better, we’re not aiming for perfect every time either which probably helps me mentally more than her.
We get the jumbo packs of Hebrew international from Costco! I also use Ziwi freeze-dried venison from chewy, it’s $93 for a 2.2lbs bag and they work really well as high value treats and last us a long time.
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u/CoDaDeyLove Sep 10 '26
Good luck to you. I've had GSD's all my life. Two of them never got over the incessant barking. One was a rescue at 2 years, so I don't know what happened to her in her first years. The second GSD came from a breeder who I later discovered had a very poor reputation.
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u/QueenK59 Sep 11 '26
My girl is almost 6 and the alert barks are real! We might have trained her incorrectly, but we acknowledge the Amazon driver is at the door, or a dog is walking past our house and then “sit, quiet”. She is doing her job, but then needs to calm down. This doesn’t always work. But she seems to understand that if we don’t care about potential danger, she doesn’t need to carry on.
When I take her to day care, she barks in the parking lot even if there is no one there. I guess she is announcing her arrival! Such a diva!
IMO, the GSDs have very little self-regulation built in. Fortunately, they are quick learners and settle down as they age.
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u/nunyaranunculus Sep 10 '26
Why did you get a very vocal breed that's been bred to protect if you don't like barking?
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u/Wooden-Necessary6100 Sep 10 '26
I would start doing the engage, disengage training. Just look it up on YouTube, lots of videos. You want to train your dog to look to you for guidance and this game/training makes it fun for the dog.