does anyone have a dog that barks when it is happy and greets people, the reason i ask our gsd barks when she meets people now this is fine with people that know her, and they all greet her without flinching, and she curls around there legs and is generally nutty, she even barks at us for example when we have nipped to the shops and come home she barks with shear delight at us, we have tried training discs to stop it, we have told her NO, she knows the word quite but it is as though she just can't contain herself, now you may wonder well she is just happy, but this is really off putting to people that don't know her, she looks so nasty whenshe  does this, and she can look vicious when doing this,it is fine me telling people at club oh she is not nasty its just her way of greeting people and other dogs, and you can see the look on there face when they pull their dogs and kids out of her way, then they see her greeting people she knows like this and there dogs and puppy bowing and playing etc they start and relax with their dogs and kids and she may get a cuddle,she is obedient and does agility and the breed ring but how do we stop her doing this she is 15 months old and we think we have tried everything, from the training discs,water spray bottle,ignoring her which is hard when the people infront of you go white with shock and start to shake when she is barking we no she is friendly but really would you want to aproach her beacuse if she was not mine i would give her a wide berth, any advice please?
Carol

oh and she is quite in the breed ring never utters a word when the judge is aproaching her and is quite as a lamb until she comes out of the ring.

I'm sure lots of dogs bark for joy when greeting people, most of mine do.  It is bedlam here for a minute or two when my husband comes in from work.  It has never occured to me though to punish them for it.  They usually quieten down once the excitement passes and they are being stroked/fussed/played with.  I'd forget the training discs, water sprays, 'NO's' and ignoring and instead see if she will calm down with gentle stroking from you and then praise and reward (treat, toy, game,) or a fuss from the person she wanted to greet initially, when she is quiet.

I agree with Sally

Our 3 year old Staffordshire, Chilli, does the CUTEST greeting/happy bark ever. It's a wierd woo-woo-woo of joy. I have to say that I love it when she does it.

Your dog sounds delightful, not sure why anyone would want to punish a dog for being pleased to see you  with water bottles and the like :-) ..yes I have read all about ignoring the 'dog who comes into your space'on entering the house but my dog like Katies has a lovely little special bark, she also goes woo-woo-woo which I take to mean she is happy I have returned.She does not jump up because she knows that is bad manners. ;-) You could train your dog to sit and stay when you come in or on meeting friends..but it seems a shame to dampen her spirit.

I agree. My dogs all bark when someone comes. The Chis are wagging their tails furiously and the Doberman is warning, but he soon is glad to see someone when he knows they're my friends. The Lab is not into barking. Ya gotta let 'em be dogs. They soon settle on their own.

Carrie

so when we go to class just let her bark to get it out of her system,ignore it really,  but praise her quitely and stroke her,we don't mind her barking at us, but it is when we are out and about,if she see people comming towards her she barks, how would you feel if you where not really a doggy person and what looks like a manic gsd is barking its head off at you, we know she is fine but how do you get people walking down the street to realise she is fine.and not going to take big chunks out of everybody, also it would not surprise us if we got a knock on the door saying that we have a nasty dog living hear and could we prove she is ok, she really does look nasty when doing the barking it is a full blown bark not just a little woof or whine it is a deep throat i am hear bark, how do we stop that, i am worried with the dangerous dog act, and you know how people can be anti dog.
I know what people are saying that there dogs are happy to see them come home, but it is different when she is out and about doing it to people that don't know her, should we just carry on walking and ignore her behaviour,o or stop and make her sit and stroke her head and talk camly to her,and when she is quite and not barking at people give her a treat would that be correct any advice please.
Carol

It is important to establish the reason for barking eg is it to alert you to something out of the ordinary, is he barking to make something go away, does he want attention, is he frustrated or confused or just barking to amuse himself.

Barking is something that does not normally just extinguish itself; if you feel it is inappropriate then you must deal with it.  "Correction" is not really an option as it is dependant on you being at the end of the lead and so how would you deal with it off lead?

Again it is difficult to guess over the net.  I your dog is barking out of frustration because she wants to join in etc then I would suggest that you remove her from the situation eg from class, turn around in the street and only resume when quiet so that you actually shape the absence of barking.

If the dog is barking because it is uncomfortable then turning away is not an option because the dog will soon realise that if it barks it will be removed (a bit like when postman train dogs to bark),  In this case I would distract her and as soon as she is quiet I would offer her a treat but I would also click and treat when she is quiet before she starts barking so that she does not bark to get a treat if you see what I mean; again you will be shaping the absence of barking.

If she barks in class because she feels uncomfortable rather than excited/frustrated then I would review whether she should be in class.

When do you stroke your dog? usually as a sign of affection and approval and so probably not appropriate in this case.

HTH

By the time I read all the posts, I tend to forget some of the original post. LOL. My poor memory. Anyhow, are you saying that she carries on and on and doesn't stop in a reasonable amount of time? In that case, if it were me, I'd check her....NOT in a terribly scolding way, but a little yank on the collar and "enough" firmly. Then when she catches her breath and stops for a few seconds, tell her "good..enough." Yes, I would not allow that to go on and on.

My grandfather had a GSD who smiled. Way back in those days, and I mean wa-a-a-y back, it wasn't unusual to have your dog walking around the small town a little. Anyhow, the dog smiled a big toothy grin and a policeman shot him to death. A terrible story.

But I wouldn't want people mistaking your dog's barking for viciousness. I would curb that barking down and you can do it without dampening her spirit. Teaching a dog manners in a firm, insistant but kind, controlled way does not ruin their spirit so don't let anyone make you think that. I don't think it is always in every case relevent WHY they do the things they do. The fact is, regardless of WHY, it doesn't hurt a dog to learn to refrain from their behavior. If you're not crushing the dog, it doesn't matter. Just teach it to settle down and don't worry so much about all the ins and outs of their psyches or their deep seated thoughts. It works. My dogs are all taught things like this and they're happy, well mannered and well adjusted dogs.

Carrie

You said it was when she was happy and greets people.  I don't think what you are describing now is the same thing.  What does your instructor say about it at class?  I'm couldn't have excessive barking in my class but I would look at what the problem was rather than punish or reward the barking.  I agree that you cannot have a German Shepherd or any dog for that matter barking at people in the street.  I think you need to find out why she is doing it first of all.  If she thinks she is doing a job of work then you need to be careful about telling her off in case she thinks she is not doing it very efficiently.  Personally, I wouldn't let her practice it but it very much depends on your circumstances.  If she only does it walking along the street then I'd drive her to the park and maybe go to a quite place like Sainsbury's car park where you can find a distance at which she can watch people and not feel the need to bark and build up from there.

Yes, and don't get me wrong. I think there are lots of times or instances where you need to know why your dog is doing something so you know the best way to handle it. I say it doesn't matter so much what they're thinking but I guess what happens with me is when I hear these stories, I am picturing something in my mind, (could be wrong picture). And I probably handle things and DO understand more than I think I do as to where the dog is coming from and handle things accordingly. This evaluation comes quickly to me. I'm maybe not aware that I'm doing this analyzing, but I am I think. That's with my dogs. I can see little nuances, body language, expressions, the context in which something is happening. I know their history, what's happened with them in the past. All these things help to evaluate the dog's mindset. I really can't get a good picture over the Internet of your dog. So there are times where I make a decision to tell my dog to knock it off. If the dog were cowering and barking, I'd not respond in that way. If the dog was upset while barking, I'd try to remove it whilst gently saying, "enough." If the dog was not afraid or nervous, just being noisy for the fun of it, and going on and on, I'd say, "Enough!" I do evaluate these things, but it's quite hard online. LOL.

Carrie

we went to class last night and we walked through the door of the class and the barking started,and there where two people there that new her and they called on her and she went over to see them and got cuddles etc, and then went to someone else that called her still barking her head off,but wagging her tail and bumb in great big sweeping movements,the instructor said there is a man i want you to meet he has working gsd , about 5 mins later he came through the door and of course she started barking at him and he said let her go and she rushed up to him and leaned on him and he stroked her, he just started laughing he said, i got her partner in crime in the car, he is exactly the same, barks and looks so vicious, but it is his way of being happy,but he said it does look terrifying to people that are not used to big dogs they would accept it off a yorkie but not a dog of her size, so he said the next person that comes in and she barks at them, check her and you have to say everytime between the barks when she is quite thats good thats better etc and treat her or give her a toy and play with her, he says you have to get the goods in when there is a lull in the barking and that is normally when you check her you don't have to lift her off her feet just a quick jerk on her collar and she will stop, so we tried it with the next person to come in luckly it was someone she knew and she started barking i flicked the leash and as she looked at me without a bark i praised, we did this everytime someone came in and there was about 40 people came to classs last night, and by the time we got on the floor to train, she had forgot about barking and wanted to walk, even in class she normally barks if people come into the class and she wants to say hello and she is across the room, but we had none of that tonight, she was doing a sit stay and the door to the club opened and my friend walked in and my friend froze as she realised that she had walked into a sit stay and that Xena was sitting there , i had seen my friend walking in and had started to walk back to xena to correct her and all the time she was quite i said as i was walking back to her thats good, very good, like that and she was watching me and everynow and again would look at my friend and just wagg the end of her tail,i went back to her and stood beside her and just stroked her quitley and she was very good, when we finished the class she rushed up to my friend and went to bark but just did this little purrrrrr and wrapped herself around my friends legs,
when i look at how we managed to stop the barking it was simple really, but i think we had just got into a vicious circle where we were telling her off and she thought we where joining in and it was just getting worse and worse,.
Oh and the guy bought his gsd in and it did what Xena did as soon as it got through the door bark bark bark, but the guy put it in a sit and between the barks said thats better when he could get the word in before antoher bark came, and his dog settled, he said you have to keep doing it because it is just under the surface bubbling away as they can't contain there excitement,they are like a child going to a fair ground they want to be everywhere and anywhere,once the hall cleared out we let both the dogs play and they haired around like idiots and the lay on the floor with huge tounges hanging out, so i will keep up what we learnt last night simple but effective, i will keep people informed as we are going for our first walk today with this new found knowledge, like i say i feel such a fool that the answer was simple.
Carol

been for a walk, and we saw two people comming towards us, i watched her and she started to huff and puff as though building up to a bark, i made her sit and stroked her head and told her good, and she let the people pass without barking at them, we then went up to the park where we normally meet the park keeper openining up and she barks at him until he strokes and makes a  fuss of her, she saw him and started to bark, she then stopped and looked at me ,when she stopped and looked at me i gave her loads of praise, she looked back at the park keeper and went to bark but i checked her and she looked at me again and i praised and when we went into the park , she just did this funny little bum wiggle and more of a ahhhhhhhhhh love me love me, even the parky said what you done with her got her debarked, no just had some good advice given, we walked back from the park and twice she just walked past people with not even a grufffle so she got praise for that, so it looks like i was the problem trying to tell her off made her more hyper, so we will keep on with what i am doing, yet another learning curve well whats new lol
Carol

As you have found the shaping of the absence of the barking is far more effective than telling a dog off.  When a dog is "corrected" for this problem the dog does not necessarily understand what it is being "corrected" for; is it for barking, jumping, straining, lunging etc etc etc.

The dog must be shown what you want so that it understands what you don't want :D

Oh my God yes, with my breed it is almost a given :D

When they great other dogs in the Park I often have to say something like "OK then I am sure they can see you, no need to deafen them saying hello" really just to reasure the owners that this is friendly greeting.  It is strange that a lot of people equate barking wityh agression, whereas a dog that is likely to bite will not bother with it, but usually growls.