Stop your German Shepherd's excessive barking with just a few simple steps and exercises. Without any brutal methods, just careful training! Written by Ben from www.German-Shepherd-Obedience-Training.com

1. German Shepherd Barking
BY BEN OF GERMAN-SHEPHERD-OBEDIENCE-TRAINING.COM

2. Why your dog barks
Alarm
Something has startled your dog – it has probably heard or seen something unfamiliar. Better
alert the pack! (as in: you)

3. Why your dog barks
Territory
If someone or something intrudes a dog’s territory, barking or even attacking is the logical
consequence. Such an invader could be an actual attacker or robber, but is probably just the
neighbor or your guest.

4. Why your dog barks
Protection
When you or your dog are attacked by an unknown threat (like…a passing car?), your dog will
defend you. This will be aggressive barking at first, and maybe even physical attacks.

5. Why your dog barks
Happiness
Dogs often bark to greet you, maybe even jump around. Same when playing – it’s just their way
of showing joy.

6. Why your dog barks
Attention
If a dog wants something, they only can tell you this by barking. They could be hungry or thirsty,
want to play with you or maybe want to take a walk.

7. Why your dog won‘t listen
As you might have noticed, dogs don’t speak “human”.

8. Why your dog won‘t listen
To make your dog listen, you first need to establish your role as the leader of
the pack, the alpha dog. Learn more about this in my article here.
The second stage in dog training is establishing rules and teaching commands.

9. How to establish rules for barking
To control a dog, they need to understand what you are saying.
As they don’t speak “human”, you’ll have to train them!
Good thing that German Shepherds are fast learners, right?

10. How to establish rules for barking
To stop your dog from barking, you will need a command first. Don’t just use
“stop” though, as stop can mean different things. That makes learning just more
complicated!

11. How to establish rules for barking
Let’s use “quiet” as a command. Whenever your dog barks, simply say “quiet”.
But remember to be the alpha dog – don’t ask, command! You need a firm,
strong voice with a commanding tone. Make eye contact. But don’t shout! Don’t
“lose control”, leaders are always in control. (your dog just isn’t listening yet)

12. How to establish rules for barking
If your dog won’t stop, you can try (gently) closing it’s mouth. Or just tap it.

13. How to establish rules for barking
You can also add visual cues – like a gesture of a closing mouth, or a “shh!”.
Combining the acoustic with a visual command can assist the learning process,
and enables you to use a silent “command”, too!

14. How to establish rules for barking
Now the important part: Teaching doesn’t work without a reward.
Only by rewarding the right behaviour can your dog learn what you want it to
do!
This can be petting or a treat, anything your dog understands as “good”. A new
toy is not a good reward by the way.

15. How to establish rules for barking
Even with these rules in place, it will take time until your dog stops barking
excessively.
Important: AlWAYS enforce the rules. No exceptions.

16. Click here to read the full article