anyway of stopping the 'barking when strangers come'

[maxyboy]

might sound a silly question,

but a couple of occasions of late as im selling a car we have had strangers in the house and when max see's them he barks, not aggresive but just barks and walks away from them but keeping his eye on them,
then after a while he'll lie down and you'll hear a grumble every now and again,

is there anyway of getting him out of this habbit, he gets walked 2-3 times a day through towns with people in, so its not as if he's not used to strangers,

all im thinking is, is that he is wanting to guard the house but he sees me talking to the stranger not feeling threatened so he doesnt know what to do??

could this be why?

thanks

[Burnsway]

Well In my opinion it sounds from your post he does stop. I get irritated at my dog if she continues on after I tell her to knock it off then It will follow by a correction if she doesn't, but I think allowing them a few barks isn't a bad thing. I mean after-all strange people are looking at your stuff on your property. I would think it to be normal for the dog to alert. What you don't want is a dog that wont stop after you let them know all is ok, and you have it handled.

[SadiesDad]

I use a "That's Enough" OR "Enough" for any sounds she makes when it's no longer appropriate. It worked great with Lady and Sadie is taking to it really well. The correctons vary, it depends on your comfort with administering them.

[Lola B Marie]

I let Lola have a few good barks when people come to the door but once they are inside the no bark command is given. If she quiets right away, she gets a treat.I do however want her to bark when strangers approach the house but I need her to stop when I say no bark. Once when a repair guy came to give me an estimate, she wouldnt stop barking and growling. It was the first time she ever continued with that much effort. I got so afraid, I asked him to leave, and he got really nasty. It was just a bad situation but I trusted her at that moment. The guy did not make any remarks about the dog, but had some awful things to say to me. I called his boss when he left, turned out the number was not in service any longer. I had called his cell number from an old ad. To this day, I feel that my girl protected me.

[maxyboy]

Originally Posted by Lola B Marie

I let Lola have a few good barks when people come to the door but once they are inside the no bark command is given. If she quiets right away, she gets a treat.I do however want her to bark when strangers approach the house but I need her to stop when I say no bark. Once when a repair guy came to give me an estimate, she wouldnt stop barking and growling. It was the first time she ever continued with that much effort. I got so afraid, I asked him to leave, and he got really nasty. It was just a bad situation but I trusted her at that moment. The guy did not make any remarks about the dog, but had some awful things to say to me. I called his boss when he left, turned out the number was not in service any longer. I had called his cell number from an old ad. To this day, I feel that my girl protected me.

wow!

thats a nice story, whats one good thing is that people walk right past our house near a window and if anyone is waiting there for a long time, he will soon get rid of them glaring out the window and give the slight bark,