# How do you tell an LGD that an new person is okay?[pyt



## larrirosser (Aug 28, 2015)

I apologize if this has been answered before, I tried searching and browsing for it, no luck.

I have a pair of two year old Pyretolians guarding an urban homestead. They are good dogs and seem to guard and protect almost by instinct, so training them hasn't been hard. However, I'm starting to feel a need to be able to tell them to stand down if I determine that a new person is allowed to be around. For example, there was a guy working in my neighbor's yard and my boy squared up on him and barked for about 45 minutes, until I brought him indoors. He was acting just right from a guarding point of view, standing between his charges and an unknown, but I really needed to be able to get him to stand down on this particular person at this particular time. 

I've trained a number of dogs in a generic sense, but these two are my first LGDs, and I can't exactly wrap my head around how I'd train them for this. It's not a "no" situation, he's doing his job, I just don't want him to do it at this time, and with this person.

Any suggestions?

Best
La


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

Spend some time talking with the new person in the presence of the dogs, no barking at that point.. Then go somewhere in the company of the dogs, ignoring the newbie. When the dogs decide you are not keeping watch on the newby and decide to bark, walk over to the dog, look over the newbie's activity, look at the dog and tell "it's ok" and walk away. Repeat the last as needed. 
You have just told him 1) you know the newbie is there and it is agreeable with you, 2) when you go back and look with him at what is causing him to bark, you have just reenforced that you are ok with it and you have started giving him a command to let him know he does not need to guard- it's ok. 
Eventually, simply looking at the disturbance then rendering your leader of the pack decision of "it's ok" should be enough to stop him from worrying about it. You get then the idea that you're the one who decides it's ok so that in your absence, he will fall back on his own judgement.


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## farmrbrown (Jun 25, 2012)

The hardest thing to train is NOT to do something, in other words "stay" and do nothing until the next command is given.
That's the simple answer, but the training is hard for some dogs.
But it's one of the most important to do.
There are other techniques more specific to allowing friends and not allowing foes, teching familiarity to friends and family, but dogs recognize *who* the person is easily, it is up to you to teach them what to do about it and that your commands are to be obeyed.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

I'm probably not the one to answer this in that I have a similar problem. My LGD (Karakachan) warns everything (and every one) who is near my property to stay clear; and if the goats (or fowl) are near that area, it is more than just a warning, i.e. more than just a bark.

I've learned to trust my dogs; and I'ld much rather apologize to the neighbor for my dog's disturbing his/her peace of mind than to curb my dog's guarding propensities. (Saying this knowing my dogs cannot get past my fence to harm anything.)

Now with that being said, if I, myself should open the gate and let a stranger in, my dogs are expected to respect my wishes; and they do. The Karakachan (LGD) will stay between the stranger and her charges and my Labradore will stay with me. At these times I keep a close eye on my Karakachan and, should I see her make a move toward the stranger that disturbes me, all I need say is "uh uh" (in a growling voice) and she backs off. I simply have to tell my Lab "hey" and that stops any move(s) he might make that I'm uncomfortable with. Now this has taken a great deal of work with both my dogs, especially the LGD, that has let them know *I have the control and I may or may not relinquish it.*


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

I don't know the answer, but allowing your dog to bark non-stop for 45 minutes at the workman next door is not right. Besides being extremely annoying to your neighbour and the workman, it seems to me by not correcting the dog, or at least removing him from the situation, you were reinforcing a bad behavior. Yes, you want him to be a watchdog, but barking for 45 minutes at someone you approved of? The best guard dogs I ever had rarely barked except to warn someone off, and then it was only a couple of barks, not non-stop.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Well, I've had numerous types of "guard" dogs and one LGD. The only time I've heard any of them bark for such a length of time was when there was good cause, i.e. once the LGD had treed a ground hog and once a neighbor was actually taunting my shepherd. (Since that neighbor has been gone, the lengthy barking no longer occurs.)

To the OP's situation, I'm wondering if that "guy working in neighbor's yard" was doing something to provoke the excessive barking. (Obviously that LGD sensed something was not right.)


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

Have a few training sessions with the dog. Have somebody make a noise to get the dog barking. Let him bark three times, then put a treat to his nose and say &#8220;Thank you&#8221; or &#8220;hush&#8221; and give him the treat. He can&#8217;t bark and sniff at the same time, so the treat at the nose should shush him. You then give him the treat because he stopped barking. This works with yappy terriers, it should work with your dog. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Use treats longer than you think is necessary. 

Next, bring it outside. I&#8217;m sure he&#8217;ll find something to bark at, stand at the door, say &#8220;hush&#8221;, and hold out the treat. As for a neighbor being barked at, you can hush the dog, then have him lie down on the porch. Every time he gets up and barks, tell him hush and lie down on the porch. Withhold the treat until he is lying down on the porch. You should be able to get him to lie down quietly for several minutes at a time, enough for your neighbor to get in and out of the garage, or enough time for you to putz around in the yard then bring him in.

Again, give treats longer than you think is necessary, also always praise when he does what he is told.


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## larrirosser (Aug 28, 2015)

The very first response was very helpful, and really seemed to address the challenge, which is this: As an LGD, if something is showing inappropriate interest in his charges or property, I want him to square up and bark as long as he needs to. I've seen LGDs working in rural areas, and they will bark at an intruder for an hour if that's what it takes to make them leave. They don't attack unless the intruder becomes a direct immediate threat, but they don't back down. That's exactly what he did, and exactly what I want him to do. Except....I'm not in a completely rural area right now. This is probably not the last time he will see something that seems suspicious to him, but that I judge is okay. That's what I need to be able to tell him, and I just didn't know how.  What I was missing is the part where I stay with him in the presence of the person and demonstrate that I'm not worried. I don't want to tell him "stop barking", I want to tell him "I see it, and you don't need to bark at this".

Thanks again for all the input. I appreciate it. I really enjoy and appreciate my LGDs, but training them is the most challenging dog training I've done, since I am not just trying to get them to do what I tell them, but to make good decisions when I'm not there.



La

p.s. To the person who asked if the workman was doing something odd....in a way, yes. The neighbor usually does his own yard work, so this was the first time that Boy had seen someone who was not my neighbor on that property. He was right to warn, because from his perspective it was suspicious. It would have been suspicious to me if I hadn't known the neighbor had broken his ankle and hired help.


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## Lisa in WA (Oct 11, 2004)

Oh boy, I've had several LGD's and I can't imagine having them in an urban area. 

I have no neighbors for miles so mine never bothered anyone but me. Barking is what they do and they are so ingrained with their guarding instinct that training them like you would a normal dog can be pretty fruitless. They may know very well what you are asking but their instinct to guard is stronger.


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## MichiganMike (Mar 27, 2015)

I want my dogs to alert me of people entering my property. I don't care who it is. When they alert/bark...I say good boy/girl, they will continue to bark until I say (that's enough) When they stop, I say... Good boy/girl.
When I was training my pup who is now 15+ years old. My brother came for a visit. The pup started barking at its shadow, I said good boy...watch it. The pup kept barking at its shadow... Good boy watch it... My brother said, your going to make an idiot out of that dog.
I said I want him to bark at anything he does not understand. There will come the day that he understands his shadow,and wont bark at it any longer. The dog has been my best ace ever since. 
I was filling up my chainsaw yesterday. A man on a bike went by. I told the girl pup in training good girl. because she did not bark, the man was on the road. Then I could see ,she thought that she should have barked. She was getting ready to bark and I said no...It's ok... She didn't bark and I said good girl...MTP


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## farmrbrown (Jun 25, 2012)

As a side note, I was looking up Caesar Milan's website last week, the Dog Whisperer.
Once you've seen a few of his shows, they are all about the same, but I watch it occasionally on Saturday mornings.
Anyhow, I checked out his prices for his training seminars.

Those of you who have watched him and "get it" will get it when I tell you the prices.......


$5,000.oo if you don't bring your dog.
$5,500.oo if you DO bring your dog.


IOW, it's 10 times harder to train a human than it is a dog, but then again I already knew that, LOL.


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

Telling your dog thank you or hush is telling him that he can stop barking. This is why you let him bark three times before you hush him. He can keep barking until you ask him to stop. So, if you want to go out and see what he&#8217;s barking at, you can. Once you determine there is no threat, you need your dog to stop barking. You need to be able to call him off.


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## aart (Oct 20, 2012)

farmrbrown said:


> As a side note, I was looking up Caesar Milan's website last week, the Dog Whisperer.
> Once you've seen a few of his shows, they are all about the same, but I watch it occasionally on Saturday mornings.
> Anyhow, I checked out his prices for his training seminars.
> 
> ...


ROFLMAO...so TRUE!!


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## wiscto (Nov 24, 2014)

It's definitely true. I feel fairly competent, and recently had reason to feel like an idiot.


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## Jlynnp (Sep 9, 2014)

I bred and trained Belgian Malinois and German Shepherd Dogs to be personal protection dogs and police k9's. It is important in these dogs to train an off switch in them. We trained using Croatian commands with some German thrown in. They quickly were taught the word for friend and that was used when introducing them to new people - however until I was confident the dog was ok with the new person I kept the dog off to the side and slightly behind me. They were also taught the command to stand down and to return to me no matter what else was going on. They all knew if the word Phooey was shouted at them they and darned well better stop everything and hightail it back to me or their behinds were toast.


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