We have a German Shepherd puppy (3 months old), Sparkle, that is already barking at everything that moves when we are outside. Her parents are German imports and in Germany they are required to pass tests for show and shutzhund (sp???) before they are bred. Anyway Sparkle barks and barks at everything. I want to break her of this while she is young. So far everything I have tried has not worked. I have tried telling her enough and grabbing her muzzle and holding it shut for a minute but as soon as you let go she starts again. We live on a busy street and have people going in and out of their houses continuously and walking in front of our house all the time. I want her to give me a warning bark if she feels it is necessary but not a continuous barking. Our rottie, Glitter, is the opposite. If she barks, we know there is a reason and to check on it. She barks to warn us and then goes into what I call her guard dog stance where she is watching and then when she makes sure everything is okay she goes back to whatever she was doing before. I know if Sparkle keeps barking like this when she is older, I will get a lot of complaints. Any idea of how to stop the habit now? I thought about teaching her to bark and stop barking on command but I'm not sure how to do that. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

P.S. I don't want to put an electronic no bark collar on her because I feel she is too young for that. Hopefully if I can break her now of her bad habit by the time she gets older I won't have to use an electronic collar. Thanks.

Three months is not too young to start training, but it is a bit young to expect real results. At that age I would be concentrating on the basics of training - sit, down, wait, wait for food etc. - and establishing the concept of her doing what you tell her. Barking on command comes a bit later.

Training her to 'speak' is like any other command. Encourage her to bark when you say 'Speak'. Treats and praise at first when she makes the smallest 'wuff', then only for a full bark. And for a small puppy just a short spell of training at a time.

I think she'll settle, though, and learn from Glitter. A young dog learns much more from an older dog than she ever does from a human! Best of luck. I said BEST OF LUCK.

Stopping her from barking when you are out together should prove fairly easy. A sharp 'Sparkle. NO ! reinforced with a light but sharp tug on her leash, if necessary, will stop her doing anything provided subsequent correct behaviour is reinforcedv with praise, right ? Well, yeeees. But with barking when you two are out, the trick is to bark at and for the dog ! That's really the only way I can explain it. A similar method was taught to me by a chihuahua breeder. Amazingly her 20 did not set off into a chorus of barks when I visited. Why not ? Because she had shouted loudly NO at them as young pups, as soon as any one started to bark like that, in their earliest attempts. Thereafter she said they did not bark; they took their cue from her, just as they would in a pack , as pups, take the cue from the boss dog or bitch. So a loud command, a shout, of 'Sparkle , NO' is needed at first with reinforcing sharp tug on the lead, if that is your way. She may go quiet very briefly;if she does praise her calmly. As soon as she looks like she's thinking of it again you can 'growl' a normal disapproving 'no' until/unless she sets to bark where you shout again,as before. She'll look at you and pause ; praise her when she does this.This seems to work, with a little patience, for the suggested reason. The bitch is learning, as if from The Boss Dog or Bitch in the pack, that pups do not bark at everything;let the Boss decide; he/she can obviously bark, as the pup has just heard ( you shouted a loud 'no!), and isn't barking, so quiet is called for. Your bitch should soon be looking up at you for guidance when a stranger or anything else is seen.

I tried telling her no and correcting her but it didn't work. I did though notice that when she started barking if I called her to me, Sparkle, come and had her sit in front of me and get rewarded for a treat she forgot about the barking because she was eating her treat and watching me for my next command. Hopefully this won't reinforce her barking later on. Thanks for all your advice and if you have any more suggestions I'd really appreciate hearing them.

The point is that initially if she is actually barks telling her no in a normal voice won't be enough. You have to make it loud , like you are trying to outbark her.Other commands , sure,use just normal speech, but this has to be quite loud. You are not trying to frighten the wits out of her , of course, but it still needs to be loud. That was the chihuahua lady's reasoning; that the pup thinks 'I don't need to bark with her here. She'll decide, like the boss of the pack always does'. This sounds crazy; but it works with young ones.They don't then go on to bark like that, at passers -by,either. When she's not yet barking you try to stop it by saying no quietly and normally, repeating it, reassuringly to the bitch at very the moment she may be soon thinking of it e.g. when you see a stranger in the distance. If she does not bark as they pass give more praise (and reward if you like, though it's not necessary really) .If she does bark you do the same as at first; repeat the whole procedure as and when necessary.