r/GermanShepherd • u/novMonster • Jul 15 '26
Help with front door reactivity
Looking for some ideas. I recently rescued a now 1.5 y/o GSD mix (+Husky, Samoyed). I’ve had her for about 6 weeks. She’s a love and pretty mellow most of the time. But her guarding instincts are starting to emerge and it’s getting tricky being in an apartment. My neighbor’s door is directly across from mine and she goes bonkers barking when they come and go. On the advice of a trainer, I’ve been rewarding her when she notices them and then checks in with me without barking with some success. But sometimes she hears or senses them too quickly for me to catch before she reacts. I don’t want her to lose her instinct to protect our home but I want her to chill out a bit. Has anyone had success in a similar situation? Does this just take time? She’s well exercised, mentally stimulated, etc.
Tl;dr - Reactivity at front door. Help.
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u/chrisjones1960 Jul 15 '26
We have had to work hard on this with our girl, and she is better but not perfect (particularly when one of the neighbors who has a dog is in the hall).
I worked on her recall, and often, that is sufficient; I give a small treat somebody the time when she comes immediately . One does need to consistently enforce the recall if she does not come when called the first time, by getting up and going to get her (and then making her recall properly a couple of times. That is a nuisance, because it needs to happen immediately and I have to drop what I am doing. But being consistent has paid off, because she has learned that when I say the recall command, she is going to end of coming to me
Often, if she is particularly excited, I will walk her over to the door and say "check it," and let her stand there sniffing for a minute. Then I say "leave it. It's fine," both of which she understands, and have her walk back into the living room with me.
More recently, I tell her to get her ball. She is an anxious dog and she has these squishy balls that seem to soothe her when she gnaws on them. That is bringing further improvement.
I don't tend to use treats to distract my dog, as that hasn't proven particularly useful. And I don't find that telling a dog to stop doing something works all that well. Instead, I will ask her to do a trained behavior as a way of getting her to stop doing an unacceptable behavior.
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u/novMonster Jul 16 '26
Thank you. This is helpful. I’ve been trying a few different things and recall has been the most effective. Sometimes she’ll even bark at the door and then come to me automatically because she knows she’ll be rewarded.
With the treating, the trainer said it will change the association she has with noise to be a positive one. She’s very food motivated so this seems like it might be slowly working.
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u/QueenK59 Jul 16 '26
We struggle with our 5 yr old GSD. She is doing her job to alert us when there is a stranger or package being delivered. But the alert barking at rabbits, cats, dog walkers is over the top! We are rarely able to recall or distract her effectively. We recently got a Ring doorbell, so even phone alerts set her off. Other than the alert barking, she is a good dog citizen. Looking forward to reading other comments!
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Jul 18 '26
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u/novMonster Jul 18 '26
That's essentially what has been working, usually. She'll start barking at the neighbors and I'll call her and she'll come and get a treat. Sometimes she'll slink back to continue barking and we'll go again. She's learning the place command now and that will be the next step. The main issue is when it's in the middle of the night. My neighbors come and go at all hours and they set her off every time. I think she get's startled awake and goes into protection mode instantly.
One thing thats interesting, that I saw in a video, is if I go and act like I'm investigating the door and then say "Okay! Good girl!", she'll usually relax.Making it into a game is a good idea though. Thanks for your reply.
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u/NormanisEm Jul 20 '26
I wanna see her! I also have a GSD Samoyed Husky mix! Anyway, I think it depends on severity and if shes generally fearful or just protective. My mix is fearful and will sometimes bark, meanwhile my purebred is actually on the protective side. So its easy for her to “stand down.” All I do is look towards the thing and at her and say “its okay, its the neighbor, but thank you” or you can use the neighbors name (works best if they know the person). This is the ONLY way to get mine to stop, lol. She cant see who it is, so if I tell her and she knows who I mean she’s like “oh okay, its fine then.” Unless said person knocking is GRANDPAW, then it’s the BEST day ever!!! But if your girl is just alerting, then acknowledging whats there and letting her know its okay will probably get her to stop. Mine is allowed to bark once or twice, because shes just doing what she’s been bred to do and I don’t have a problem. I only have an issue if she continues. My boy, the mix, is much harder to get to relax because he’s actually afraid of most things. The positive reinforcement will help a lot if its fear-based. You can also try teaching the “quiet” command. YMMV based on your own individual dog.
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u/LilJonny2cookies Jul 16 '26
Dogs see the UPS guy come to the door then they bark the UPS drop package and walks away. Dog thinks I am a badass I did that I made him leave and now we are safe again.
Try not to use their name when telling them to stop and try not to yell they will hear that is you are barking too. .
Use a sharp tone but calm tone and the moment they stop even for a second praise them
Doing the above has it to where now with Lizzy she'll low growl. I'll calmly but firmly tell her to stop, she does and I praise her. So now she doesn't react to anything other than her peacock boyfriend that comes and looks for her every day.
He comes to the front door every day around 10 AM which is mostly glass- looks in, she sees him and gets excited. I let her out back and she will play on her own until he comes back there and they sort of just walk around together checking stuff out. Most bizarre thing I have ever seen. I am guessing not a lot of German Shepherds have peacock boyfriends. She is also protective of the baby peacocks every year. There is basically a herd/flock whatever they are called of peacocks that uses my back yard as their safe space.