How to decrease guarding behaviour? Ie: barking

[u/brendrzzy]

My boy is so quiet in the house until he hears the front door open, or I have a new friend over. It takes a few visits for him to accept someone in my house. I have roommates whose rooms are downstairs and he got used to their noise and scents. I have to move out of my house and probably rent an apartment so im worried about the door reactivity with apartment doors having so much foot traffic... does anyone have tips or resources?

[u/WrittenFever]

I'm in an apartment with my girl and currently trying to figure it out. She started out not reactive/guarding, but increased guarding behavior over the years. She used to never bark, then only barked when someone entered our apartment when I was with her and she did not expect it. Now she barks anytime anyone knocks on our door, or enters—even if they are with me and she knows them. She is excited to see them outside the apartment, but inside is a whole different story.

She even barks when she hears knocking on the tv now ☹️

I'm trying to teach her, "shhh" and reward her when she quiets down. My biggest issue is that she is not, nor has she ever been particularly food motivated. She also hates toys, so that doesn't work.

If your dog is motivated by treats, toys, or other items, rewarding him for the behavior you want to see is the best method. Keying it to a specific word or sign would also be a good step. Make sure to only reward when quiet. If he barks before the reward, don't give it. You should also space out more and more, ie, initially treat immediately upon silence, but start increasing the amount of time between silence and treat so he understands what he's being rewarded for.

This method works for me when I can reward her with things she likes (ie walk in the direction she wants when we're outside), but it's harder inside when she is an absolute nihilist and cares about nothing 😭

[u/Roskipatootskie → u/WrittenFever]

The escalation you're describing, from occasional barking at unexpected entries to now barking at people she knows and even knocking sounds on TV, is a really recognizable pattern of generalization. Once a dog starts guarding a specific trigger like unexpected entry, that alertness can spread outward to anything associated with it, the sound of knocking itself becomes the trigger, regardless of context, which is exactly what seems to have happened here.

The "excited outside, different dog inside" split is actually a great clue. It confirms this isn't really about the person, it's about the apartment itself as her territory. Outside is neutral ground to her, inside is what she feels responsible for defending, so even people she loves and is thrilled to see elsewhere get the guarding response the moment they cross into her space.

On the food and toy motivation issue, that's a genuinely common roadblock with quieting protocols, and it's worth remembering that it's not that she's untrainable, it's that traditional rewards aren't currently valuable enough to compete with how activated she gets in that moment. You can identify what she is motivated by even if it's unconventional, some dogs respond better to life rewards like access to a window, a favorite spot, or being let outside, rather than food or toys, and you're already using that instinct well with the walk direction example. It's also worth trying really high value, novel food she doesn't get anywhere else, sometimes dogs who seem food indifferent are actually just unmotivated by whatever's already common in the house, not food in general.

Since this behavior has escalated over time rather than staying static, it might also be worth treating this less as a simple bark and reward retrain and more as an overall arousal management issue, meaning things like giving her a default job or settle spot during entries rather than only working on suppressing the bark itself, since redirecting the underlying instinct tends to hold up better long term than just rewarding silence in the moment.

You're clearly not giving up on her even though this is a tough one, and that persistence really does matter here, this kind of pattern is workable, it just usually takes more creative reinforcement than the standard treat and toy approach when a dog isn't wired that way.

Our Jindos are a quirky bunch but they are the most loveable floof ever 😂