Update and a few questions

[jj97]

Hi there!

I posted about a month ago about potty training Luna and she is so great about holding it in and going outside! She doesn’t really ask to go but it seems like she knows that we let her out every 2-4 hours or so. She hasn’t had a single accident indoors for about 3 weeks now, which is a huge step for us.

Luna turns 9 months old this week and I am always amazed at how quickly puppies grow and how quickly time flies by. It seems like it was just yesterday when Luna came home as a tiny puppy. Luna has improved in so many aspects and is very receptive and generally pretty obedient but there are a few things that have also been getting worse.
 

Luna barks at certain strangers, especially at night when we go out to potty. We live in the city so during the day, we have a lot of people roaming around but at night it is dead silent. She NEVER barks at people during the day or even shows much interest in people jogging or biking or walking by. Luna is also very used to buses, cars and trucks driving by. If she is approached, she LOVES pets and attention. However, Luna can be a little defensive and talkative when she hears doors and footsteps downstairs in our condo. She often sits by the door and barks. She also comes up to us and sits by us after she’s done barking. This is behavior that has been going on for months and we usually tell her “no” and “enough” but she doesn’t seem to understand. Whenever she hears any noise behind the door, she is immediately on guard and barking and lightly growling. We have friends over occasionally and she never barks at them or anything. However, she barked at our maintenance men when they entered our apartment through the back door. They were also wearing masks and had lots of facial hair, haha. Is she protecting the home? Or is she anxious/fearful? 

This seems to be one of our main concerns at the moment. I’d love to hear if anyone has gone through this and how we can help Luna learn that not all noises are bad!

Here are a few updated pictures of Luna!

 

[D'Elle]

I recommend looking up the "look At That Game" online. It is a great way to manage barking you don't want.

I have a friend who trained three barky shelties to stop barking instantly by using that game with all three of them at once.