Stacia Porter

I am the proud owner of a 12 mth old GSD named Achilles. We've owned him since he was 9 weeks old and he's been worked in SchH since 10 weeks (we lived in Germany up until 6 weeks ago and he attended puppy SchH classes until he was about 4 months old when he started to work around the big dogs; he's been on the sleeve since 7 months). His obedience is good, but he needs work, especially since this overseas move took us 4 months to complete and we haven't had the time to work him since the end of January.

Our issue? He still barks at everything that moves: squirrels, birds, people, and other dogs. We can't go for a walk around the neighborhood b/c every 5 seconds he's off on another barking onslaught. He won't stop. He's been corrected with his flat buckle collar, we've scruff shaken, we've put him in down stays. Nothing deters him from barking. Every neighbor who passes by our house is greeted with his seriously deep bark. When other dogs pass by our yard, or he sees them, the hackles go up and bark has a bit of growl infused in it! I can't even take him inside a vet clinic without checking to make sure there aren't other dogs in there first! He does greet people rather well (aside from the tendency to jump up), he's never bitten outside of club work, and he's never attacked another dog or small animal.

Is this a cause for concern, or normal for a 12 mth old puppy? Is this fear, aggression, dominance, or just a hyper german shepherd lol? He has never had a prong collar and we'd like to keep it that way at least for a while more. He has responded quite well to verbal correction, unless of course he's distracted during one of his barking fits. We have an older dog in the home who refuses to play with him, and he's used to children (I have 3 ages 8, 5, and 2). Dh says the squirrels must be hurling insults at him from the trees in our front yard .

Thanks in advance!!

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Stacia, mom to
Abbie the beagle mix
Achilles the GSD
Andromeda the GSD
3 human kids
and a partridge in a pear tree