[Alaska7133]

I had a barker just like yours. She came home from the breeders with her mouth wide open. We tried a bark collar, lemon juice, yelling, etc. Nothing really worked. She would bark at people and other dogs as if to let them know she was there and like to have a conversation.

If I had to do it over again, here's what I'd try and do.
1. Try to look ahead and watch to see if someone coming up the trail is going to make my dog bark. I would call my dog to me and see in front of me. I would treat the dog and say their name. I would keep their attention until the person/dog went past.
2. I would take more obedience classes and come up with a marker to mark the behavior I wanted (not barking when meeting dogs). Like a word to use as a marker. I would combine it with a come and sit and whatever word I wanted to use as a marker. I'd say: Lucy, come, sit, no bark, treat. Treat again if she looks in the direction of the distraction and looks back at you. I hope your dog is food driven it sure helps.
3. I would set your dog up for situations that might spark the barking. Like knocking on the front door. Have a friend come over and knock on the door. Make sure you already have the dog on a leash so you can control better. Then mark and treat over and over while they are quiet.

You want them making a connection between good behavior and the mark whatever it might be. I hope that makes sense.

 

[golfgal]

Thanks. Sorry just saw this reply now. I will try these suggestions. My hearing must be getting better or I can do more things at once as I notice that sometimes it's like his play bark mode. EG. Today we're out playing in a field and a guy has his toddler about 100 yards away from Murphy stands there barking at him, tail awagging. Same behavior he displays when he's engaging a dog to play with him and run/chase him. Maybe since my other one is so quiet, I'm not used to the fact he's being vocal like other goldens. Who knows. Try my best and take my best guess, as no one I've talked to sees it as being an unusual behavior.

 

[itried]

Hi, Kiki used to bark at other dogs a lot but we've redirected this behavior into the command "focus" or "look". What we did is that we slowly built up her focus by slowly decreasing the distance away from the dogs. I generally dislike dog parks, but we had to train outside the park to get a constant feed of dogs walking by. Perhaps you can try something similar? Focus is the command when you have the dog look you in the eye if I was unclear