Help With 7 Month GSD Home Guarding Behavior

[nas22345]

Hello everyone! My 7 month male has been exhibiting some home guarding behavior. Originally I (F) wanted a guard dog/pet but haven't done any aggressive kind of training or taken him to any "guarding" classes. I was undecided if I should be training him to guard the home or not so I haven't moved forward with anything related to that. However I live in an apartment, occasionally maintenance needs to come in. This past week they have needed to come in almost every day, for a leak on the floor below us. During these visits my GSD has been very cautious, sniffs the maintenance man/men (there is more than one), and occasionally growls. Sometimes he will bark at them (very rare when they are in the apartment) and will bark at the door when he hears them knock. I didn't want to punish or crate him for this behavior because if there is a break in/trespassing/etc I do want him to bark and wake me or guard the home. After the third day I thought it would be best to give him the "bed" command and treat him for quiet behavior. I always let him sniff the workers and then I ask him to lay in his bed and stay, I give him treats periodically to let him know he is doing the correct action. However, I do not know how to differentiate who is a welcome guest and who isn't to my puppy. I don't want to train him that every guest is welcome in my home as I actually do not get much company, but I do want to let him know that some are not a danger to us.

Puppy Tax

Puppy Tax 2

Next to the 5'6 Mother-In-Law

Size Comparison of the 6'3 Honey

 

[luigi203]

@nas22345 All sounds pretty normal to me.

He'll learn who's a guest by how you interact with them, and by exposure to them over time. Everyone else he'll likely still "alert" too. That's just their natural behavior. Continuing to socialize and reward calm behavior when the workers are around is definitely the right thing to do.

Don't bother yourself with the idea of a trained guard/protection dog. If it's not something you want to invest considerable time and money into, then protection dogs are a liability.