I have a German shepherd I'm training to be my service animal (not going to get into why/what tasks I will train her to do bc it isn't relevant). She's of the show line and is rather tame for a nearly 5 month old. That being said, she is already about 40 lbs and is estimated to be 100 lbs when she's fully grown (which is exactly what I wanted!) But that means she's already got a scary bark. It's not a bad thing, but I do feel bad when she scares away other dogs/dog owners bc she doesn't know how to bark any other way. I've trained her to do quiet "borfs" inside but she only does that when she's alerting me to someone outside. She's never attacked anyone, human or dog. She knows how to respect boundaries when another dog doesn't want to play–though it'll take her a second bc she's, y'know, a puppy–so I'm not worried about the bark actually being aggressive. She's just l o u d.
Is this even something I can help her with? Eventually I'll need to enforce not reacting at all (starting next month ish) but I feel bad for my neighbors who are just taking their dogs out for a walk.
Note: I'm already working on non-reaction when we go to the park or the store, and she does fairly well? Unless she comes across my friend's Samoyed who is her ESA, who she sees as a playmate lol, but that's another issue for another day.
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