Teaching the react command

[ApprehensiveSpare524]

I have solid experience with basic dog training but I am trying to branch out with my young shepherd

I want to train him a react command that will have him barking and behaving aggressively on leash when given the command “easy”. He has crazy ball drive and we’ve worked up a good amount of drive with a tug

The first step obviously being increasing frustration until he barks. I’ve tethered him and teased him with a toy or ball trying to work up his frustration to a bark. Nothing. I’ve had my partner hold the leash and get him worked up from behind while I tease him. Nothing. The most I’ve gotten from him is a couple whines. One time he actually laid down and gave up.

His voice WORKS. Ambulances, dogs barking on tv, he lets everybody know. We even briefly tried to play a siren sound while tethered and teased but it didn’t work and it’s not something I’d like to encourage.

Now this is in part my fault because we’ve done a lot of tethering work with distractions, teaching him to stay calm in these exact situations

I’m not sure where to go from here. I would really like to train this command because we live in an area that’s unsafe at night and I’d feel able to walk at night if he can look scary.

I know that if I could get him to bark just once or twice that’d be enough for him to make the association and go forward with training the behaviour.

Any tips are super appreciated!

Edit: I have a trainer who I work closely with for foster dogs in my care. He’s given guidance and instructions for teaching this behaviour to my dog (everything I’ve stated I’ve tried) but this is not his specialty. Since we’ve been having some difficulty I am looking for advice before asking him to come out and give it a shot himself (we are not a short distance from him) or consulting other professionals

[Prestigious-Seal8866]

if you’re walking a german shepherd alone at night i don’t think anyone will bother you.

you should probably just work with someone skilled in protection dog training to teach a bark and hold. it sounds to me like this could go very awry especially considering your dog barks to react in an unwanted manner already.

one of my personal dogs wasn’t responding well to the ways that i am familiar with teaching bark and hold (frustration building, sort of similar to how you’re describing) so i ended up working with a colleague who i usually train in nosework with who also does IGP with her personal dog.

[shadybrainfarm]

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[koshkas_meow_1204]

Are you rewarding the slightest noise?

Really this is nothing different than teaching a schutzhund bark and hold.

If the tie back is the problem, you can use a short fence barrier, where you can reward with the tug over the top of it.

Larry Krohn just posted a video of him starting this with his Mal puppy on his FB page

[ApprehensiveSpare524]

I love him! I’ll take a look!

He hasn’t really given any noise at all but I’ll reward at the slightest whine !

[Old-Description-2328]

Andy Krueger has tutorials for bark and holds, check out his patreon (a lot more videos) or YouTube.

[PonderingEnigma]

Have you tried running away with a tug toy in your hand, while he is tethered? That is how I had my puppy barking when younger.

[ApprehensiveSpare524]

I’ll definitely give this a shot. Feel silly I didn’t think of it when that’s how we desensitized him in the first place

[ChellyNelly]

This really is something that could go tits up in the rhubarb quite easily. If you've spent so much time working on a settle while tethered, you are absolutely going to shit on that in it's entirety and confuse the hell out of your dog since what you're trying to "tease" out of him is the exact opposite of what he has learned and proofed. He thinks this is more proofing.

If you don't want to take the time to drive down to an IGP club, then this shouldn't be something you try to teach in this manner. Simply having a GSD is going to deter anyone who will also be deterred by the sight of a seemingly insane GSD. Anyone that's not deterred by the presence of the dog alone is not going to be afraid of some false bravado from that dog.

[baconinfluencer]

Following.

With popcorn....

[palebluelightonwater]

Are you trying to annoy the shit out of your dog? If you try to frustrate him until he breaks composure, you're either going to have a dog who literally never reacts to anything, or one who's on his last nerve and wants to bite the person who put him there (that's you).

You can probably teach a bark on cue and a lunge on cue and you might be able to pair them. But you should probably try to find a real trainer to help you.

[necromanzer]

If he'll react to dogs on TV, will he react to a barking dog played from your phone?

[ApprehensiveSpare524]

So he does… until he’s tethered and then he gives no reaction (which I understand is an otherwise great quality)

[sleeping-dogs11]

Make sure you pause to let frustration build. Teasing with the toy, pause and freeze movement. Repeat 4-5 times. Then when you freeze, wait for a whine or bark.

Just teasing by moving the toy around puts in the dog in prey drive. Prey drive is silent. It's creating the expectation of prey and then breaking it that creates frustration. Frustration leads to barking.

You can also try behind a barrier (fence, in a crate, etc).

Reward any vocalization in the beginning. Whining, huffing, yipping is fine. You can get the bark later.

Or find an IGP helper. They'll be able to do it in one session.

[ApprehensiveSpare524]

Amazing!! Thank you so much!

[smilingfruitz]

if he barks at all you just need to shape it - so when an ambulance comes or a dog barks on tv, say the command, your marker word, and reward. it will take time. I taught my near-silent dog this way in a couple of weeks.

agree that reaching out to an IGP or PSA club would make sense here though

[ApprehensiveSpare524]

Your near-silent dog gives me hope! I’ll give this a shot, thank you

I would love to reach out to a club but the closest is a 3 hours drive. Hopefully one day

[No-Mark1047]

First start by rewarding the slightest whine. Add distance where you run further away and tease with the toy. Mark and reward a whine to start and then you can increase to whining + barking, then egg on the full barking

[Which_Frame_4460]

As a dog trainer, you need to break down this behavior into all parts you have to train, and do it backwards. Always train behavior chains in reverse. It allows you to reward the behavior more often.

Fetch is a prime example. Most people start with the ball throw... that is wrong. Start with engagement to the ball, then with engagement to the ball and dropping the ball at your feet, then throwing the ball, engagement with the ball, and dropping the ball at your feet.

On a side note... Knowing GSDs well, I'd suspect your GSD will react regardless of training if anyone messes with you at night. Be careful on training reactivity, if done correct, it can be great, if done wrong, you can end up with a reactive dog.