dog suddenly stopped barking at strangers

Question
I adopted a 1 year old female Pitbull Dalmatian mix from a local shelter approximately 2 months ago.  From the first day we brought her home she barked at anyone walking by or near the house, and even anyone walking by the car if she were in it.  Now suddenly she has stopped.  If she makes any noise at all when someone is near the house or ringing the bell, it is now a loud squealing cry.  I would like her to resume her guarding behavior since our other dog doesn't do anything of the sort.  Could she possibly be fllowing his example suddenly?  Please tell me how to get my guard dog back?

Answer
Hi, Erin,

Thanks for the question.

Dogs go through two fear developmental phases, one at about 12-14 wks, and another at about 14 mos. That may be why her barking has turned to squealing recently. It wouldn't be a bad idea to teach her to bark on command. This is fairly easy to do, though it can be time consuming, and at first requires a great deal of patience.

At a time when you know she's hungry, not just for food but for something to do, tease her with a treat so that she's anxious to grab it from you. But don't give it to her. Keep teasing her, and as she gets more agitated, start barking at her. Start soft and low so as not to scare her. It's better if you do this without the other dog present, but if you can't arrange to do that, it can sometimes be helpful if there are two dogs vying for the treat.

Keep barking until one of the dogs barks, then immediately say "Speak!" and pop the treat into her mouth at the same time. You must always say the command after the dog has barked during this stage of the training process, not before. If you get antsy and start saying "Speak!" before the dog has learned that barking gets her the treats you'll actually interfere with her ability to learn.

Once she starts barking for the treat, and you've given it and the command to her at the same time a few times in a row, two things will happen. You'll begin to see a change in her facial expression or something in her eyes that comes over her just before she barks. Now you'll be able to predict pretty accurately when she's about to bark, and once you can predict it, you can start giving her the command just before she barks, and giving her the treat immediately after.

Don't work her too hard. If you get 4-5 repetitions, follow that with a little gamem of ball chase, then another 4-5 reps, another ball chase, another 4-5 reps, that should do it for that session. You can do another training session a few hours later if you like, or the next day. Whatever's best for you. Then after 3-5 days you should be able to get her to speak on command pretty reliably, especially when she hears noises outside the house.

I hope this helps!

LCK