Being a guard dog

     I got blessed with dogs that are not really barkers, but occasionally they surprise me.  Like tonight and yesterday I was home all by myself for basically two days at my parents house which is rare.  So, when my parents got back a little bit ago, when the door opened, Puppy let out an alarming bark.  Two, in fact, and then she ran over to me and sat down like she was trying to make sure I knew.  It was very adorable considering she is largely silent and typically asleep.  But she jumped up, ran over to the baby gate where the front door is and barked.  Just warnings, nothing aggressive or anything like that.  Then Titus jumped up and looked at the door.  I fully believe if it wasn’t my parents that walked in, he would’ve barked himself.   He has been known to bark at visitors occasionally.
     As far as barking at visitors goes, I don’t think that it’s appropriate, but I don’t mind two or three warning barks.  As long as they can be hushed, I see no problem with barking at doorbells and things.  Some people love it when their dogs go plum crazy when the doorbell rings, but I think it’s just too much noise.  I think them barking as a warning is good just because I may not hear it, but I’m always attune to my dogs’ barking.  However, I feel like this is one of those things that you can only train if the dog already barks at the door – unless of course, you’ve trained your dogs how to speak in general.  I haven’t bothered with this command since I don’t want to hear their voices unless they’re playing, but I’m considering training them to give me warning barks when people knock on the door next year.  For pack behavior, it would give them look-out duty and something to always be on guard with.  It could be good for them considering they don’t do anything else.

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