Dutch Shepherd Forum

Morning Everyone
thank you letting me join. I have a 7month old DS named Benson who has decided to recently jump up and take clothing off the clothes line and also bark constantly through the night. We have tried endless toys to entertain him during the day/night and we are also leaving the back light on for him to hopefully stop the barking. He was sleeping inside for the first 5months however prefers to be outdoors at night
He is played with constantly through the day, goes for minimum 5-7km runs daily. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

keep him on a leash during the day so when you go around the clothes line, you can keep him from jumping. as far as the barking, does he go out before bed? make sure no water after 7pm and take him out before going to bed

Hmm idk yea keeping him on a leash might help as Lisa said. One that doesn’t have the length to reach the clothes or maybe move the clothes line. As for the barking he may be barking at thing moving around outside. Mice or squirrels or who knows. Maybe try keeping him inside.

Oh, I missed that he is outdoors at night. well, he is really not doing anything wrong. He is a protection dog and he is barking to protect you. Keep him inside at night.

Based on the description you need to do a couple of things...

First, it sounds like he needs to bond with you, so he doesn't want to be outside by himself at night. You need to become his world, and Lisa's suggestion of having him on a leash all the time might do the trick. All that exercise is great, but he needs to have his mind stimulated. Short, fun games and intermittent obedience training (combinations thereof) are recommended a few times a day.

If he's outdoors all night, he's going to find things to bark at. This is instinctive, and not likely to change.

Second, he needs to learn, and have reinforced, the Leave-It command. Ideally, you should seek help from a trainer for this, but there's some good videos online for this training. You could even use some old towels on the clothes line to reinforce this specifically for your problem.

This is a common response here on the forum, but you need the help of a knowledgeable working-dog trainer. Not to train your dog, but to train you. It's difficult for us to be aware of all the circumstances, so we can only give generalized help.

BTW - you have a very handsome dog.

He’s probably lonely outside alone. Rogue loves being outside, but prefers being right beside me or where she can see me.