I have recently bought a maremma puppy to guard out horses from dog attacks, so far so good he is now 8 months old and does a great job the only thing is he barks so much, is there a way to help with the barking? during the day he is fine but as soon as the sun goes down he will bark at anythnig that moves or makes a noise, is there a method with ths breed that will help him stop barking so much?

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Maremmas are supposed to bark..it is what they do to avoid an actually physical altercation with the subject of his intimidation. Unfortunately it sounds like you live on small acerage if it is annoying you. However you must remeber he is doing his job that you got him for... Please ensure you pass on to other possible buyers of Maremmas that they are only suitable to Livestock Guarding on large acerages away from people.

We have 2 Maremmas. Our male only barks when something serious is happening, our female hears other dogs in the distance barking and she can bark all night back at them,, which is very annoying! At first, I would go out and scold her with her muzzle in my hand,, looking her in the eyes when I do it. Now, all I have to do is yell at her with my serious voice and she knows to stop. They hate being scolded. I don't think they should bark at anything, just to be barking. When my male barks, I know I need to see what he is barking at. Both of our dogs are altered.

Livestock guardian dogs do not just view two or four legged creatures as possible threats or predators. They may view that bag blowing in the tree, the squeaky tires of your neighbors black garbage can, as potential threats if they do not know what it is. TEACH your dog - SHOW your dog. The more the dog sees and hears when young, the less the dog sees these 'things' as threats. Don't just yell at your dog for barking. Find out - see what the triggers are. TEACH.

Hi I have a maremma and she is 12 now. We have never lived on a large property and Maddie interacts very well with people (she has fans from 2 to 95 years), you just need to socialise your puppy. Maddie still loves to bark but I always check what it is and say that she is a good girl for guarding the house and she stops. However when she was young she would get very worked up and bark hysterically, I found that by giving her a time out in the bathroom for 10 minutes worked really well, after doing it once all I have to say is do you want to go into the bathroom and she stops barking.