If I take Abrams anywhere, as soon as I let him out of the vehicle and he's excited, if he sees people he starts to bark at them. This is extremely annoying and people see a large brown dog on a prong collar barking extremely loudly and "aggressively". Not so good. Once we actually get going and start moving he typically shuts up and stops barking at people that we come across, but he always does it when we first get out of the car. Today he barked at three kids and scared the crap out of them. Luckily when I said, "I'm sorry guys, he's friendly, he's just really excited right now and likes to be noisy" they were like, "Oh, okay!" and didn't care anymore. One kid even tried to strike up a conversation with me and told me his uncle had a dog just like him. Lol
His bark isn't his happy bark, it is his watch dog bark, and his body language is very forward. He acts the same way when visitors come to the house. If he is actually able to greet the person he turns into a mushball, but keeping him physically restrained away causes him to bark and act out. So maybe it is a type of reactivity?
If I have him sit, he continues to bark. (I haven't tried a down, but I imagine it'd be much the same.) If I try to get him to not look at them, he throws a fit. If I shove treats in his face, he'll stop barking and take the treats, but he'll continue to growl.
I may try a gentle leader, to help redirect him? That way I can control his face versus just his neck? Are there any other exercises I can do to help him calm down? As I said, once we actually get going he's fine and doesn't care about people, it is just getting him out of the car that is the issue.
ETA: I've never given him a collar correction with the prong aside from when he's being a dingbat and tries to pull me over. (To which he responds quite appropriately.) I have it on him purely for control purposes. I've been avoiding using a collar correction for the barking incase it is some kind of reactivity issue, although today I was about fed up and was tempted.
His bark isn't his happy bark, it is his watch dog bark, and his body language is very forward. He acts the same way when visitors come to the house. If he is actually able to greet the person he turns into a mushball, but keeping him physically restrained away causes him to bark and act out. So maybe it is a type of reactivity?
If I have him sit, he continues to bark. (I haven't tried a down, but I imagine it'd be much the same.) If I try to get him to not look at them, he throws a fit. If I shove treats in his face, he'll stop barking and take the treats, but he'll continue to growl.
I may try a gentle leader, to help redirect him? That way I can control his face versus just his neck? Are there any other exercises I can do to help him calm down? As I said, once we actually get going he's fine and doesn't care about people, it is just getting him out of the car that is the issue.
ETA: I've never given him a collar correction with the prong aside from when he's being a dingbat and tries to pull me over. (To which he responds quite appropriately.) I have it on him purely for control purposes. I've been avoiding using a collar correction for the barking incase it is some kind of reactivity issue, although today I was about fed up and was tempted.