Sadie has always been a very quiet dog. Up until recently she almost never barked and now,it has begun. It seems mostly at night that,she thinks she hears someone coming through the back door and gets up and starts barking,growling walking to the bark door looking around,and the hair on her shoulders sticking up. Then she starts to calm down and will still snort and walk around looking at us,and then after about 5 minutes calms down completely and goes back to whatever. This has started up in the past..3 weeks or so I'd say. She's 7 and half months old and I don't know what I should do about her fear. Earlier we were watching tv and someone bust through a door on the tv and she thought it was someone in the house and immediately jumped up from napping and barked and ran to the back door. I've heard some people say to calm her down and let her know its OK,others say not to, that,that teaches them its ok to be scared. Needless to say her bark is very developed,very loud,deep,and we now know she would definitely intimidate any would be person actually there.