DANISH ASLAM

Hi We have an indie rescue (the Indian pariah dog) who's about 1 1/2 years old (we adopted him when he was about 2 months old). The problem is that he has become a guard dog. He barks the moment the doorbell rings. he then goes to the door and tries to get outside, barking the whole time. So we can only open the door marginally to prevent him from getting out. He barks at most of the people who come inside (guests, workers, delivery agents, etc). There is no common thread that we've been able to discern - he seems to be ok with about 40% of the guests. But if he doesn't like someone, he barks the entire time they're home. Which has lasted up to 2-3 hours on some occasions. We've tried telling them to ignore him, letting him out on a leash near them, let them meet him at the door so he can sniff them, giving him a treat to keep him occupied, but nothing seems to work. Now we generally put him in his cage in the living room (where he sleeps at night), but that doesn't stop the barking. We have also installed a baby gate at the entrance to one of the rooms and kept him inside so that he'd have more space but that doesn't have any effect. In fact, on one occassion, he lunged on the nbaby gate so hard that it come off the suction hinges. If we keep him in a room and shut the door so he can't see the person, he settles down but he's still alert and doesn't go back to the normal till he's been let out and he can go around sniffing the whole house and make sure nobody else is at home. Similarly, if the guest goes inside a room and out of his line of sight, he settles down but the moment he spots them, he starts barking again. A third option is that sometimes he settles down with the guest in the living room (same room as his cage), but only if they're sitting and still. The moment they get up or move, he's up with his hackles raised. It doesn't matter if the person is completely new or someone he's met before but hasn't reacted well to. He will bark nonstop. We would like to know what procedure to follow to make him less reactive to guests and/or stop barking every time someone comes into the house. Barking when the bell rings is something we can live with, but not being able to have people over is a problem. Thanks Danish