Way to go Izzy! What a smart pupper! I am sure he was so proud when he finally got to show you what he was woofing at, that was really great.
I always say our 3 Newfies have their regular old bark and then their, "Hey pay attention this is important bark." Once we were at the vet with 2 out of 3 of pups. A dog that was not very nice, was probably scared of being at the vet, was barking, growling, and started to lunge toward us. Our biggest guy Klondike, who is the most laid back pup, stood up , puffed his chest out and put himself between us and the growling dog. He let out one huge, Newfie WOOF, got the whole waiting room's attention. The dog backed down and Klondike just laid back down at our feet.
We can usually tell when our pups just want to be rousty bark for fun and the more serious bark. Usually when people first put their sights on our pups, especially if all 3 are together, that is usually the attention grabber! I think it is a riot when repairmen or somebody has to come to the door, we ask, are you afraid of dogs? The reply is, "do they bite?" We always say, "no, not unless you do something stupid." Of course we know they will most likely lick you to pieces but, we aren't going to tell complete strangers that. We always leave the dogs free in the house so if somebody gets any nutty ideas, we will know by our pups reactions pretty quickly.
We have lots of deer, horses,red fox and sometimes bear in our area. Our yard is fenced in part and at night if our pups go out for lounging on the deck or their last out for the night, if they get a scent of something that has passed close to the house, they will have their hair up, sniffing, running and sometimes bark like wild. We don't usually discourage any alert barking, we check it out and tell them good job, thanks for keeping an eye on us. On occassion the horses from the next door farm get out and wander close to our yard. Sometimes our pups can sense that from inside the house and sure enough if you look out the window, there are 2 horses grazing on our lawn. Now our pups are used to the horses, they give out one big woof to let us know they are there and then they go about doing whatever else they were doing.
I think you have to know your own pups, listen to their signals and figure out when it is important or when they are just being pups.
Keep up the good work all you puppers! Help keep your humans safe and alert.
Anita & the 3 Newfies from NJ