barking dog

We own a very kind and loving bernese mountain dog whose name is Ollie. The problem we have with Ollie is that he barks whenever he sees an animal pass our house, barks out in the back yard when initially he sees our neighbours dog, also,when people come to the door and lately when he hears the "click" from the remotes to turn the TV on. This was not as much of an issue prior to our 17 month old being born though still an issue. We think we are pretty good with Ollie. We reward him with treats, take him for long off-leash walks every day and play with him/interact with him throughout the day. How can we get him to stop barking when we want him to? We do undersatnd he is a dog and in fact barking is appropriate at times.

he barks whenever he sees an animal pass our house, barks out in the back yard when initially he sees our neighbours dog, also,when people come to the door

This kind of barking is "alarm barking" and is genetic so pretty hard to stifle in many dogs. But you can teach the dog when it's "enough". One or two barks to alert you to the fact that he's doing his job, then stop.

Here are a lot of links on barking, and how to handle it. Hope they help.:)
Barking (http://www.wonderpuppy.net/canwehelp/noise.htm)

LOL - and they do have a very very loud bark too..... :D