Understanding Your Dog's Bark

Combat consistent barking with knowledge and patience.

Much like a person that talks too much, a barking dog can sometimes be a nuisance for the owner or a neighbor trying to get some sleep nearby. Dogs bark for several different reasons, with variations in the sound and the posture of the dog.

Alert barking – This is usually the most common form of barking. This is merely the dog’s way of telling you that something out of the ordinary is happening or something is invading its (or the family’s) territory. When humans first domesticated dogs, this was probably a beneficial early-warning-system for humans and they were in turn bred that way. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the dog is being aggressive, just protective. Usually it will be just a few barks or a sustained bark until they see you taking action in response to the situation at hand. It’s this type of behavior that the owner must determine if they like it or if they want to discourage it.

Warning barking – When a dog feels threatened, they will start with low, quiet barking before they start with something that sounds like howling. The dog may also bare its teeth. This is a sign that the dog may be aggressive.

Attention barking - The dog wants you to pay attention to it, so it barks. Sometimes the dog actually needs something. For example, if it’s near its feeding bowl, perhaps the dog is trying to hint that it wants some food.

Frustration barking – Sometimes dogs will bark when they are not sure of the situation.

Boredom barking – The dog is bored and is just trying to amuse itself.

So as you can see, when your dog is barking, there may be a very specific reason why they’re doing it. Instead of just telling it to shut up, the owner should take a look at the situation, and much like a disease, try not to treat the symptom but rather the deeper problem that is causing this.

Keep in mind that as stated before, some breeds were bred to bark more than others, and in general they have a built-in alert system because they have a strong sense of protection when it comes to their owners. However, if it seems like your dog is barking excessively then you should try and determine why they are barking.

One such way a dog owner can do this is narrow down the reasons why they’re barking. Control the environment so that the barking isn’t triggered and then reinforced. Perhaps your dog is barking at people walking by in the front yard? Remove the dog from that environment and either put them inside or in the back yard where they will not be constantly seeing an environment of changing variables.

Still barking? Perhaps you are reinforcing the behavior. If you walk through the door and your dog barks causing you to immediately yell at it to keep quite – you are just putting fuel on the fire. The best course of action would be to ignore your dog because it is barking for attention. If you’re giving them any sort of interaction, then you are giving them what they wanted and they know that barking is the way to do this.

If you’ve heard your neighbor’s dog barking, followed by them yelling, the dog barking, then the neighbor yelling again … you know what I’m talking about.

Once you’ve determined what triggers the barking, try to combat it, not with punishment, but with training. Sometimes dogs are barking because they’re nervous or stressed, so punishing them would just make things worse.

1. Try to expose them to more triggers more often to see if they’ll get used to the situation and then try to calm them down. Unusual noises or people are common triggers and if you show them that everything is okay they’ll usually have a more muted response.
2. Distract them from a situation that stresses them out by offering them treats, praise or anything that will get their minds off the problem at hand.
3. Professional training could also lead to less barking; however, this is obviously a route that will cost you money.
4. Muzzles or artificial deterrents are discouraged since they don’t reach the root of the problem and should be used as a last resort.

The biggest issue usually isn’t that the dog is barking, but rather the frequency of which it’s barking. If you can lessen these occurrences and teach your dog when it is acceptable to make noise, then you can rest easy along with your neighbors.