Stop Dog Barking

One of the most common complaints from dog owners – and indeed from their neighbours – is dog barking. Although it is reassuring to know that your dog will bark if there is possible danger such as an intruder to your house, the sort of nuisance barking,either for no reason or due to learned behaviour, needs to be dealt with. First let’s look at why dogs bark.

Yawn or Bark ?

Stop Dog Barking – Barking for No Reason or Learned Response?

As your puppy grows up you may not play with him as much as when he was a cute little puppy. Stop him being bored and adopting bad behavior by playing with him and keeping him occupied.

You may think that your dog is barking for no reason and that he is just making an unpleasant noise. To the dog, however, he has a good reason – it just isn’t known to you! There are three areas which could cause these dog barking problems; anxiety, boredom or because he is lonely and wants attention. For your dog – a pack animal – these are all valid reasons to bark. In the wild he would rarely be on his own for any length of time, so when you go out to work all day this triggers all these reasons to bark. Similarly if he is shut outside or in another room for a long time he will bark to let you know he is alone and wants to be with you. He is, in fact, acting quite naturally.

Without even realising you may have taught your dog to bark in certain situations. For example, when your puppy was outside and wanted to come in he barked. Perhaps you tended to ignore him for a little while, so he barked louder and you eventually let him in. Now he knows that the louder he barks the better chance he has to be let in. You re-enforce this puppy barking every time you let him in when he barks. By the time he is an adult dog he will always bark in the garden because he knows you will come out to him and open the door!

Similarly, when the postman arrives the puppy would bark and you would respond by going to the door, probably talking to the puppy at the same time. You immediately have set up a reason for him to bark because your puppy knows that barking will make you respond and pay attention to him. It does not take much for this to develop into the adult dog barking at every noise or movement – he gets a response!

How to Prevent Puppy Barking – How to Stop Dog Barking

As always prevention is better than a cure to stop dog barking. So, start early with this training to stop dog barking. Do not allow any excessive barking for any reason. If your puppy starts to bark completely ignore him, making no eye contact at all. If he continues and is very excitable remove him from the room. Only allow him back into your company when he is quiet. This must be done every single time the puppy barks and by every member of your family. If the puppy is outside make sure you don’t let him in when he barks – only when he is quiet. This takes some doing but is worth the effort. Use rewards to teach the command ‘quiet’ as early as you can, then use this to re-enforce the good behaviour in all aspects of his daily life. Once he understands this command you can teach him to use his bark to inform you of situations. So train him to do one sharp bark if someone knocks at the door. Use the ‘quiet’ command after the very first bark then instantly reward him for being quiet. He will soon understand that just one bark is acceptable – more is not.

How to stop dog barking in adult dogs is a considerably longer and more difficult proposition. You have to address the issues of learned behaviour first. If you leave your dog for long periods then you may have to completely re-assess how you care for your dog – and possibly make changes in order to stop dog barking. If you leave him outside and he is barking then he may need to be left in the house. If you leave him outside because of potty training issues or because he jumps on the furniture, then deal with these training issues first.

If your dogs barking due to learned behaviour then you need to engage in some serious re-training. The first thing you should try to do is train your dog in the ‘quiet’ command as with the puppy training above. This is much more difficult with older dogs and will take longer, but persistence and patience will eventually work, so long as you continually praise him for being quiet and reward immediately when he does stop dog barking. Ignoring and isolating your dog also works but will again take time and nerves of steel! Continuous barking must always result in isolation, but the moment he stops then reward him and allow him back in your company. It will take much longer than with a puppy but he will eventually get it!

In chroninc barking cases where a dog won’t stop barking you may need to use a bark collar which gives a mild shock to the dog each time it barks. Another dog barking control is the use of citronella spray to stop constant barking. Talk to your vet first before you use any of these solutions to stop dog barking.