Why do dogs bark ?
Barking is to dogs as simple conversation is between us humans, a means of communication with one another, to
Virtually all dogs bark, howl or whine at some stage, in the day, week or life, but in most cases its not deemed a problem. However when its excessive and intrusive it becomes a behavioural problem.
A problem that is not solved by shouting at the dog every time it howls, or barks. To understand why the dog is exhibiting this nuisance behaviour we have to fully understand whats triggering the behaviour in the first place.
Types of Dog Barking
There are a number of common types of barking which your dog may be engaging in:-
- A warning or alert bark
- Excitement or play bark
- Barking to simply seek your attention
- Anxiety
- Simple boredom can
- Replying to other barking dogs in the area.
Now, I have a dog that used to bark to seek attention, I have one that I encourage to bark when people are on the drive or about, one that was trained to bark on command - just because I wanted to, and one that barks to advise its found the person its looking for (SAR dog). But not all barks are useful, not all barks are welcome. In fact if one of my dogs barks late at night or the early hours of the morning its not welcome at all, however if another one does, its very welcome.
So what can we do to control unwanted behaviour ?
First find out whats causing your dog to bark.
Is it telling you someone is around your premises?
Have you left it alone and its seeking attention?
Is it bored ?
Is it barking when you leave it alone?
Its key to coming up with a solution to find out whats causing the barking.
One client had a dog that would constantly bark when it was outside in the garden, when we looked at what was going on it was standing at the fence looking through a gap barking at the neighbours dog trying to get it to play. Once we covered the gap in the fence, the dog..... went quiet !
We will look at further solutions to barking in a future blog post so pop back soon, or call Steve on 01760 441890 to discuss your dogs barking issues.
