Excessive Barking

Excessive barking is a dog behavior problem that occurs when a dog's natural reaction of barking in response to environmental changes and disturbances becomes chronic and habitual.

Causes

If a usually well-behaved dog begins barking excessively or making other vocalizations, a trip to the veterinarian will rule out the possibility of illness or injury, put your mind at ease and allow you to consider the following stress-related behavioral causes for excessive barking:

1. Dog Separation Anxiety can cause your dog to bark excessively while you are out. You can train your dog to be alone and know you’ll return. Say “quiet” to the dog and leave the room. If he barks, return, say “quiet” and leave again. When the dog stays quiet for a short time, return, praise him and give him a treat. Continue this training by staying out for increasingly longer intervals. Try giving him special toys to play with while you’re gone, especially the treat release toys.
   Here's additional advice about Dog Separation Anxiety.
   
   
2. Loneliness can cause your dog to bark excessively, but can be easily managed. When you and your family members are home, take turns providing your dog with extra attention, exercise, playtime, petting and grooming.  Provide toys for entertainment and distraction while you’re gone. Consider getting a companion animal for your dog, since dogs are social and usually love a compatible companion pet. Consider hiring a dog walker or companion to provide company if the dog must be home alone most days.
   
   
3. Dogs engage in Territorial, Threatening or Warning Barking to protect their territory, threaten intruders and warn their owners and other dogs of threats. The dog will continue to bark until the danger has passed. This type of excessive barking can be managed by reassuring the dog, moving him to an inner room where he will feel safe and introducing him to the “regular intruders” such as letter carriers, delivery personnel, landscapers, neighbors and friends.
   
   
4. Play Invitation Barking, accompanied by tail wagging with the head lowered, front paws extended and hind quarters up, lets you know your dog is ready to play and will stop when he gets your attention.
   
   
5. Habitual or Chronic Barking usually begins for natural and legitimate reasons  like loneliness or territorial threats, but continues because it becomes a behavior problem that’s been reinforced by receiving the owner’s attention. This type of excessive barking responds well to the training steps in the section below on training.

Minimizing the Noise and Nuisance

During the process of training your dog not to bark, you can minimize the noise and nuisance of barking when you’re not home by keeping your dog in a crate, run or room in the middle of your home, away from windows and doors, and turning on the radio to mask outside noises. Reducing his awareness of outside threats will allow your dog to feel safer, which will reduce his barking. It will also minimize barking noise your neighbors hear. Of course, make sure your dog has water, snacks, toys and that you’re not gone for too long.

Training

Remember to avoid confusing the dog with inconsistent reactions, such as ignoring the barking, then providing negative attention followed by half-hearted training efforts. Commit to a course of action then be consistent! Also, make sure your dog is getting enough exercise, because it’s easier to train a calm well-exercised dog than one that has too much pent-up energy to pay attention and follow through on commands. Take action while the dog is actually barking, always use a strong firm voice and have a large supply of your dog’s favorite treats on hand.

Since dogs are naturally inclined to bark, many trainers recommend that you begin by teaching your dog to bark on the command “Speak.” When he speaks on command, it will be easier to train him to be “Quiet” at your command, rather than when he is barking because he is upset. Here are the steps for an initial training session:

1. When your dog is barking, say “Speak” and “good dog” and hold a treat in front of the dog.
   
   
2. The dog will be quiet because he’ll smell and see the treat. When he is quiet, give the command “Quiet” and after a few seconds of quiet, give him the treat and praise the dog.
   
   
3. When he begins to bark again, show him the treat and give the command “Quiet.” Keep commanding him to be “Quiet,” and don’t give him the treat until he’s been quiet for five or six seconds. Give him the treat and praise.
   
   
4. Repeat the step but increase the quiet intervals by a few seconds each time. See if you can work up to a few minutes of quiet in each session. Do a few sessions every day, building up to increasingly longer intervals of quiet.

If the problem persists despite your best efforts, hire a dog trainer or certified animal behaviorist to work with your dog to reduce excessive barking.

Other Methods

It’s better to try to identify the causes, minimize the noise and nuisance and do behavior modification training for excessive dog barking. However, there are situations that may cause you to consider other methods. If, due to your dog’s excessive barking, you are being faced with eviction, lawsuits or other court action or you are considering giving your dog up to a shelter, you might consider using a “no bark collar.” Herbal and shock collars are both available. They work in response to vibrations from the dog barking. When the dog barks and vibrates, the herbal collar emits a mist of herbal spray into the dog’s face or the shock collar has prongs that emit a mild shock to the dog’s neck. The spray or the shock startles the dog, interrupts the barking, and may train the dog to avoid barking. If you have tried everything else, including a professional trainer, the herbal or shock collars are better than giving your dog up to a shelter.

Home - Dogs

If you are out a lot, or you know you are going to be gone all day, consider hiring a dog walker. Every day your dog walker will exercise, feed and let your dog out. Good dog walkers (who usually walk more than one dog at a time) will socialize your dog to other animals, which can be very beneficial. Another thing you can do, if you are going to be away for a long stretch of time, is to provide specially designed toys in which you can hide food. There are devices with timers that eject rolling balls with food inside them at a certain times of the day determined by you. Your dog has to play with the ball to get the food out. This can keep your dog busy for hours.

Visitors, noise and commotion are usually not a problem for a dog. If your dog doesn’t like your noisy friends, or loud music, usually he will take himself off to some far corner of your home, and sleep until the noise and commotion dies down.

Some dogs like listening to music and watching TV. Try turning on animal shows and see if your dog enjoys watching.

Dogs are nest builders and some dogs like to build elaborate nests. You can tell by how much time your dog spends fussing over his bed when he goes to sleep at night. Does he turn three times and then lay down? Or does he try to position things like pillows or stuffed toys near his bed before going to sleep? If he is a more elaborate nest builder, you can give him supplemental bedding materials to help him make a cozier “nest.”

Just remember, be consistent with your dog. Dogs get to know when you will be home, walking and meal times. They come to depend on a regular schedule, and will feel stressed by too many schedule changes. Your ability to maintain a predictable schedule for your dog is one of the most important things you can do for your dog’s mental health.