How to Stop a Dog From Barking

Barking, howling, and whining are normal ways dogs show their feelings, wants, and needs. It can be exhausting, stressful, and sometimes embarrassing, but you are not alone. These behaviors can be a sign that something deeper is going on. The first step is to find out why your dog keeps barking. Once you know that, you can make changes to the environment, so your dog does not feel the need to bark as much.

Keep a diary of when, where, and what is happening can help you find patterns in your dog’s behaviors. Teach your dog alternative behaviors to barking. Provide enrichment, play, or training. Keep your dog busy and set it up for success before they start to bark. Reward your dog when it is quiet. Ignore your dog if it barks for attention. Wait for your dog to stop barking before re-engaging with it.

Train an alternative calm behavior. Make sure your dog has enough mental and physical stimulation. This will reduce the likelihood of unwanted barking. Excessive barking is a commonly reported problem behavior. Barking is a normal way for dogs to show their feelings, wants, and needs. Just like humans, some dogs naturally communicate their feelings more than others.

Some breeds bark due to their historic working roles, like herding and guarding.

Personality, learnt experiences, genetics, and health status all play a part too. Whatever the cause of your dog’s barking, it does not do so to be mean or because it is naughty – it is just trying to communicate. If your dog learns that barking works, it is likely to keep doing it. It can feel overwhelming when your dog will not stop barking at seemingly everything.

Learn your dog’s body language so you know how it feels when it barks. This will help you to understand why your dog bark. The two main reasons why dogs bark are because they are trying to make something they think is good to happen, or to stop something they think is bad from happening. Try to find out what causes your dog to bark. It is likely to be something it can see or hear.

Keeping a diary can help notice patterns in their behavior. Plan how to avoid triggering situations and what you will do if your dog barks ahead of time. Stressed dogs are more likely to bark. Ensure your dog’s physical and mental needs are met. If your dog has a stressful day, assume it will bark at all triggers for and try to avoid them completely. Instead, allow plenty of rest and lots of fun activities.

If you see calm, quiet behavior, praise and reward your dog.

Distract your dog before it barks with games, toys, or treats. Teach your dog alternative calm behaviors to barking such as ‘sit’, ‘down’, ‘stay’, ‘go to bed’, and ‘settle’. If you think your dog barks because it is afraid, it is important to seek expert advice. Forcing a dog to ‘face their fear’ could make matters worse, especially if it cannot get away.

If your dog barks, do not tell it off. Your dog may think you are joining in, or may become afraid of you. Instead, try to refocus your dog on a calm activity with you. Opening the fridge door or rustling a packet can interrupt barking in a positive way. Be sure to not feed your dog from the fridge though, or the barking may increase. Instead, ask for a known behavior like ‘sit’, and reward that.

Changes in a dog’s behavior are often influenced by its physical health, even when there are no obvious signs of pain or illness. Some medical issues are subtle, develop gradually, or are masked by your dog coping well, so even if you are very attentive, you may not notice anything wrong. You should seek veterinary advice if your dog barks because it is worried or anxious when being left alone, or suddenly become sensitive to sound.

A visit to your vet is a supportive first step.

It could rule out any medical causes or fix the behavior. Knowing your dog is healthy will make any behavior support and training clearer, fairer, and more effective for you and your dog. To help your vet assess your dog’s behavior, it can be helpful to bring along any videos, diaries, or notes you have to your appointment at the vets. Speak to your vet when booking if you think it would be useful to have a detailed conversation before the physical exam.

Barking is one of many forms of vocal communication for dogs. People are often pleased that their dog barks, because it alerts them to the approach of people to their home or it tells them there is something that the dog wants or needs. However, sometimes a dog’s barking can be excessive. Because barking serves a variety of functions, you must identify its cause and your dog’s motivation before you can treat the problem.

Each type of barking serves a distinct function for a dog, and if it is repeatedly rewarded, it can learn to use it to its benefit. For example, dogs who successfully bark for attention often go on to bark for other things, like food, play, and walks. For this reason, it is important to train your dog to be quiet on cue so that you can stop its attention-related barking and teach it to do another behavior to get what it wants instead.

Many owners can identify why their dogs are barking just by hearing the specific sounds.

For instance, a dog’s bark sounds different when it wants to play as compared to when it wants to come in from the yard. If you want to reduce your dog’s barking, it is crucial to determine why it is doing so. It will take some time to teach your dog to bark less. Unfortunately, it is just not realistic to expect a quick fix or to expect that your dog will stop barking altogether.

Your goal should be to decrease, rather than eliminate, the amount of barking. Bear in mind that some dogs are more prone to barking than others. In addition, some breeds are known as “barkers” and it can be harder to decrease barking in these breeds. Dogs can bark excessively in response to people, dogs, or other animals within or approaching their territories.

Your dog’s territory includes the area surrounding its home and, eventually, anywhere it has explored or associates strongly with you: your car, the route you take during walks, and other places where it spends a lot of time. If your dog barks at any and every noise and sight regardless of the context, it is probably alarm barking. Dogs engaged in alarm barking usually have stiffer body language than dogs barking to greet, and they often move or pounce forward an inch or two with each bark.

Alarm barking is different than territorial barking in that a dog might alarm bark at sights or sounds in any location at all, not just when it is defending familiar areas, such as your house, yard, or car.

Some dogs bark at people or other animals to gain attention or rewards, like food, toys, or play. Your dog might be barking in greeting if its body is relaxed, excited, and its tail is wagging. Some dogs barks excessively only when they hear other dogs barking. This kind of barking occurs in the social context of hearing other dogs, even at a distance. Some dogs bark excessively only when they are placed in a frustrating situation, like when they cannot access playmates or when they are confined or tied up so that their movements are restricted.

Dogs sometimes bark in response to pain or a painful condition. Before attempting to resolve your dog’s barking problem, please have your dog examined by a veterinarian to rule out medical causes. Excessive barking due to separation anxiety occurs only when a dog’s caretaker is gone or when the dog is left alone. You will usually see at least one other separation anxiety symptom as well, like pacing, destruction, elimination, depression, or other signs of distress.

The first step toward reducing your dog’s barking is to determine the type of bark your dog is expressing. Territorial behavior is often motivated by both fear and anticipation of a perceived threat. Because defending territory is such a high priority to them, many dogs are highly motivated to bark when they detect the approach of unknown people or animals near familiar places, like their homes and yards.

This high level of motivation means that when barking territorially, your dog might ignore unpleasant or punishing responses from you, such as scolding or yelling.

Even if the barking itself is suppressed by punishment, your dog’s motivation to guard its territory will remain strong, and it might attempt to control its territory in another way, such as biting without warning. Dogs engage in territorial barking to alert others to the presence of visitors or to scare off intruders or both. A dog might bark when it sees or hears people coming to the door, the mail carrier delivering the mail, or the maintenance person reading the gas meter.

The dog might also react to the sights and sounds of people and dogs passing by its house or apartment. Some dogs get especially riled up when they are in the car and see people or dogs pass by. You should be able to judge from your dog’s body posture and behavior whether it is barking greeting or territorial. If you are dealing with a dog that is not friendly to people, you will be more successful if you limit your dog’s ability to see or hear passersby and teach it to associate the presence of strangers with good things, such as food and attention.

For treatment of territorial barking, your dog’s motivation should be reduced as well as its opportunities to defend its territory. To manage your dog’s behavior, you will need to block its ability to see people and animals. Removable plastic film or spray-based glass coatings can help to obscure your dog’s view of areas that it observes and guards from within your house.

Use secure, opaque fencing to surround outside areas your dog has access to.

Do not allow your dog to greet people at the front door, at your front yard gate, or at your property boundary line. Instead, train your dog to go to an alternate location, like a crate or a mat, and remain quiet until it is invited to greet appropriately. Alarm barking is very similar to territorial barking in that it is triggered by sights and sounds. However, dogs who alarm bark might do so in response to things that startle or upset them when they are not on familiar turf.

For example, a dog who barks territorially in response to the sight of strangers approaching will usually only do so when in its own home, yard, or car. By contrast, a dog who habitually alarm barks might vocalize when it sees or hears strangers approaching in other places, too. Teach your dog that when someone comes to the door or passes by your property, it is permitted to bark until you say “Quiet.”

Allow your dog to bark three to four times, then say “Quiet.” Avoid shouting, just say the command clearly and calmly. Then go to your dog, gently hold its muzzle closed with your hand and repeat “Quiet.” Release your dog’s muzzle, step away, and call it away from the door or window. Then ask your dog to sit and give it a treat. If your dog stays beside you and remains quiet, continue to give it frequent treats for the next few minutes, until whatever triggered its barking is gone.

If your dog resumes barking right away, repeat the sequence.

Do the same outside if your dog barks at passersby. If you prefer not to hold your dog’s muzzle or if doing so seems to scare it or make it struggle, you can try a different method. When your dog barks, approach it, calmly say “Quiet,” and then prompt its silence by feeding it a steady stream of tiny, pea-sized treats, such as chicken, hot dogs, or cheese.

After enough repetitions of this sequence, over several days or more of training, your dog will begin to understand what “Quiet” means. You will know that your dog is catching on if it consistently stops barking as soon as it hears you say “Quiet.” At this point, you can gradually extend the time between the cue, “Quiet,” and your dog’s reward. For example, say “Quiet,” wait 2 seconds, and then feed your dog several small treats in a row.

Over many repetitions, gradually increase the time from 2 seconds to 5, then 10, then 20, and so on. If the “Quiet” procedure is ineffective after 10 to 20 attempts, then allow your dog to bark 3 to 4 times, calmly say “Quiet,” and then immediately make a startling noise by shaking a set of keys or an empty soda can filled with pennies. If your dog is effectively startled by the sound, it will stop barking.

The instant your dog stops barking, call it away from the door or window, ask it to sit, and give it a treat.

If your dog stays beside you and remains quiet, continue to give it frequent treats for the next few minutes until whatever triggered its barking is gone. If your dog resumes barking right away, repeat the sequence. If your dog barks at people or other dogs during walks, distract it with special treats, like chicken, cheese, or hot dogs, before it begins to do so.

Soft, very tasty treats work best. Show your dog the treats by holding them in front of its nose, and encourage it to nibble at them while it is walking past a person or dog who would normally cause it to bark. Some dogs do best if you ask them to sit as people or dogs pass, other dogs prefer to keep moving. Make sure you praise and reward your dog with treats anytime it chooses not to bark.

It may help to have your dog wear a head halter at times when it is likely to bark. A halter can have a distracting or calming effect and make your dog less likely to bark. Make sure you reward your dog for not barking. For safety reasons, only let your dog wear the halter when you can supervise it. If your dog most often barks territorially in your yard, keep it in the house during the day and supervise it when it is in the yard so that it cannot just bark its head off when no one is around.

If your dog is sometimes able to engage in excessive alarm barking, that behavior will get stronger and harder to reduce. If your dog most often barks territorially in your car, teach it to ride in a crate while in the car.