Barking is indeed a natural form of communication for dogs. There are many reasons why your dogs keep barking, ranging from territory protection, anxiety, or response to other dogs or people. In this article, Noble Pawtrait will uncover the most common reasons for your dog barking and the most straightforward techniques to control it!
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Reasons Why Your Dogs Bark
Despite being commonly a behavioral concern, excessive barking can be due to health concerns first.
Health Problems
When your puppies or dogs experience pain or health problems, they are more likely to bark excessively. In this case, you should first check if your furry friend has an irritating spot somewhere; it might bark when this area is touched. It can sometimes be hard to detect or check pains in the ears or mouth. Therefore, you should also get your dog examined by a vet.
Aging Dogs
Commonly, when your dog turns old, it begins to make some noises and bark more. Some aging dogs can bark for hours, while others bark excessively and are entirely unaware of what they’re doing. Old dogs are vulnerable, suffering from canine cognitive dysfunction and other problems such as vision impairments or body aches and pains. All these can be reasons for your dog’s barking all the time.
Territory Protection
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Dogs all want to defend their territory, their home, yards, bed, food, or toys. When a new person or dog approaches what they view as their territory, they will act defensively or even aggressively to protect their territory. In addition to fence-running, growling, or lunging, barking is typical aggressive behavior of territorial dogs.
Fear & Anxiety
Dogs can be likely to express their fear via barking. A stranger, a loud noise like thunder or fireworks, or an unfamiliar situation – all these things can frighten your dogs and lead to their barking. Besides, since dogs are pack animals, they need your company or other dogs’. When a dog is left alone, it might bark excessively as a sign of unhappiness and separation anxiety. The symptoms can be easily detected through symptoms such as pacing, depression, destructiveness, or inappropriate elimination.
Attention Need
Demand barking is also quite popular behavior among puppies and dogs. They bark since they will get what they yearn for in exchange for your peace. In other words, excessive barking can result from your dogs’ hunger or thirst, their need to go outside, or their way to attract your attention.
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Top Tips To Stop Your Dogs Barking
What can dog parents do to stop their dogs from excessive barking? Below are some simple techniques that can work right for most puppies and dogs.
Utilize Sight Barriers
Many pups or dogs bark at what they see outside your glass door or window. Your dogs bark at people, other dogs, or strange things as a way to protect their territory. You can use sight barriers such as a privacy fence or simply close the window blinds and curtains in these situations. They help prevent your dogs from seeing barking triggers and have a better state of mind.
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Set Up A Safe Space
In case of your dog barking due to separation anxiety, it is essential to make it feel more comfortable in its own safe space. You need to set up a crate, room, or playpen that blocks out sounds and sights from the surroundings. For example, you can cover your dog crate with towels or blankets, draw down the curtains and blinds. Additionally, white noise from a fan or TV can help reduce the outside noises and make your furry friend feel more secure on its own.
Engage Them In Something
If there are no triggers for barking from the environment, your pups are more likely to feel frustrated or bored. In this case, it is advisable to entertain them with something like toys. A Kong toy stuffed with the food or a treat that your dogs favor will engage them in getting to their reward. A chew toy is also a feasible solution to make your pup focus on something other than barking.
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Avoid Rewarding Barking
Do you give your dog the attention every time it barks? If so, you are encouraging their barking behavior. Instead, try to reward your beloved pups with treats when they are quiet. In case they keep on barking, just ignore them or leave until they become calmer instead of engaging them. Once they cease barking, even for a few seconds pause, you can reward them. This gradually makes your puppies associate not barking with a positive outcome.
Resort To Bark Collars
Finally, dog parents can (though we do not recommend) use bark collars such as spray or electric shock collars, compressed air sprays, and rattle cans as a last resort. It seems that these collars offer a “quick fix”, but keep in mind that your dog only stops barking when the device is used. Only when you have tried many methods, and no one works should you utilize these collars. They inflict discomfort and pain to force your dogs from barking, which deals little with the real reason behind your dogs’ barking.
The Final Thought
There are many reasons why your puppy keeps barking all the time, and dog parents can adopt different techniques to stop this irritating problem. It should be kept in mind that you need to prevent your dogs from excessive barking, but wisely do that to maintain your close bond with your furry friends.