Last night my neighbor’s dogs kept me awake with their constant barking. There was a full moon out, and so were the area’s coyotes-yipping and howling and disturbing all the dogs that live around her. My dogs also joined in with the others when they first heard the coyotes start in, but as soon as I told them to quiet down, they obeyed. My neighbor’s never quiet their pack of dogs-I don’t know how anyone could sleep that deep and it makes me mad and jealous at the same time.

While I lay there thinking about dogs and their barking, it was obvious that barking, even for a good reason (a warning, in this case) is bad when excessive.Really, the problem lay more with their owner’s lack of respect for everyone else in the neighborhood than with the dogs themselves.

As a dog owner, it is up to you to be responsible enough to keep any type of barking, whether it starts for a good reason or not, under control. Whenever my dogs bark for a valid reason, I want to control it, but not stop it.

Check out these more acceptable reasons for your dog to start his barking. You can see the difference between these “good barking” reasons and  the  “problem barking” reasons, and know whether your dog’s barking is a problem or not.

• One very good reason for your dog to bark is to warn you that something (perhaps a stranger or another dog) is coming your way. This is an instinctual part of being a dog, and is an appropriate behavior that you don’t want to discourage. Given that, you should still be able to quiet him with a command to stop. For instance, if your dog starts barking because he sees  someone getting out of a car in front of your house,  and you can see the person is not of any danger, you should be able to stop your dog’s barking  with a simple command. In case the visitor isn’t someone you want on the property, you have the option of letting your dog’s “good barking” continue to serve as a deterrent. The key is to be able to control the dog barking. If your dog is barking for a variety of other reasons, those are barking problems needing correction.

• Another common reason your dog will bark is because he is happy and excited about something. When I play with my dogs, they bark at me and at each other-but all in fun. This is the doggy’s way of saying he is having a lot of fun, and wants even more. I only quiet my dogs if one of them gets to barking excessively from over-excitement, or wanting more attention.  A little excited barking is one thing, but constant loud barking is quite another and should be stopped. Because your dog may develop a barking habit from too much excitement if you don’t limit it while playing, you need to pay attention to that.
• Your dog may start barking when you first come home. Greeting barks are very common and as long as the barking is only a few brief “hello” barks, it is not a big problem. My dogs always greet me at the gate when I come home, and I don’t mind a couple barks because that is all there are. If the dogs keep the barking up ,even after you’ve greeted them back, then it is not such a “good barking” anymore. That puts this behavior onto the unacceptable list because the dog doesn’t immediately stop barking after saying “Hi”.

• Another common time that your dog might bark is when he wants you to play with him.  If they continue barking at you to play, they are actually bullying you in a way. My dog had me pretty well trained through her bullying, so I know what this is like first hand. Truthfully, this isn’t great, because it is up to you as top dog to determine when play time begins. Otherwise you are letting the dog be the boss of you, and that isn’t good for your ability to train him. Don’t let your dog bully you into playing-remember, you must be the leader, the Alpha dog.

I think you’d agree the above barking behaviors are not troublesome-unless they are out of control. However, most of the other reasons dogs bark create a disturbance and should be corrected.

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Related posts:

1. When Dog Barking is Good
2. Stop Your Dog Barking Some Fun Techniques
3. Exessive Dog Barking Solutions.
4. Tips On Training The Dog To Finally Stop Barking
5. How To Help Your Dog Stop Barking

Tags: dog barking, dog barking problems, stop dog barking, why dogs bark

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 3:39 pm and is filed under Dog Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.