Dogs That Bark A Lot: What You Can Do
Dogs bark for lots of different reasons. Some kinds of barking are triggered by strong emotional responses such as fear, reactivity, and aggression. These behaviors require significant attention to and modification for the underlying emotions that drive these behaviors.
But one of the most common types of barking happens just because the dog is excited and expresses her excitement in part through excessive vocalization. With these dogs, we can often go straight to working with the barking without having to spend lots of time and effort modifying an underlying behavior.
WHY ALL THE EXCITEMENT?
If your dog’s annoying, excessive barking stems from excitement, I can relate. Sunny, our Pomeranian/Eskimo-mix, is one of these. We had his voice pretty well under control until the arrival of our newest dog, KC, another Australian Kelpie (we already had one, Kai). KC’s energy has rejuvenated Sunny’s barking – and then some.
The first task is to determine what sets off the excitement barking and figure out how to manage the trigger – at least to the best of your ability. While it’s usually fairly simple to identify the trigger (or triggers), the second part – managing your dog’s exposure to the stimuli that make her bark – can be difficult.
DOG BARKING MANAGEMENT OPTIONS
One stratagem is to simply remove your barky dog from the exciting environment.
When KC and Kai play chase and tackle in the backyard, Sunny runs after them at full speed, barking shrilly. I don’t want to take away all of Sunny’s fun, so I let him chase and bark for a minute or two, then put him in the house so the other two can play in peace.
If your dog gets excited and barks when your kids are playing on the swing set, or friends hollering at the TV during football games, put her elsewhere during those events and let her come out again when the activity subsides.
Another option is to manage the trigger (rather than the barker). If I want Sunny to stay in the backyard, I can otherwise engage KC in playing with a Frisbee, which doesn’t incite Sunny to chase and bark. Similarly, you could take the kids to swing at the park or at their friend’s house, or ask someone else to host football parties, at least until you have modified your dog’s barking behavior.
It can also be helpful to increase your excited dog’s mental and physical exercise, to increase calm and decrease the amount of energy she has available to devote to barking. Structured physical exercise can serve to help improve your dog’s impulse control and is preferred over all-out random crazy exercise. (See “Impulse Control Exercises for High-Energy Dogs,” September 2017 and “Are Canines Cognitive?” October 2017.)
Finally, you may be able to manage in the moment by just feeding your dog very-high-value treats as you move her away from the excitement-causing stimulus. This is not likely to change her behavior in the long run but might get you out of an embarrassing situation.
Please note that “very high value” may vary from one dog to the next, but usually means something moist and meaty or cheesy. My favorite brand of packaged, non-perishable, non-greasy, easy-to-break-into-small-pieces treats are from the Real Meat Treat Company. “Very high value” for most dogs is definitely not some boring, dry, kibble-type treat.
MODIFICATION
Photo Credit: Sue Feldberg/ Dreamstime.com
There’s nothing wrong with good management; in fact, I have no problem with a dog’s family choosing to manage barking behavior for the dog’s lifetime. It might, however, be nice to not have to manage the barking always and forever. If you are motivated and willing to make the effort, there are some effective ways to modify barking behavior:
- Reinforce an alternative behavior. This suggestion entails giving the dog something to do – as opposed to just telling her to not do something else – and when she does the thing we’ve asked, we can give her reinforcement for the new, preferable behavior. Some suggestions for behaviors that make particularly good alternatives to barking include:
- Find it. Say, “Find it!” brightly, and toss treats at your feet. This helps your dog shift her focus from “out there” and whatever she was barking at to you and the area near you.
- Search. Just like “find it,” but you toss the treats away from you into the grass for your dog to find.
- “Go to Your Mat.” Some people may train their dogs to “station” themselves on a mat, bed, or cot, and remain there in any position (stand, sit, or down) until given a cue to move about freely again; others want this behavior to include lying down and relaxing. You can include whatever criteria you want, but the main thing is to give the dog a designated place to go to and await further instructions. (See “Mat Training Tips,” January 2020.)
- Settle. This behavior is more than a “down,” though we might start shaping it from that posture. The finished behavior should resemble a calm, completely relaxed dog, one who projects, “I’m going to be here for a while, so I may as well take a short nap,” rather than, “I’m holding a ‘stay,’ but at any moment I’m going to get a release cue and leap to my feet!” When she’s on the mat, reinforce her trained “Settle” behavior to help her learn to remain calm and stay on the mat even when exciting things are happening. (See “Teach Your Dog to Settle Down,” September 2015.)
- Touch. This cue asks your dog to touch her nose, a paw, or other body part to a target (such as your outstretched palm, a ball on the end of a pointer, or the lid of a plastic container taped to the wall). Use “Touch” to draw her attention away from whatever she’s barking at, and then engage her in some of her other favorite behaviors. (See “On Target Training,” September 2021.)
- Teach a “Quiet” cue. Also known as a “positive interrupt,” your cheerful “Quiet” cue simply invites your dog to cease barking in anticipation of receiving a reinforcer. If you have trained it well, it can work like a charm! (See “Punishment vs. Interruption,” February 2021.)Teaching a “Quiet” cue is simple: Start by reinforcing a very short bit of quiet – “short” as in one second! – and very gradually increase the amount of time you wait before giving your dog another reinforcer. It might help to count to yourself, “One one-thousand, two one-thousand…” If your dog barks as you are working on this, you are increasing the duration of her “quiet” behavior too quickly.This exercise has helped me with the resurgence of barking from our small dog, Sunny, prompted by the addition of another dog to our family. It requires a high rate of reinforcement, but I expect to eventually be able to decrease the rate of treat delivery as we had successfully done in the past to reduce his excitement barking.
- Ignore the bark and reinforce quiet. If you are in a situation where you can control the bark-eliciting stimulus, try ignoring your dog’s barking and reinforcing her when she is quiet. Sunny gets excited-barky when we are headed to the back door for a romp in the yard. When he barks, I stop my progress toward the door and turn around. When he stops barking, I say “Quiet, yes!” and drop a treat on the floor, then continue toward the door. If he barks again, we stop again. This, too, was working well for us – until KC arrived on the scene. This protocol does not work well if you aren’t in control of the bark-causing stimulus (say, a neighbor’s dog who won’t stop barking) or if you live in an apartment where your neighbors are likely to complain about any degree of ongoing barking.
- Invite your dog away from the trigger. “Walk away” is one of my favorite behaviors to teach. It means to quickly turn away from an object of focus for your dog and move away from it with you. Your dog is probably intensely focused on the stimulus that is inciting her excitement. Your well-trained, happy “walk away” cue will prompt her to do a 180-degree spin away from the stimulus and quickly move away from it with you. (See “How to Teach Your Dog to Just Walk Away,” September 2018.) You can then cue an alternative behavior (such as “Go to Mat,” above) so she doesn’t just return and resume barking.
Counter-conditioning and desensitization (CC&D)
This technique is used to change your dog’s association with a stimulus. While we are usually trying to change a dog’s negative association with a stimulus (whether it’s hat-wearing men, passing skateboards, small children, or anything else) to a positive one, we can also change a very high-excitement positive association to a still-positive but much calmer association. We start CC&D work with the dog’s stimulus at a low intensity (meaning it’s maintained at a distance or held to a low level of movement, for example, asking a friend to stand on a skateboard and move it just a little) and gradually increase the intensity (move the stimulus closer, allow the skateboarder to move a little more) until the dog has the new association with full-intensity presentation of the stimulus.
For the dog who barks non-stop at the child on the swing, you would start your CC&D with no one on the swing, at whatever distance is necessary for the dog to be able to remain calm in the presence of the swing. It’s important to start with the arousal-causing stimulus at a great enough distance from the dog so that she notices it but is not extremely aroused (this is called the threshold distance). As soon as the dog notices the swing, feed a few tiny bits of high-value treats. Pause the treat feeding, let her look at the swing again, and feed again.
This process is repeated until the presence of the swing consistently prompts your dog to look at you with a happy smile and a “Yay! Where’s my treat?” expression. This is a conditioned emotional response (CER) – your dog’s association with swings now means “Yay, treats!” instead of “Get excited!” Take care to keep your dog “under threshold” – happy and calm, and never pushed to the point of excited barking. Next you will gradually add increasing movement of the swing, eventually with a person on it.
Now you get to figure out how to apply the CC&D protocol in other bark-eliciting situations. Far from the pool, feed treats while people swim, then play gently, then do rowdy pool play. In another room, feed treats while friends converse while watching the football game, then get slightly excited, then more excited, and finally engage in Super Bowl-level excitement. You get the idea. And remember – you still have the option of putting your dog back in the house or in another room after you do a round of CC&D so your kids and/or friends can play/roughhouse/be rowdy to their hearts’ content.
YOUR CHOICE
You know your dog best, so you choose! You can skillfully manage your dog’s environment to minimize or even eliminate her excitement barking, and/or you can invest in a program of modification along with your management. Either way, eventually, your dog can learn that silence truly is chicken (golden) and peace can be restored to your household.
I simply wanted to say thanks once again. I’m not certain the things that I could possibly have accomplished without these recommendations shared by you relating to my subject matter. It previously was a very daunting matter in my view, nevertheless being able to view a professional style you managed it forced me to jump with delight. I am happier for this work and even hope you realize what a great job that you are accomplishing teaching the mediocre ones via your webblog. I know that you’ve never got to know all of us.
Thanks for your own effort on this web site. My mom takes pleasure in setting aside time for investigation and it’s obvious why. Most people hear all about the lively form you produce simple solutions through the web site and therefore invigorate response from the others on that situation plus our favorite daughter is really learning so much. Take pleasure in the rest of the new year. Your carrying out a pretty cool job.
I precisely wished to say thanks once again. I am not sure the things I might have tried without the type of pointers shared by you on my theme. This has been an absolute frightful scenario for me, but seeing this specialised approach you resolved the issue made me to weep for happiness. Extremely happier for the support and wish you recognize what a powerful job you have been doing training some other people thru your website. I am certain you have never met all of us.
I must show some thanks to the writer for bailing me out of this type of setting. Because of exploring through the search engines and finding basics which were not pleasant, I figured my life was gone. Living devoid of the approaches to the problems you’ve sorted out by way of the website is a serious case, and the ones which could have in a wrong way affected my entire career if I hadn’t noticed your web blog. Your actual mastery and kindness in playing with a lot of things was crucial. I am not sure what I would have done if I had not discovered such a subject like this. I am able to at this time look ahead to my future. Thanks very much for your reliable and result oriented help. I won’t hesitate to refer your web blog to any individual who would like counselling on this issue.
Thanks for your own hard work on this web page. My niece takes pleasure in participating in research and it’s really simple to grasp why. My partner and i notice all concerning the powerful medium you deliver precious solutions by means of the web site and even improve response from some other people on the issue so my princess is without question discovering a whole lot. Take advantage of the remaining portion of the year. You’re doing a useful job.
I’m just writing to let you understand of the cool discovery our daughter developed using your site. She realized numerous pieces, with the inclusion of what it’s like to possess a very effective coaching mood to make other people easily grasp specified tortuous subject matter. You truly did more than our own expectations. I appreciate you for churning out the interesting, safe, informative and as well as cool guidance on this topic to Gloria.
I have to show thanks to you for rescuing me from this type of incident. Right after surfing around through the the web and obtaining techniques which are not beneficial, I thought my life was done. Living devoid of the answers to the issues you have solved by way of your entire review is a crucial case, as well as the kind which may have negatively affected my entire career if I had not discovered the blog. Your primary capability and kindness in touching the whole lot was valuable. I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t discovered such a point like this. It’s possible to at this moment relish my future. Thanks so much for your impressive and sensible guide. I will not be reluctant to suggest your web site to anyone who needs and wants assistance about this issue.
Needed to put you one tiny word so as to thank you very much the moment again with the great opinions you have contributed in this case. This is so tremendously open-handed of you to present unhampered just what many people would have supplied for an ebook to help with making some cash for themselves, precisely given that you might have tried it in the event you desired. The concepts also acted like a easy way to comprehend someone else have similar fervor like mine to understand somewhat more concerning this issue. I know there are numerous more pleasurable sessions in the future for those who find out your blog.
I have to show some appreciation to this writer just for bailing me out of this particular circumstance. As a result of searching throughout the online world and obtaining proposals which are not productive, I figured my life was done. Existing devoid of the approaches to the problems you’ve fixed as a result of your main write-up is a serious case, as well as those which could have in a wrong way damaged my career if I hadn’t come across your web site. Your actual understanding and kindness in taking care of all the details was vital. I am not sure what I would’ve done if I hadn’t come across such a point like this. I can also now look ahead to my future. Thank you very much for your expert and sensible help. I won’t hesitate to refer the sites to any person who ought to have guidelines on this area.
Thanks for each of your labor on this blog. Betty delights in working on investigations and it is easy to see why. We learn all concerning the lively form you render efficient tips by means of your web blog and as well as increase response from people on the point while my princess is truly being taught a lot. Enjoy the rest of the year. You are doing a brilliant job.
Spot on with this write-up, I truly think this web site needs rather more consideration. I抣l in all probability be once more to read rather more, thanks for that info.
My spouse and i felt absolutely excited Peter could round up his web research through the entire ideas he acquired from your web site. It is now and again perplexing to simply happen to be freely giving facts that many people today might have been making money from. Therefore we do understand we’ve got the blog owner to give thanks to for this. The most important explanations you made, the simple blog navigation, the friendships you will make it easier to instill – it’s most astounding, and it is helping our son in addition to our family recognize that this topic is cool, which is particularly pressing. Thank you for everything!
I precisely wished to appreciate you once more. I’m not certain what I would’ve done in the absence of these ways provided by you on such a concern. It absolutely was a real alarming difficulty in my opinion, however , understanding this professional fashion you resolved that made me to jump with fulfillment. I am grateful for your information and even hope that you recognize what a powerful job you are always accomplishing teaching others through your blog. Most likely you haven’t met any of us.
I wanted to compose you that little observation to say thank you the moment again for these marvelous ideas you’ve discussed on this page. It is so incredibly generous with people like you to offer without restraint what many people would have distributed for an ebook in order to make some profit for themselves, certainly seeing that you could possibly have done it if you ever wanted. These solutions also served like a easy way to realize that someone else have a similar keenness just like my very own to know the truth more and more regarding this matter. I am certain there are a lot more fun instances in the future for many who check out your site.
I and my guys happened to be checking the best pointers found on your web page then unexpectedly got a horrible feeling I had not thanked the website owner for those strategies. The young boys ended up certainly happy to see them and have now without a doubt been taking advantage of them. Appreciate your turning out to be really helpful and for deciding upon this form of marvelous themes most people are really wanting to be informed on. Our own sincere apologies for not expressing appreciation to earlier.
Thanks a lot for giving everyone an extraordinarily splendid opportunity to check tips from this site. It is usually very pleasant and jam-packed with a good time for me personally and my office fellow workers to search your website a minimum of 3 times weekly to find out the new guides you will have. And indeed, I am also at all times contented considering the beautiful principles served by you. Some 3 ideas in this article are absolutely the most efficient I have had.
I’m also writing to let you understand what a exceptional encounter my friend’s princess gained viewing your webblog. She picked up many things, not to mention what it is like to have a very effective helping mindset to let the others without difficulty learn about specified tricky issues. You actually did more than my expectations. I appreciate you for churning out such great, safe, revealing and easy guidance on that topic to Lizeth.
I just wanted to jot down a simple word to be able to thank you for the magnificent steps you are writing on this website. My prolonged internet look up has at the end been compensated with reliable knowledge to go over with my colleagues. I ‘d suppose that many of us readers are unequivocally fortunate to exist in a fantastic website with many marvellous individuals with useful tips. I feel quite blessed to have encountered your entire weblog and look forward to really more brilliant minutes reading here. Thanks a lot once more for all the details.
Thank you a lot for providing individuals with an exceptionally brilliant possiblity to read critical reviews from this blog. It is often so enjoyable and as well , stuffed with amusement for me personally and my office friends to visit your website particularly three times per week to read the fresh issues you have got. Not to mention, I am certainly impressed with all the attractive tricks you serve. Some 2 points in this article are in fact the most beneficial we’ve had.
I truly wanted to compose a brief message so as to thank you for those fantastic secrets you are giving out on this website. My time consuming internet search has at the end of the day been rewarded with brilliant facts and techniques to talk about with my family. I ‘d suppose that most of us site visitors are unequivocally endowed to live in a fantastic website with so many lovely professionals with good strategies. I feel truly blessed to have used the web page and look forward to many more brilliant times reading here. Thanks once more for all the details.
I want to show my appreciation to this writer for rescuing me from this type of problem. Because of browsing through the the net and seeing solutions which were not beneficial, I was thinking my life was gone. Being alive devoid of the approaches to the difficulties you’ve sorted out by means of the site is a serious case, and those which may have in a wrong way affected my entire career if I hadn’t encountered your website. Your own competence and kindness in maneuvering all things was very helpful. I’m not sure what I would’ve done if I had not discovered such a step like this. I can also at this point look forward to my future. Thanks a lot so much for this impressive and effective guide. I will not hesitate to propose the sites to any person who should have support on this subject matter.
The following time I learn a weblog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as a lot as this one. I mean, I do know it was my choice to learn, but I really thought youd have one thing interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you might repair if you happen to werent too busy searching for attention.
I precisely desired to appreciate you all over again. I am not sure what I could possibly have created without the type of information revealed by you about this subject. It was actually a real scary setting in my view, however , looking at this well-written avenue you handled that forced me to cry over delight. I am happy for this service and thus hope that you realize what an amazing job you are always doing educating people through your blog. I know that you have never encountered all of us.
I actually wanted to write down a simple remark so as to express gratitude to you for all of the great secrets you are showing on this website. My time-consuming internet search has now been honored with brilliant know-how to go over with my good friends. I would assume that most of us site visitors are really blessed to be in a useful website with many awesome individuals with very helpful secrets. I feel truly fortunate to have seen your entire webpage and look forward to some more fabulous minutes reading here. Thanks a lot once more for all the details.
I wanted to write you a little bit of remark to finally thank you again for these superb secrets you have discussed on this website. It was certainly particularly open-handed of people like you to grant without restraint what exactly many people could possibly have offered for sale as an electronic book to earn some dough for their own end, particularly considering that you could have tried it in case you decided. These tactics in addition served to be a good way to be certain that other people online have the identical interest much like my own to learn way more on the subject of this condition. Certainly there are lots of more pleasant opportunities in the future for people who browse through your site.