Dog Barking Solution

A dog that barks is trying to be heard. That is what makes finding a dog barking solution so difficult. When your dog barks try to figure out the cause.

Start by changing your dogs environment. Expecting your dog to change his behavior without changing his environment is ineffective. Figure out exactly what your dog is barking at - is it squirrels, the neighbors cat, passing dogs, people walking by, something out the window, or the doorbell. The thing that starts your dog barking is called a trigger. What happens after the trigger is reinforcing the barking. Even your yelling could be reinforcing the barking!

What?!

How can my yelling reinforce the barking? My dog just doesn't listen. He's stubborn.

I know this is a tough concept to grasp, but if you are clever you can actually figure out a dog barking solution yourself. You see after you discover the trigger (what starts the barking) then you can look closely at what happens right after the barking starts. Does the squirrel run out of sight? Does the cat run into the bushes? Do the people cross the walk?

You see, your dog barks because he has learned that his barking makes something happen - even if what happens is not logical to you (his human).

Here's an example of how this works. Let's say your dog Marley barks whenever people walk past your front window. People are the trigger in this case. You yell shut up Marley and he stops barking for 10 seconds but then starts up again. You grab Marley by the collar and drag him away from the window. Marley scrambles loose from your hold on his collar and runs back to the window and continues barking. Frustrated you yell again, but Marley doesn't stop barking. Once at the window he keeps barking until he can no longer see the people he orinally barked at.

Let's break this down into manageable pieces. Marley's barking was triggered by the people at the window. His barking ultimately stopped when he could no longer see the people outside the window. Everything you did - grabbing the collar, yelling, moving Marley from the area - did nothing to stop the barking.

You probably want to know why! This question can have many answers, but the most probable answer is that to Marley, barking is more rewarding than anything else going on at that time. Not only that, but if the people Marley was barking at eventually left his view of the window - then Marley thinks his barking got people to leave (which enforces barking)!

What can you do instead? The first thing to understand is that bored dogs, under exercised dogs, and under stimulated dogs will find ways to stimulate themselves. We usually don't like the choices dogs make to stimulate themselves. Get your dog out for plenty of exercise and create a stimulating environment in your home with lots of chew toys, bones, and food puzzles. Agility, obedience, and Rally-O are good outlets for energetic dogs while also creating your dog barking solution.

A dog barking solution involves conditioning and training a different response than barking. Stopping of barking through electonic collars rarely works because barking is so rewarding. You could teach your dog to bark on cue and then cue him to bark at the window for a brief moment before cueing him to stop. You could allow him to look out the window contingent on being quiet. That means he can look out the window as long as he is not barking. You can implement that using a blind or curtain. If your dog barks close the blind. When he stops barking open the blind. You could play ball with your dog instead of allowing him to bark at the window.

Understanding competing behaviors. Competing behaviors roughly means that the barking behavior your dog is engaging in at the window is stronger than his interest in chewing on a bone. Which is why you can't get him to be interested in - say chewing on a bone (and be quiet) - during his window barking episode. This is often what is happening when we label dogs as stubborn. Once you find something your dog likes more than barking (food is often a good one to try) you have a tool in your box to lure your dog away from the window and train a different behavior besides barking. These things take time - sometimes months of consistent training. I recommend finding a trainer to help you find a dog barking solution.

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Turid Rugaas does it again with her book Barking. A simple guide to understanding your dog's language.