Excessive barking

Barking in the car
Barking in the house
Barking in the garden
Barking in the street
Barking when alone

For dogs, barking is a natural form of communication and they do it for innumerable reasons. A dog would hardly be a dog if it didn't bark sometimes, however when the barking becomes prolonged or excessive then it can be a problem. The wolf, strangely enough, rarely barks, but howling is its forte - transmitting messages to others of its kind.

There are several reasons for excessive barking or howling; it could be that the dog's owners have unintentionally encouraged it to bark from when it was a puppy. Whenever the dog barked its owners appeared and gave it attention which the dog construed as a reward. So the dog quite sensibly continued to bark more and more; this is especially true of puppies.

Some dogs bark on account of the stress of being separated from their owner, for others it indicates that they don't have enough stimuli to occupy their day. When the routine changes and the owners can't spend as much time with their dog, it becomes frustrated and anxious resulting in excessive barking or another related behaviour such as destructiveness.

If you feel that your dog barks only when you leave him alone at home click here