Lisa's Dog Training

Have you ever wondered why your dog barks?  Or maybe the real question, for many dog owners is ‘why won’t my dog be quiet?’

What general sounds do dogs make?

a) crying, whining, or whimpering type sounds – classed as ‘infantile sounds’

b) barking and growling – warning sounds

c) howling or attention seeking barking – calling sounds

d) yelping – pain sounds

e) moaning – pleasure sounds

How can you differentiate between barking which signifies a possible threat, and attention seeking barks?

Barking can mean lots of different things and barks sound different.

An attention seeking bark tends to be a higher pitch, and single, short, sharp barks.  It sounds of surprise and by repeating it 2 or 3 times the dog wants you to come and look at something – it’s as though it’s demanding you to do something.  Another way of attention seeking is if the dog wants to play and its bark sounds like a delayed stutter, usually accompanied by a play bow.

Barking that suggests a potential threat tends to be a midrange pitch with rapid barking.  It’s like an alarm and is as if the dog is raising the alarm and preparing for action.  The higher the rate of the barking, the more aroused the dog is and the closer the potential threat.  When the barking becomes continuous, but lower pitched and slower, this suggests that the potential threat is close.  

What type of barking do you recognise in your own dogs?

For example, when someone knocks at your door or rings your doorbell – does your dog bark?

‘According to Stanley Coren, ‘pitch, duration, and frequency are important to consider when we’re trying to figure out what a dog is trying to say’ as quoted by Marc Berkoff in his book Canine Confidential.

What does it sound like?  Consider whether your dog is alerting you to a potential threat, are they saying ‘look! there’s someone trying to get in the house, I’ll frighten them off for you’ or are they saying ‘look! Someone at the door – I’m excited to see them, hurry and let them in so we can play’.

It’s worth considering when you want your dog to bark and when you don’t think it’s appropriate. Does your dog know the difference or is it confused because you sometimes tell it off for barking and other times you allow it or maybe even encourage the barking?  Are you giving confusing signals to your dog and don’t realise?

Dogs do not think in the same way as humans.  if you allow them to bark in one situation but not another, they may not understand the difference and positive reinforcement of the behaviour you want is key. 

Barking is self-rewarding behaviour.

What do we mean by self-rewarding behaviour?  This is a behaviour that the dog enjoys doing so is automatically rewarding itself just by actually barking.  

I’m sure there are many of you, myself included whose dogs bark for what seems like no reason at all, but when we think about it, there’s always a reason.  Mine sometimes bark for attention; they will bark at a familiar person, until they get a biscuit from them.  However, what has really happened here is that they are inadvertently being rewarded for barking – it becomes a cycle, bark-reward, bark-reward and so on.  So the question I ask myself is who is actually training who and I think my dogs know the answer to that; too clever for their own good; Pic is of one of my dogs barking in excitement

Of course, I’ve put strategies in place to help overcome that – my question to you is what would you do in this situation? 

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, feel free to comment and let me know.

Blog originally written and posted by L. Mugridge 19th Sept 2021.