Why Dogs Bark and Problematic Excessive Barking

Barking Is Communication

When a dog barks, it's considered a means of communication and part of normal behaviour. Dog owners are often pleased when their pets bark to warn them of people approaching their home or when they draw attention to something they have found in the park.

Expecting dogs never to bark is like expecting people never to speak—it's a vocal expression of thoughts, emotions, and states of being. Some breeds of dogs are naturally highly vocal; others are typically more silent. There is also an individual component; dogs within the same breed may exhibit more, or less vocal communication than is typical for that breed.

However, if a dog barks excessively and at things in an environment that should not be provocative to such an extent, this compulsive barking creates a problem for both the owner and the dog. Sometimes owners may find it challenging to stop or reduce barking; in this case, out of frustration, they may resort to fear-based methods to prevent it. This article is designed to inform and educate owners so they can better understand their dogs and address the issue more constructively.

Inappropriate barking can test the owner's patients and elicit negative emotions such as shame, guilt, fear, or embarrassment; it can also cause neighbourhood issues. Excessive dog barking is generally not welcomed by neighbours wishing to enjoy a peaceful afternoon in the backyard. Thus, it is essential to work through excessive barking problems with trained professionals who are empathetic towards the well-being of the dog, owner, and any other affected parties.

Ultimately, excessive barking can signify an unhappy dog (whether the cause is physical or psychological). Promptly addressing and resolving barking issues leads to better outcomes for the dog and humans involved.

What Is Your Dog Trying to Tell You?

There are many reasons why dogs bark. Their vocal communication can have a range of meanings, depending on the environment or situation. Some owners can differentiate their dogs' different barks and recognise their purpose.

Understanding events or reasons that trigger barking in your dog may help when addressing the problem. See if you can notice what happens before your dog barks; perhaps there is a pattern of events that precedes the barking.

While it's beneficial for dogs to bark at real dangers like potential unwanted intruders on the property, a problem arises when the dog doesn't know how to differentiate dangerous situations from harmless ones. What is your dog trying to tell you when they bark?
Here are some reasons why dogs bark:

Alerting

Dogs have a fantastic sense of hearing and often are aware of things before their owners. Their ability to alert can be very beneficial; alert barking can warn owners of guests entering their homes or unusual situations.

However, hypersensitivity to environmental stimuli may lead to the excessive alert barking of benign events, such as people passing by or when a small object catches their attention and provokes barking. This kind of behavioural issue may present at home and in other environments, causing stress to the dog and handler.

Attention Seeking Behaviour

Some dogs bark when seeking attention from people (or other animals) or showing they want food, a toy, or that it's time to play. If their wish is fulfilled at that moment, dogs will consider barking a successful means of communicating and will continue using this method in the future to get what they want. 

Dogs are great at training us to do tasks; if they discover that barking can motivate us to perform a specific action, it reinforces the behaviour. Attention-seeking barking may stem from unmet needs; consider increasing the dog's exercise, mental stimulation or training new behaviours.

Territoriality – or Space Bubble

‘Territory’ is a word often associated with dogs. When a person or an animal enters the space that the dog considers its own or the space needed for the dog to feel safe – this may cause an excessive barking event. Some dogs need more space to feel safe than others, and intrusions on their personal space may elicit a physiological and psychological stress response within the dog's body.

Dogs who are taught to suppress their barking when they feel threatened may develop more severe behavioural issues that manifest into aggression. We can help dogs that feel unsafe by validating their emotions and respecting them rather than forcing them to engage in emotional suppression. Helping dogs have positive experiences and staying out of their space bubble builds self-confidence.

Perceived Threat

When dogs feel they are facing a threat, their whole body reacts, engaging their sympathetic nervous system, and preparing them for a fight, flight or freeze response. Stress hormones are released, and blood is diverted to areas of the body that will help the dog engage with or move away from the perceived threat. Even if the threat is not real, the response in the dog's body is.

In this case, barking is used to warn or drive the threat away and is often associated with stiff body language and lunging towards the perceived threat or attempting to hide away from it. Whether the threat is real or just perceived, it will still drive the same physiological response, and barking is a means of expressing that internal response.

What’s Triggering Your Dog to Bark?

When facing the problem of your dog's excessive barking, it's important to determine what is causing this unwanted behaviour. Although it is possible to teach an alternative behaviour to your dog without understanding the cause – which may be necessary in cases where the cause is unknown; taking a holistic approach reduces the risk of underlying issues being overlooked.

First, eliminate the contribution of health issues your dog may be experiencing. Barking, especially if presenting as a new behaviour or with a sudden increase, could be their way of communicating that something is causing them physical pain.

We also need to consider the dog’s psychological state; excessive barking may be more prevalent during hyperarousal episodes or contribute to this state. In our article Canine Arousal: Optimal Training Zone vs Over Arousal, we discuss the effects of environmental influences, which can be too stimulating for our dogs, leading to an arousal level beyond the point where they can control their behaviour. It can take time (days) for the nervous system to regulate and for the dog to calm down after such an event – making a reoccurrence of an excessive bark event during that time more likely.

Pain: Physical and Emotional

Pain can be a significant diving factor that causes behavioural problems. Unfortunately, dogs often suffer in silence with pain until it becomes unbearable or the cause becomes so substantial that it can be easily identified. Whether the pain is from a physical source, such as joint inflammation, or a psychological origin, such as separation anxiety, the dogs suffering should be addressed.

Barking may not be a direct response to the pain; rather, the pain affects the dog's nervous system and ability to make good choices. Like us, when we experience pain or emotional stress – our ability to regulate our emotions diminishes. Understanding that physical or emotional pain also affects our dog’s ability to regulate their emotions may explain the excessive barking problem exhibited by some dogs.

Owners should seek veterinary care where they suspect underlying health issues that cause or exacerbate excessive barking.

Detecting Potential Pain Sources

Before working with a behaviourist on training your dog to be quiet, be sure that your dog is healthy. An excellent first step is Veterinarian Thermal Imaging, which helps to identify dysfunctions in muscle groups, joints or nerves. The information gained from thermal imaging wellness checks can be used to guide a diagnosis from a qualified Veterinarian or aid in the strategic delivery of treatments and therapies.

Treating underlying health issues has been shown to reduce behavioural problems in many cases. You and your trainer will likely have an easier time training new or alternative behaviours if your dog is feeling their best.

Increased Body Sensitivity

Sometimes dogs bark to show that they don't approve of a particular touch (or any) on their body. In the article Canine Cooperative Care, we wrote about how to gain dogs' trust. Being examined and accepting husbandry care is essential for dogs' health. Learning cooperative care behaviours is the first step towards controlling barking in such situations.

Barking used to deflect touch may be a psychological issue, where the dog is fearful of its space bubble bursting. It can also be a physiological issue; if the dog has any pain, touch may exacerbate it, and thus they bark to warn or prevent contact. If your dog is barking to avoid being touched, it may be wise to book a health check with your local vet.

Increase in Anxiety

Increased anxiety can also lead dogs to bark excessively. Anxiety often occurs when the dog is left alone—separation anxiety. Every dog has their own personality and breed traits; some dogs may be more prone to barking when separated. They are social animals and generally like to be part of a group. So, when left alone, they may show signs of distress, especially at a young age.

Understanding that the dog is experiencing psychological distress, which influences their whole body, solving barking associated with anxiety may take time and a multimodal approach. Whole Energy Body Balance Bodywork therapy is recommended for these dogs, helping them learn self-regulation skills and calming the body and mind.

What to Do About Excessive Barking

The first step is usually to regulate our own emotions; barking can be triggering for many people. So take a deep breath and exhale; you’ve taken the first step in improving your situation by reading this article.

Make a booking with your local vet to discuss any health issues, and contact us for an online consult; we will guide you through somatic relaxation exercises you can do in your own home to assist your dog.

Start to take notes; the questions below are great ones to think about and try to find answers to:

• When does the barking occur (time of day, specific events, etc.)?
• What environments does it happen in (inside, outside, on-leash, off-leash, etc.)?
• What triggers cause the barking (people, other animals, objects, sounds, etc.)? 
• What does my dog want to achieve by barking (initiate play, scare off something, out of fear, etc.)?

Talking to your canine health and wellbeing team about all these questions can help them provide your dog with the best solution. Addressing the problem of excessive barking will likely require a multimodal approach that involves teaching new behaviours, learning to regulate the nervous and emotional systems, and treating any underlying contributing health factors.

Don’t Ignore the Problem

Ignoring the behaviour of excessive barking is not a solution—quite the opposite. If environmental stimuli cause your dog to bark, this can increase arousal. As we wrote in an earlier article, high arousal is cumulative. If we avoid recognising the sources of such behaviour and working with them, the behavioural problems may worsen.

In addition, if the dog expresses dissatisfaction with a situation by barking but feels they are not heard, and their way of communication is not acknowledged, this can create frustration and break the bond between the owner and the dog. Dogs learn through repetition, so repeatedly ignoring the barking is likely to lead to more barking, or an adverse emotional state as they become more and more unhappy.

Avoid Quick Fixes and Punishment

The worst way to deal with a dog's excessive barking problem is to punish the dog for this behaviour. Inflicting pain or shouting as a response to barking does nothing to help the dog. Instead, it is a display of our own inability to self-regulate. This may cause the dog to become fearful, confused or more triggered.

Punishment to prevent barking may lead the dog to suppress their emotion or initiate a shutdown response which is a state of extreme stress – yet appears to be compliance. Tools, techniques, and equipment designed to force compliance do not address the underlying issues and may exacerbate them.

Punishment is not an effective means to teach dogs how to regulate their emotional or arousal state.  It may suppress their impulsive behaviour for a time – but if the underlying issues are still there, it’s more likely that further behaviour problems will arise. Due to this heightened stress, there is a more significant potential for health issues to occur now or in the future.

Therapy to Regulate the Nervous System and Decrease Pain

Therapeutic touch is a great way to help restore balance and function in the nervous system. Dogs need to be able to move into different neurological states with ease, just as joints should be able to move freely through their range of motion.

Regulating the nervous system allows dogs to think and act positively according to their training. Impulsive responses initiated by the dog's self-preservation mechanisms are a sure sign that their body or mind is in an unbalanced state.

Therapy can address underlying pain, tension, emotional dysfunction, and somatic dysfunctions that lead to or contribute to excessive barking. Whole-Energy Body Balance works to restore a more balanced mind-body connection within the dog. Canine Bowen Therapy is used when pain or fascial tension is present. Canine Osteopathic treatments take a holistic approach that treats the body as a series of interconnected systems, aiming to improve or optimise all these underlying processes that can directly affect the dog's behaviour.

Fitness Training for Excessive Barking

Canine fitness training can be a great way to reduce excessive barking; it works the dog's body and mind while building a stronger connection between them and their owner. Fitter bodies are associated with better physical and mental health; exercise builds better brains. One of the aims of fitness training is to get the dog moving in functional ways within the optimal state of arousal, which is one of the keys to reducing excessive barking.  

In a canine fitness program, you will learn more about your dog’s physical strengths and weaknesses and how those might impact your dog's well-being. Setting weekly goals and improving habits are all great ways to start addressing problematic behaviours. Any dog with more tools in their toolbox essentially has a more expansive non-verbal vocabulary.

Conclusion

Barking can be a problem for us as much as it is for our dogs. Taking the time to identify any underlying health issues and work through the problem wholistically leads to better outcomes. Therapy and fitness are great ways to help you and your dog build confidence, regulate the nervous system, optimise their arousal training zone and improve the body’s functions. If you want to start somewhere, we recommend booking an online consult for a somatic relaxation session that helps your dog learn emotional regulation skills.