|
One way to make enemies in a neighborhood is to own a barking dog. A dog that throws itself, madly barking, against the door whenever it hears footsteps outside, or a door being shut, or a door bell, and it might be somebody else's door, can drive anybody to a nervous breakdown.
It is fortunate that not all dogs are barkers. Barking is, of course, a manifestation of the dog's instinct to defend itself and its territory, but is a nuisance which you must try to prevent as early as possible. It is time consuming and you might even have to sacrifice a few days of your holidays to stay at home and devote yourself to solving this problem. It certainly is a problem and it gets worse the longer you put off doing something about it.
The dog's reaction is always triggered by a certain stimuli-in this case a certain noise outside the door-and you always have that short reaction time to try to intervene.
Most experts on dogs will tell you that separation anxiety is the most important cause of excessive barking. If you spend a lot of time with him on the weekends and then work all week and just tend to his needs such as food and water he will continue to feel anxious. Your dog may just feel
neglected. Puppies and even adult dogs grow very attached to their families and require a lot of love and attention.
Some dogs will bark to protect their territory such as their yard and bark when they think someone strange is entering their territory. Dogs can be very protective of their homes. When a dog barks as a person walks on the
sidewalk in front of their home then passes on by they feel that they have been successful in getting that person away from their territory. Once a dog has been successful in scaring away an intruder, then he is more motivated
to bark again when another person walks by his territory. He is just trying to protect his own turf.
Some breeds of dogs are prone to barking more than others, usually Dobermans and Rottweilers bark very little and Beagles and Terriors are big barkers.
Especially young dogs like to bark also as they are usually very alert and responsive to noises and other people or animals. The larger and slower dogs bark less than the smaller ones and the fast ones.
Dogs will bark out of boredom. A thought might be to give your dog a chewy bone or treat to keep him busy, so he won't think about barking all the time due to being bored. I would suggest that you might want to teach your dog a
command that will make him stop barking. Every time you hear a loud barking from your dog, just tell him to be quiet and when he stops perhaps give him a doggie treat, or even a hug or pet so he can associate barking with
getting a treat. You could also put something in a container that might rattle, marbles, etc. and shake the can every time he excessively barks and tell him to be quiet. When he stops barking be sure to tell him how very
proud you are of him and praise him with your voice.
There are anti-barking collars that one might purchase if all else fails.
Some emit a high pitch sound that only dogs can hear and after a few times the dog decides if he barks he will hear this terrible sound. He learns to associate barking with
this terrible sound. There is also a collar that will emit Citronella spray when the dog barks.
I might most of all suggest that you try to work with your dog as I have suggested and also be consistent in correcting and praising him, then try something else such as the collars or even doggie behavioral school.
| 
