Why does my dog howl? How do I stop my dog barking?!

Dogs that howl and bark when their owner is away or at delivery drivers, unknown noises or even aeroplanes, can not only be a real nuisance and the cause of much anxiety but can be costly for the owner and often lead to re-homing. The majority of canine communication happens non-vocally through body language: gestures, posturing and positioning. The auditory communication that we are more aware of such as howling, phining, whimpering and barking, although more obvious to us, actually forms only a small part of the way in which dogs communicate with other dogs, animals and humans.

Dogs bark for a variety of reasons:
1) Watchdog Barking serves the dual purpose of alerting other dogs or human companions that there is an intruder and warning the intruder that they have been noticed.
2) Demand Barking is the dog’s way of communicating to the owner that he would like something NOW. Typical requests are “open the door NOW,” “pay attention to me NOW,” “let me out of here NOW,” “I wanna see that dog NOW” etc.
3) Spooky Barking occurs when the dog is uncomfortable about something in the environment and barks to say “I’m dangerous! Don’t come any closer!”
4) Boredom Barking can result when the dog’s daily needs for exercise and social stimulation are not met. The dog has “gone mad” from boredom.

Watchdog Barking
Teach the dog a competing response – such as fetching a certain toy or doing a down-stay on a mat (which cuts barking in many dogs) for tasty food rewards. Practice out of doorbell or “intruder” contexts first and then incorporate the game or command into real-life situations. The dog will need some coaching and prompting the first few times in the real-life situation so prepare to budget some time for that. Even better, set it up with a cohort to play “visitor” a few times, so you can focus on the dog rather than being forced to attend to the person at the door.

Another effective technique is a (non-violent) penalty for barking. After a few barks, warn the dog to be quiet (“quiet please”). On the very next bark, mark the behaviour (“Oh! Too bad for you!”) and immediately impose a time-out penalty in a bathroom or back room: anywhere far from the action. With repetition the dog will learn that it is his barking that is producing the removal and he will start heeding the warning.

Competing response and time-outs can be combined as a one-two punch. If he goes to his mat, he is rewarded as usual. If he barks, he goes into the penalty box. If your dog “goes off” for the smallest sounds and changes in the environment, it would help the cause to get him better habituated. Take him out more, invite people and dogs over to socialise, expose him to a wider range of sights and sounds.

Demand Barking
When they want something, dogs will experiment with various behaviours to see if any of them work. They quickly figure out that barking works. If you don’t like barking, stop rewarding it with attention, door-opening services, releasing from crates etc. Period. No ifs or buts.

Don’t provide door-opening services to barking dogs. Don’t let a barking dog out of a crate until he’s quiet. Ignore dogs who bark at you. And so on. If you have been rewarding it for a while, the barking will get worse before it goes away. You’re changing the rules and the dog will be frustrated at first. Whatever you do, don’t crack and reward WORSE barking!

Above all, start noticing the dog when he’s quiet. Teach him that there are payoffs for lying quietly, chewing on a chew-toy and refraining from barking.

Barking When Alone
Prevention is best here. When you get a new dog or puppy, set a good precedent right away. Don’t smother him with your constant presence and attention. Come and go a lot and never go to him when he’s vocalising. Wait until he’s quiet for at least 30 seconds so you don’t risk rewarding the barking. Tire him out before longer absences.

Dogs are a highly social species. They don’t cope well with prolonged isolation. Consider daycare or a dog-walker at lunchtime if you work all day.

Increase physical and mental stimulation. In a natural environment, a lot of your dog’s energy would be spent acquiring his food. Take walks, play fetch, play tug-of-war, hide & seek, and allow opportunities for free-play with other dogs. Make him work to acquire his food. Stuff it into a chew toy and hide it in the house before you leave for work, scatter it in the grass in the garden, or make him earn it piece by piece for tricks.

Find out what kinds of chew toys he likes and stock up. Have chews for him. Teach him to find a toy that you’ve hidden in the room and then celebrate his find with tug of war or fetch. Teach him his toys by name. Ask him to bring you one when you come home.

If your dog is anxious to the point of panic attacks, he has separation anxiety and needs formal desensitisation and/or medication. I can help with this and work with many dogs every year who are anxious, nervous or have problems being left alone.

Spooky Barking
In this case, it is important to get at the underlying lack of socialisation. Socialise puppies extensively to as wide a variety of people and dogs as possible. You cannot do enough. Expose them to plenty of places, experiences, sights and sounds, and make it all fun with praise, games and treats. Find and attend a good puppy class.

If you missed the boat socialising your puppy, you’ll have to do remedial work with your adolescent or adult. Whatever it is that your dog is spooky about must now become associated with lunch. This is how undersocialised dogs work for their food. If he doesn’t like strangers, meals need to fed bit by bit around strangers until he improves. It takes a while to improve adult dogs so persevere.

Boredom Barking
If you don’t have time for a dog, don’t get a dog. Dogs are not space-intensive, they are time- intensive. If you have an outside dog, train him to be an inside dog. There is no quick fix here: you must meet your dog’s basic needs for stimulation, exercise and companionship.

What is My Dog Trying To Say?
If you have a dog that is quite vocal - and some breeds are generally much more vocal than others - you will have noticed the different pitches, tones and duration of the vocalising. Howls can be long and deep that fade off at the end (normally a controlled “call” to other dogs or family members) or can be higher pitched, followed by a couple of short howls and then followed by another longer howl (often used when the dog is distressed). The same is true with barks and other vocalisations: short barks with a softer tone and higher pitch, or whines followed by barks and then pauses are used to get attention: the bark acts as an attention getter and the dog then waits to see if it’s worked. This is the sort of bark typically used by puppies on the first few nights in a new home. Warning barks are gruffer, lower and sharper, alerting those around him that he’s detected a possible threat, whereas a rapid sequence of short, deep barks is used to guard and demonstrate that the dog means business: these are often used when strangers approach your house.

Ultimately though, by and large, dogs vocalise because they’re bored. This is a good starting point as statistically, the majority of domestic pet dogs are under stimulated. If you’re leaving your dog at home on its own, make sure it’s not for too long. If you have to leave the dog unattended for long periods, provide some sort of environment enrichment, plenty of chew toys stuffed with interesting food, confine them to a safe area and get a friend or dog sitter to pop by to let them out and interact with them for a short while. Keeping your dog busy by providing him with an enriched environment or plenty of chew toys means that he won’t have the desire or time to bark and howl! He’ll be too busy trying to get all of the stuffed food out of his chew toys or exploring his newly enriched environment.

In addition, why not teach your dog to be “quiet” on cue? This will help control the vocalising. In addition you may like to try some of the products available to help calm your dog such as the Through A Dog’s Ear music series by Lisa Spector. These should be used in conjunction with training techniques: providing stuffed chew toys, providing stimulation for your dog and teaching them to be on their own.

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Posted in Jez's advice on anything dog, Jez's top behaviour tips by admin