Why is the dog barking?

To successfully treat your dog’s excessive barking and the key to peace and quiet is to identify and understand the underlying causes of the barking.

Dog barking or dog noise pollution is a great factor in today’s modern living. This can lead to major disagreements with frustrated neighbors and costly legal bills.

There is nothing more frustrating than having to endure sleepless nights and being in desperate need for some peace and quiet or being wakened up in the middle of the night by a barking dog.

Understanding why your dog is barking can assists you in controlling excessive and annoying barking.

The biggest causes of excessive barking are the following:

Boredom and Mental Inactivity

Boredom sets in if dogs are under-stimulated. The lack of mental and physical stimulation.
Bored dogs can start to chase and bark at imaginary prey and they can even start to hallucinate.

Loneliness

Loneliness kicks in when dogs are left alone without any human contact for long periods of time. Dogs do have a sense of time and they do miss their owners while the clock is ticking. They get sad and unhappy.

Separation Anxiety

If your dog only barks excessively when you are not at home or when you are asleep. Separation Anxiety is usually caused incorrect communication or over-indulgence patterns which cause your dog to be insecure and dependent on for everything.

Miscommunication

When you get frustrated and scream at your dog to keep quiet, your dog sees it as you join in by “barking” too.

Discomfort

Cold, fleas, worms, hunger or pain from Arthritis, teeth problems or anal gland trouble and last but not least, unsuitable yards, and dogs with Dementia or compulsive disorders or those with noise phobias, all these discomforts can cause your dog to bark excessively.

Teasing

Your dog may see every visitor or person walking by as a threat and start barking, if your dog has been teased at the gate.

The moon

There is an Afrikaans saying “Met die maan gepla” or Looney moon syndrome, . . . describes this perfectly.

Over-excitement / over-stimulation
This may happen when you want to go for a drive in the car and you “join-in” the barking by shouting “Keep quiet!!!” Be very aware of inappropriate stimulation. This is getting a calm and relaxed dog revved-up for family fun and entertainment. This can be fun but soon becomes a problem.

Neglect and cruel treatment

Confinement, dogs kept in solitary confinement with little or no interaction with their owners.

Lack of stimulation
Where a dog’s lifestyle is too sedate (lack of entertainment/play/walks etc) and a dog’s needs are not being met, the dog will feel under huge emotional stress.

Stress / emotional stress

Dogs can experience a wide range of emotions. Usually they express these emotions through verbal or physical cues or behaviors, like excessive barking. A dog will always feel more stressed if he feels that he is responsible for the care and protection of the family.
Sensible and kind rules and boundaries offer your dog structure, while working the mind and in turn promote relaxation within your dog.

In all these cases this types of barking represents poor welfare. These dogs need your help because their barking generally represents some form of distress.

ENDORPHINS are a “feel-good” chemical that is released during barking. This chemical is produced in the brain and decrease anxiety and stress. When unresolved baking continues, over time your dog gets hooked onto this “drug” ENDORPHINS through barking, in order to feel less stressed and anxious. Barking give dogs an adrenaline rush. This makes barking pleasant!

Where a dog’s lifestyle is too sedate to accommodate the dog’s endorphin production, the dog will feel under huge emotional stress. This results in behaviors like excessive / obsessive barking which helps the dog to cope. A dog use excessive barking as a coping mechanism and it becomes their way of self-medicating. It is their way to boost the endorphin production in the brain which fills the gap between their unstimulated lifestyle and their brain chemistry.

WALKING your dog will aid in the production of endorphins which will help reduce anxiety and stress levels in your dog. Although endorphin levels in the blood do increase with exercise, they do not cross the blood-brain barrier and effect the mood of your dog. Unless you push your dog to his limits every day via exercise, it is not going to improve endorphin production in the brain long-term.
Your dog will develop an even mood with a proper exercise program from Executive Dog Training. Having your dog’s needs and interests met while your dog spent energy during proper exercise, the blood endorphins levels will be elevated for a time so your dog would not have to bark excessively in order to get those endorphins levels elevated.

Why is the puppy barking?

Is this going off in your head over and over again: “My puppy won’t stop barking”?
Now that you realized the many causes of barking, Executive Dog Training is here for you and your family. Here’s how to find out the great advantages of having a well trained puppy and how to stop puppy barking. Executive Dog Training assists you in finding the cause of your puppy’s barking.

Join Executive Dog Training community whereby we work out a strategy to successfully treat the problem in how to stop barking at night.

A good Dog Owner tip: Excessive barking is distressing for everyone, your neighbors included. Please remember to not get angry at your neighbor that is complaining about your dog barking. Rather, get your neighbor involved in how to best solve your problem. You can ask your neighbor if they are able to provide you with a schedule for a week of times and dates of dog barking, possible causes, is it the whole day or night at absolutely nothing or is it directly after the owner leave their home/property or when they arrive. This is a huge reason why you want your neighbors to assist. Do not put yourself in a position of getting legal notices.

If you are a neighbor and your neighbor’s dog is barking excessively, be polite about the issue and offer your help to stop neighbour dog barking with information about the dog’s barking pattern. People are very sensitive regarding complaints about their dog barking. Barking is an important communication tool and therefore it is always advisable to go and look why the dog is barking as the dog might just warn or tell you about something.
Take noise and barking dog complaints seriously however difficult it may be to investigate and resolve the issue. It is important to manage the situation and to manage your dog.

Never leave a barking dog to keep on barking without checking up on him. You might just save his life or he might just save your life.
Excessive barking can be an expression of frustration and confinement stress, letting you know that he is stressed, anxious, bored, unhappy and had enough!

REMEMBER barking is a normal behavior, a natural way for dogs to communicate with each other and with their owners. If you are listening you will hear and know what your dog is telling you! It is when this normal barking becomes excessive. That is when you have a situation on hand which needs your urgent attention. That is when you get hold of Executive Dog Training. Together we will establish what the root is behind your dog’s excessive barking behavior in order to prevent noise pollution and to prevent this excessive barking from becoming a nuisance for family members and neighbors.

To summarize, ask yourself the following and be true in your answers. Does your dog bark excessively because of?

Boredom and Mental Inactivity
Loneliness
Separation Anxiety
Miscommunication
Discomfort
Teasing
The moon
Over-excitement / over-stimulation
Neglect and cruel treatment
Lack of stimulation
Stress / emotional stress

Please feel free to add onto this summary because every dog and their family and the environment they find themselves in are different and unique and each scenario and reasons why dogs bark excessively will differ from the next.
These are guidelines but not limited to the above summary list of possible causes for excessive barking in your dog.

I would love to hear from you. Do you have a dog who barks excessively?

Here is How to stop dog from barking:

Get hold of Executive Dog Training !!
Call or WhatsApp Jeanette Vockerodt, #executivedogtraining on 072 479 8103
Email jeanette@executivedogtraining.co.za
Fill in the Contact Us page

REMEMBER there is no age restriction for dogs.
Puppies from 2 months are welcome and will greatly benefit.

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I look forward to be of service to you and your family. How can I help you?

Jeanette Vockerodt
Your Dog Trainer