Why does my dog bark at people going oast the house?

This is a question I get asked so many times, both in person and on my Dog Behaviour Facebook page and over the past 28 years, I have been asked it over a thousand times.

There are many possible answers, dogs do respond to things they see and hear based on what they think they should do in response to seeing or hearing things, these responses can be breed specific, most are individual to the particular dog and the vast majority are based on the dogs home environment.

The dogs home environment is where your dog learns to behave, that doe not always mean they learn to behave how you want them to and here is a remarkable fact for you to digest:

Did you know it is only domesticated dogs who bark?

Wild dogs and wolves don’t bark, this suggests domesticated dogs have learned to bark in order to communicate with people.

This is a fascinating example of how dogs have adapted their behaviour to live with humans, to make themselves useful. As our society has progressed and dogs live in houses with us, some of those learned behaviours are still there and the dog still feels the need to express themselves through barking.

Our problem as people is we tend to respond more to the behaviours we don’t want more than those we do want. Some dogs can interpret this as reward, so they do more of the behaviour that works. Most dogs who have learned to bark can also learn to be quiet, but this takes time, patience and a change in your behaviour.

There are many other factors that can play a part in why a dog barks and most of these are related to how people behave, I have a German shepherd dog who is 10 years old and I have never heard him bark, I have a four year old Belgian Malanois who is a fantastic alerter, and he has learned that five barks is enough, his job is done and he can then be quiet, his barking is also now only related to people coming to the front door, his barking in the garden has stopped altogether.

There are many layers to this issue, mainly people want to be able to stop a dog from barking and whilst this can be done, it is more important to understand why your dog is barking so much, because understanding your dog better leads to a much more fulfilled relationship and a much more peaceful one.

If your dog barks excessively and you would like to know why and how to reduce or even stop the barking, please get in touch and we can have a chat.