Barking is a dog’s main way to communicate with us but also the world around them.
As far as a dog’s concerned if they bark to tell the postie to go away and they do, the barking worked!
Dogs bark for loads of reasons – as a dog parent, you know this already!!
They bark to go out, to come in, someone knocked on the door, the wind blew, another dog came by the house, the postman dared to come by the door, a leaf fell, you’re in their seat, they can’t get to a toy/food/friend/bed… the list is endless!
Some breeds are well known for being talkers… that means they bark or yap or chitter a lot. (Yes, some dogs chitter.)
Chihuahuas are quite vocal dogs, so are Yorkshire Terriers and even Staffordshire Bull Terriers! (We had a few chitterers.)
So, the first thing you need to rule out is whether you have a vocal breed or not. The next thing to work out is why your dog is barking.
Is there a problem? Do they want you to do something? Or are they just vocal and talking to you??
How often has your dog been in the garden and started randomly barking?
Sometimes it’s in reply to another dog barking somewhere else – it’s like a warning they pass to one another about some danger they’ve detected (or imagined).
Sometimes it’s just because a pigeon decided to sit on your roof... So, why do dogs bark and how can you stop it?
There are a few possible answers that we will go through in the next few chapters!