How to Stop Your Dog from Barking

Has your dog’s barking become a behavioral problem that needs to be fixed, but you're not sure how to make it stop? This article will help you learn to identify why the barking may have become an issue and target specific solutions. 

Want to get your dog to stop barking? Read on!

First, Identify The Type of Barking

It’s key to identify why your dog is barking in the first place. Once you have correctly figured out what’s causing the behavior, the training options become more clear. 

Although this guide addresses some of the more common kinds of barking in dogs, it is not a comprehensive list. If you’re unsure what might be at the root of your dog’s annoying barking, consider hiring a professional dog trainer who uses positive reinforcement-based training methods to help. 

Here are some possible causes:

1. Lack of Exercise

Problem: The most common reason that dogs become problem barkers is simply the fact that they are not getting enough exercise. 

Young dogs (ages 0-3 years) and certain breeds (such as herding and working breeds) have much higher exercise needs than most people and other pets. When these exercise needs are not met, problems such as barking, excessive chewing, and neurotic behaviors can result.

Solutions: Ultimately, your pet relies on you to make sure their needs for exercise are being met. For many of our canine companions, a few daily walks around the block just won’t cut it. Instead, find ways to add rigorous off-leash play and running to their daily routine. 

Examples include:

• Training games such as fetch and tug to give your dog a daily way to get their ya-ya's out 
• Consider athletic competitive dog sports such as flyball, agility, dock diving, or lure coursing 
• Visit a dog park or other area where dogs are encouraged to play off-leash where they can run and play to burn off excess energy
• Train your dog to use the treadmill
• Pick up a hobby such as hiking or jogging to turn your dog’s exercise needs into an excuse to work on your own fitness program

2. Lack of Mental Stimulation

Problem: Dogs are intelligent, social beings who cannot thrive when their needs to use their noodle are not met. Boredom, just like lack of exercise, can result in problem behaviors. If you want to stop your dog from barking all the time, be sure that you are doing your part to ensure your pup is getting a chance to be challenged on a mental level each and every day. 

Solutions: The main way most owners address their dog’s boredom is through training. If you don’t have a lot of knowledge about positive reinforcement training, then maybe it is time to pick up those skills. 

Start with simple “tricks” such as sit, stay, and down. These behaviors become a foundation for rewarding your dog for quiet and calm behaviors, another big bonus for owners of problem barkers.

Helping a dog to stop barking when the cause is a lack of mental stimulation can be addressed in many ways, including:

• Take a training class to learn the basics of positive reinforcement training techniques  (such as clicker training)
• Teach your dogs fun tricks and chain them together for both physical and mental stimulation daily
• Invest in doggy Einstein toys developed to get your dog thinking while earning fun rewards
• Teach what dog trainers call “impulse control” behaviors such as “stay” and “wait” and practice them in a variety of environments  

3. Separation Anxiety

Problem: Some dogs bark excessively when left alone for long or even short periods of time. At the root of this issue is often the condition widely known in dog circles as separation anxiety. This complex behavioral issue sometimes requires a professional dog trainer to help owners address the underlying problem. 

Solutions: Take a look at our article exploring training tips for separation anxiety in dogs. 

4. Demand Barking

Problem: Some dogs develop the habit of what dog trainers call “demand barking.” This is especially common in some toy breeds but can occur in any breed of dog. Often the owner has unwittingly encouraged this kind of barking by rewarding it with attention, treats, or giving the dog exactly what they seek when barking. 

Solutions: The key to addressing demand barking in dogs is for the owner to realize that they are probably encouraging behavior through their reaction to it. The very first step is to become more aware of what you are doing when your dog barks, and make sure you are not rewarding this annoying behavior. 

Other tips for addressing demand barking include:

• Ignoring your dog when they bark by turning and walking away
• “Time out” in a crate or room by themselves when they demand bark, until they quiet down
• Training quiet behaviors such as down, stay, and wait and rewarding them often
• Randomly rewarding calm and quiet behaviors when your dog least expects it 
• Learning how to redirect your dog when he starts barking so that you can reward them for quiet behavior

5. Anxiety Around Specific Triggers

Problem: Some dogs seem to bark in response to specific triggers. For example, when the mail comes, when someone walks down the street in front of the window, when you show a specific body language, or during car rides. In these cases, the issue often revolves around anxiety that has formed from that specific trigger. 

When barking is your dog’s way of expressing their anxiety, punishing the bark can be particularly ineffective, in many cases, making the problem that much worse. One way to understand this is that by punishing the dog in proximity to their anxiety trigger, you are only adding to their belief that the trigger precipitates danger and something to be worried about. 

Solutions: Professional dog trainers use two primary techniques to help dogs deal with anxieties of any kind: Desensitization and Emotional Reconditioning. These techniques are supported by a mountain of evidence in research on animal behavior and are also used to treat human phobias and anxiety disorders. 

Properly using these techniques is often beyond the skill level of pet owners. If your dog is experiencing anxiety-based barking in response to specific triggers, you may want to consider getting some guidance from a pro-dog trainer who can help you develop an effective training program. 

A few other tips to address anxiety barking in dogs include:

• Using natural products such as Lolahemp Full Spectrum Hemp Oil for Dogs to help calm your dog in the face of triggers and to improve training outcomes
• Teach and reward an alternative “quiet” behavior separate from the trigger. Once you have deeply reinforced this behavior in a non-stressful environment, you can start to ask for it while slowly exposing your dog to the trigger, rewarding generously for success.
• Reward calm behavior as you slowly expose your dog to the trigger in a controlled environment. Clicker training can be particularly helpful for this kind of training work.

Help Your Dog Stop Barking

Here at Lolahemp, we have many customers who have found that our full spectrum CBD product can help calm dogs which is one potential cause of problem barking. However, we also recommend that owners take the time to identify why their dog is barking, and be sure to address it on a training level as well. 

We want to come out against some of the products designed to help with barking on the market, including so-called “barking collars” that use painful shocks, scary noises, or sprays of annoying smells in the dog’s face to curb problem barking. These punitive solutions to dog barking can be traumatic for your dog, increase anxiety around triggers that are already causing your dog to be afraid, and do nothing to address the root cause of this problem behavior in most cases. 

Instead, we recommend you give our organic and full spectrum dog CBD oil a try. We offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can give it a try without risk. And, if you are quality conscious you should know that we are too. That is why we offer third-party lab tests on every batch of our small batch crafted oil.

Two Frequent Concerns

The following are two of the most common reasons that dog owners seek help with their dogs' barking issues.

1. My Dog Barks at Everything That Passes By

If your dog is barking at everything that passes by your house, it could be a lack of socialization, a response to previous trauma, or a heightened sense of anxiety. 

Our recommendation is to get them exercise, and start to introduce them to some of the things they see out the window. Over time, exposure to these things such as people, cars, dogs, squirrels, and more will help them understand that there is no threat, and therefore nothing to bark at. 

2. How to Stop a Dog Howling When Left at Home

If your dog howls the day away while you're not there, odds are that your neighbors aren't very happy. Additionally, this is an unpleasant experience for your dog.

This is typically a symptom of separation anxiety. A couple of common solutions to this issue are gradual crate training, natural calming supplements, and behavioral work to address your dog's separation anxiety.