My dog barks constantly. How can I get him to stop?

There are a few factors to consider: 1. breed type?, 2. how long has the dog been barking? and 3. why is the dog barking? Constant, uncontrolled barking is a pretty good sign that the dog may be seriously stressed and, therefore, truly unhappy. In this case, it wouldn’t hurt to seek the help of a professional.

Our time together (at least 14,000 years) has influenced canine behaviour through selective breeding. One of the traits selected, to varying extents and depending on dog breed, is the sentinel aspect of our dog’s behaviour. In other words, “Sound the alarm! Intruder alert! Intruder alert!”.

The problem that most people have with respect to barking is its indiscriminate nature. The dog barks whether there is a full-blown invasion by the ancient hordes of Mongolia or a leaf insolently blowing across the lawn. All too often, without supervision and guidance, as many of these dogs mature, their bark extends to biting.

The two things that most significantly affect excessive barking occur in the first two years of life: 1. unsupervised time in a yard and 2. in-home unsupervised access to a street front window. This type of environment plays right into those thousands of years of genetics. The dog hears, sees and/or smells something in the vicinity of its territory and sounds the alarm. Lo and behold, the intruder (a neighbour pulling into their own driveway, someone walking a dog, delivering a flyer, mail, etc.) from the dog’s perspective, moves on and abandons their nefarious behaviour and all due to its heroic, timely barking. The dog, satisfied at a job well done, settles down until the next daring intrusion. After a while, a little warning turns into a larger one and after a few short months, the dog reacts so strongly to perceived threats that it cannot control itself, let alone heed any guidance from its guardian. In other words, the behavior ultimately becomes an ingrained and powerful habit requiring a significant effort on the part of the dog's guardian to extinguish.

Specific resolution advice is difficult, as there are other reasons that a dog might bark excessively, such as anxiety. Therefore, the solution for one might aggravate the other. Rest assured your problem can be resolved, but for your sake, the dog’s sake (and your neighbour’s sake), this is one type of problem well worth bringing a professional in on.

Animal Behaviourist John Wade (http://www.johnwade.ca/)