Nov 02 2009
Stop Dog Barking Outside
Do you put your dog outside only to have him bark and bark and drive the neighborhood crazy? You will find different reasons that this can be a problem. It’s important that you understand why your dog is barking in the first place if you want to be able to stop dogs barking outside.
Barking is one of the only ways that your dog can speak and express himself. Too much barking can be a serious problem. A barking dog can be compared to a crying baby. The dog bark can have a different tone and bring different meanings with each bark. Here are some examples:
· Defensive barking- if your dog feels fear or wants to make it go away
· Your dog is bored and wants to amuse himself or call for attention
· Your dog is confused, frustrated or stressed about something
· Your dog is hungry and wants food
· Your dog is trying to alert you of something out of the ordinary
Now that you know some reasons for dog barking, you can try to narrow down your dog barking situation. This will involve an evaluation of the current problem. What’s the reason for barking dog? Is it that he’s been outside for a long time? Check to see if he is afraid?
Sometimes dog barking outside comes from your dog seeing something that startles or excites him such as a wild animal, a cat or another dog or even a person out late at night. Sometimes your nighttime dog barking can come from sounds he hears far away such as other dogs, sirens or even TVs from inside houses.
If your dog moves to a new place, moves from the country to the city or makes some other type of change, he will need some time to adjust to the new sights and sounds. It’s normal to have some barking at times but you need to teach your dog that he is safe and the barking can stop.
You will need to teach your dog to be quiet outside at night when people are trying to sleep. Make sure all of his basic needs are met and that your dog has a safe place to stay, water to drink and food to eat if needed throughout the night.
Then you can teach your dog when to bark and when not to bark. He will learn to silence when you tell him when you reward him for barking on command. A warning bark at night can be calmed with a simple “ok boy, I hear” or “enough, now quiet” when you have a properly trained dog.
You can try to prevent this problem by avoiding situations that make your dog bark when possible. If your dog barks a lot when put in the backyard, try not to put him back there unless you’re going to be out there with him or until he gets used to being there alone without barking.
