Ideas for my dog to bark less when I'm alone
The dog is a very social animal, so it can lead to bad long periods of loneliness at home. If this starts to be a problem, for you or your neighbors, take note of the following ideas so that your dog barks less when he is alone.
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A frequent cause of the dog's excessive barking are moments of loneliness, which can quickly turn into an ordeal for the owner of the dog, among other things due to the risks involved from the point of legal view. However, the owner of the animal is usually the least concerned about the noise it makes, being in general the neighbors who can easily be bothered by the barking and start a legal process, without even warn Whether it is a complaint or – even worse – the obligation to separate from the dog, the penalties can be important.
There are many causes of barking during moments of solitude of the dog, such as boredom, frustration, fear … and that is where the great difficulty is in dealing with them: we must identify, imperatively, the cause or causes that make our hairy bark go on and on.
An example of therapy
The therapy that we propose next corrects the needs of the dog, to make the barking disappear. In case of frustration due to prolonged loneliness, falls on us the responsibility of increasing the activity of the dog and / or the presence around it. In the case of fear we allow the dog to do apprenticeships with a positive method to diminish his fear (what we call habituation). If we eliminate the cause of the barking, we also suppress the unwanted behavior and increase, in all cases, the welfare of the animal.
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We strongly discourage the use of anti-barking collars. According to the punishment (whether necklaces or spray, or even worse, necklaces with electric shocks) there is a risk that, instead of improving the situation, increase the source that causes the discomfort of the dog. It may be useful, for example, to have a connected object that allows us to retrieve the dog's attention (such as remote compressed air sprays, which are not very corrective or too aggressive); But there are other methods more effective than collars.
Understanding your dog is necessary to establish a relationship of balance, well-being and love. Each dog, and each dog-human couple is different, this relationship is defined according to the communication, observation, patience and humility.
What are the dog breeds that least bark?
It is difficult to answer this question since there are no studies objectives on it. However, empirically, we can see some differences. For example, brachycephalic or tailless dogs can vocalize and use barking more often to manifest their emotions, because their physicality does not allow them to express certain signals with their body. Small dogs also tend to be noisier.
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However, dogs also have a formidable ability to adapt to sometimes very different situations, in which differences of character can be observed between breeds, but also and, above everything, in each dog . He adapts according to his anatomy (the dog is an animal that can vary between 2 and 80kg), its environments and the individuals that are in it, which can lead to "charlatans" dogs or, on the contrary, dogs very silent, which will communicate otherwise regardless of their race or size.
Do not be attracted to a breed by criteria like this: follow the indications related to the general tendencies of the breeds, but keep in mind that each animal, each dog, is unique and that you can always find a opposite to the general trend.
Written by: Dr Stéphane Tardif
Veterinarian and editor of Wamiz
Also read: What can I do to make my dog bark less?
