Discover How to Control the Excessive Barking of Your Dog

Although dogs naturally bark, excessive barking is not a good habit. It can disturb your neighbors and may lead to noise complaint against you and your dog. This is a serious matter so it is best to know how to control the excessive barking of your dog to avoid unpleasant experiences. The following tips can be very helpful.

Know the reason behind the unnecessary barking. It is important to know the reason behind the excessive barking of your dog. One reason why dogs bark is to get your attention. If you will give him your attention whenever he barks excessively, you are sending an approval message that he needs to be noisy to get your attention. The best way to control the excessive barking of your dog is to ignore your dog whenever he makes unwanted noise just to get your attention. Although it is to ignore your lovely pet, it is the best thing to do to let him know that you are not encouraging noise making as a way of getting your attention. Isolation or separation anxiety can also lead to unnecessary barking. With proper behavior modification training, your dog can learn how to cope with separation anxiety and will eventually stop the excessive barking or howling.

Walk your dog regularly. Barking is the normal reaction of dogs to unfamiliar people, territory, noise and things. Although barking is a very useful behavior of dogs to protect his pack and territory, it can be really annoying when your dog is overreacting and barks on everyone and on just anything for no apparent reason. To deal with this kind of problem, it is best to walk your dog regularly for him to learn how to socialize with people and other animals. He will eventually learn to be friendly and less aggressive.

Give your dog the message that his excessive barking is not a good behavior. One way to control the excessive barking of your dog is to tell him to be quiet and if he didn't, squirt water on his body when he barks too much. Once he got the message and stopped barking, reward him. Be consistent with this method and this will give your dog the message that if he barks excessively without valid reasons he will get a different treatment. Another way to control the excessive barking of your dog is to use an empty soda can half filled with coins or stones. Dogs do not like the sound or noise from shaking a soda can half filled with coins because it distracts them and they cannot concentrate on what they are doing. So each time your dog barks excessively, tell him to be quiet and if he didn't, shake the soda can with coins to make him stop barking, if he stopped, give him a reward.

Keep your dog busy. Sometimes boredom leads to unnecessary barking behavior. One way to keep your dog busy is to leave him with his favorite chew toys. When your dog is too busy chewing toys, it will be difficult for him to bark and make unnecessary noise. Chewing toys is a good way to distract him from his unfavorable habits.

Of course the tips mentioned above are the common strategies to control the excessive barking of your dog but if you failed to make these strategies work for your dog, be patient because breaking a bad habit is not easy and it will not happen overnight. Seek help if you cannot do it alone. You can look for dog trainers who can help you modify your dog's bad behavior. To know more about dog's obedience training visit Dog Lovers Portal

Gerry Restrivera writes informative articles on various subjects including Discover How to Control the Excessive Barking of Your Dog. You are allowed to publish this article in its entirety provided that author's name, bio and website links must remain intact and included with every reproduction.