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Articles / Barking
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Barking
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Article entered on: Tuesday October 21, 2003
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By Soraya Juarbe-Diaz, DVM, DACVB*
Why Dogs Bark
The bark is a fairly common vocalization of domestic dogs, but it is not common in other adult canines. Domestication either resulted in a selection for dogs in which barking is common, or selection for tameness concurrently selected for barking behaviour. Dogs that bark when an intruder enters their and their owners' territory would be desirable for guarding duty. In the same way, some types of hunting dogs are likely to become separated from people when they hunt, barking or baying would allow the hunter to know the dogs' location. Thus, their functionality depended upon their ability and predisposition to make a vocalization that in their wild relatives is seen mostly in juveniles and pups.
Different Types of Vocalization
Although the exact meaning of all the dog's vocalizations is not known, the signals can be differentiated from one another and have been described. Dogs can bark in play, in greeting, as a warning, to make contact, as an attention-seeking device, in excitement or may use the bark as a territorial call. Dogs may whine or whimper when in pain, in submission, when care-seeking, or in anxious states. The growl can be made during play or as a threat, both offensive and defensive. The howl seems to function as a contact vocalization and to assemble a pack. Some vocalization are difficult to explain, such as howling or barking that results in responses to a person singing or playing an instrument. Any of these vocalizations can be performed as a learned behaviou, either taught by the owner or acquired by the dog as a result of the owner's inadvertent reinforcement.
The Problem Barker
When does barking become a problem? The answer to this question is highly variable, as it depends upon the tolerance of people that are within hearing range of the barking dog. The tolerance level is different for each person, or may change due to a change of circumstances such as acquisition of close neighbors or an increase in the frequency and intensity of barking episodes, such as when a puppy becomes an adult.
Dogs are most likely to bark in response to another barking dog, but they may react to any of a number of visual and auditory stimuli. Additionally, some breeds have been selected for barking behaviour, such as hounds and terrier breeds, and these types of dogs may present excessive barking problems more often.
As a learned behaviour, barking may have been unwittingly reinforced by the owner or corrected inappropriately. In multiple dog households, a particular dog may be the initiator of the barking behaviour, with the other dogs in the household joining in, an example of a socially facilitated behaviour.
Diagnosis
All excessive barking can be annoying, but without trying to determine the motivation for the behaviour it is possible to arrive at the wrong diagnosis. The wrong diagnosis leads to the wrong treatment and treatement failure. A thorough and accurate history should be collected and include the dog's anamnesis, time of onset of the behaviour, chronology of the problem, and the circumstances that elicit the barking. Owner's attempted solutions, outcomes of such attempts, level of obedience training the dog has had, and other details about its home environment are all useful data to be collected.
An important rule out in cases of excessive barking is separation anxiety. Dogs with separation anxiety vocalize in their owner's absence. They may or may not display other signs associated with separation anxiety before the owner's departure, while the owners are away, or upon the owner's return. These dogs must be managed and treated differently than dogs which are nuisance barkers. Treatment of separation anxiety will not be addresses in this presentation.
Treatment
Nuisance or excessive barking can be corrected, but treatment requires that owners be willing to spend time working with their dogs, and without this commitment, treatment is unlikely to be successful. Recommendations include modifying the dog's environment as to elimate the stimuli that elicit barking. This could mean bringing an outdoors dog inside or preventing access to windows so the dog cannot be stimulated by outdoor sights. With the owner restraining the dog with a leash, the dog should receive a correction (leash or head halter) whenever it barks, at the same time it is praised for remaining quiet aat any time it would otherwise be included to bark. Praise for not barking is extremely important.
Punishment can be difficult, because for punishment to be effective, it must be correctly applied: it must be delivered in a timely fashion, be aversive enough, and be temporally associated with the behavior that is being corrected. A dog that barks at the edge of the property while the owner yells at it from inside the home is unlikely to respond to the "correction".
it can be worthwhile to desensitize the dog to the stimuli that elicit barking, and to teach the dog an alternative response, such as searching for the owner or sitting in a predetermined area of the house or porperty. An alert and quietly watching dog can still be a deterent toa trespasser. if there is an element of owner-provided reinforcement or if owners unwittingly encourage barking by increasing the dog's level of arousal until barking occurs, these factors must be identified during the histor documentation process. This way recommendations can be made to the owners to change their behavior or by resassurances to the dog that everything is all right and that the dog need not continue barking. What sounds like a rational explanation which would make a person stop a behavior is most likely to sound like approval to a dog, having the opposite effect than the one intended.
Surgical debarking is an option which is extreme but should be offered and considered when behavior modification and other treatment has failed and the dog is a risk of relinquishment or euthanasia.
Anti-barking Collars
A number of anti-barking collars are avilable on the market. They rely on remote correction of barking behavior and may be activated by the barkingsound picked up by a microphone or the vibrations across the larynx and ventral neck area which are picked up by a sensor. Some models are activated by the owner or trainer, but they require exquisite timing in their use, and should only be used, if all, by experienced individuals.
This author does not endorse the use of collars that employ an electronically generated electric shock to provide a correction. A comparison of an electronic shock collar (The Bark Diminisher, Tri-Tronics) and a citronella spray collar (Aboistop, ABS collar) was undertaken to compare their effectiveness as bark deterrents. results of this study revealed that for the tested population, the citronella collar was deemed by the owners to be as effective as an electronic shock collar and sometimes were described as more effective. The citronella spray collar was preferred by many owners and is comparable in cost to many types of electronic shock collars.
There are a few disadvantages to the use of the citronella spray collar. The reservoir must be kept full as dogs can learn when it is empty and resume barking. One owner questioned its use in bright sunlight as she felt that the heat increased the pressure in the reservoir and caused the collar to discharge larger than usual amounts of the citronella spray. The dog may become habituated to the odor and eventually not respond to the collar's correction. The use of citronella collar may interfere with the working ability of hunting or scent dogs. Finally, the collar will not workfor all dogs; there are likely to be some highly motivated dogs for which a spray citronella will be an aversive enough method of punishment.
*Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Behavioral Medicine.
Article reprinted with permission
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