How to Get Your Dog or Puppy to Stop Barking Around the Home!

Are you so over your dog barking at any noise that happens around your house and startling you all the time? Are you worried your neighbours are going to complain about your dog always barking?
Cannot for the life of you figure out how to get them to stop and it is turning you into a version of you that you’re not proud of? It’s okay! We can help!

Having a dog that barks at noises outside of your home or at people passing by is an unnecessary stress that can truly be disruptive to your home environment. But with the tips we’re sharing today, you’ll know exactly what to do and not to do to make sure that your dog stops barking in these situations once and for all. Let’s start with our three practical and easy-to-follow tips!

Understanding Why They Bark

It's always important to understand why your dog is doing a behaviour that you don't like in the first place. In the case of barking, most dogs are bred just for that: they're bred to guard the house. And so, a lot of dogs bark to alert their owners that, “Hey, somebody is approaching the house or noises are happening outside that I'm not comfortable with.” So, really, a dog barking at noises outside your house is just being a dog. 

However, it can be a very frustrating behaviour to deal with. It can also be a symptom of fear or anxiety in your dog. They may be feeling worried that there's something scary coming near their house (safe place). These tips are not designed to address barking dogs that are anxious as you might need the help of a private trainer to best support your sensitive dog.

The Mail PERSON Syndrome

The mail person syndrome happens when your window watcher, or listener of sounds in the hallway of your apartment building, barks when they hear a sound - and before they know it, the sound is gone (because the mail person left). Your dog learns if they bark, the scary or potentially threatening thing leaves! They think, “I did it again. I made the scary thing leave.” And they're proud of themselves. It's very reinforcing for them to bark at something and then witness its departure, even though it’s really just people passing by. So here you are getting annoyed with them, firstly, for doing what they're bred to do, and second, what is a totally normal dog behaviour. And thirdly, you're getting mad at them when they think they're doing a really good job at protecting the house! 

What You’ll Need 
- A dog bed
- Dog treats

Our Three Tips to Stop Barking

Tip 1: Manage your dog's exposure to triggers that cause barking in your home.

Tip 2: Train ”go to your bed” and ”stay.” 

Tip 3: Remove your dog to a quiet comfortable and calming resting space (you can be with them) to minimize exposure to stressful triggers.

Manage Exposure to Triggers That Cause Barking 

Window Watching

Tip 1: Do not facilitate window watching. Take away your dog’s opportunity to sit on couches and peer out windows. If you live in an apartment building, you want to eliminate their opportunity to sit at the front door, waiting for people to pass in the hallway for them to bark at. Therefore, sometimes a baby gate can help block an apartment dog’s access to the front door in the first place. 

For chronic window watching dogs, sometimes you have to move your furniture so that they can't stare out windows. An easier option might be to close the blinds as much as possible (we know that's a pain, sorry). Sometimes blacking out the bottom half of windows helps with clear window covers, if you have a long window right near the door, so that they stop seeing shadows passing. 

Provide Enough Mental Stimulation

Another key tip is to make sure your dog is getting enough mental stimulation throughout the day. If you have a very intelligent or bright dog that gets easily bored, window watching becomes a very fun game for them to play. They literally wait for something to show up. Then they bark, bark, bark, and the thing goes away. It's like playing a video game for them. So, you want to give them interactive feeding toys, or puzzle dispensing toys, or bones or bully sticks to entertain them instead of allowing them to rely on the exterior world to give them some stimulation. 

The Actual Mailman

For dogs that live in houses, a common trigger that happens every single day (lucky you!), is when the mail person comes to your door. Your dog has one time every day when they're guaranteed to make this thing go away after barking. So, to prevent your dog from learning that barking is making the mail person leave, it might be in your best interest to remove the mail slot from your door altogether. You can do things like putting a sign on the door that says, “Please drop the mail instead of putting it through the slot.” You can leave a sign on the door that says, “Please leave the mail at the end of the walkway.” You can move your mailbox to the end of your walkway, instead of allowing them to come all the way up onto your doorstep, where your dog rehearses every single day making the mail person go away. 

Train “Go to Your Bed” and “Stay” 

Tip 2: If you don't like that your dog is barking, you have to tell them what you want them to do instead of barking. Remember it's in their nature to bark, so this is difficult for them to unlearn. Oftentimes we need to move them away from window areas or doorway areas when they are barking, to stop the habit in the first place. So, training the skill, “go to your bed,” and “stay” is 100% in your best interest if you have a barky dog inside. 

Now, if you're going to ask them to go to their bed and stay on their bed, away from windows and away from doorways, whether it’s before they start barking or after, they have to know that skill very well to be able to respond to it when they're triggered by something outside.

IF THIS DOES NOT WORK

Tip 2: Try removing you and your dog to a quiet area of the house away from distracting noises, and consider enlisting the help of a trainer (like one of our team members) to support you and your dog to establishing more peace in your home.

A Few Friendly Reminders 

• Avoid using gimmicks or quick-fix correction devices to suppress barking in your home. Remember barking is instinctive, but it's also a symptom of something:  discomfort, fear, or anxiety. So, if you are going to punish your dog heavily for barking, whether that's with a citronella spray, a penny can, using firm verbal corrections, or doing any kind of sting or collar correcting, your dog's not figuring out what you do want them to do when they're triggered by something. So, it's very unfair to use any correction devices, especially any noise devices. All of these things that you use are going to make your dog think that when people pass by their house, something painful or uncomfortable or scary happens to them. And that puts them at a very high risk of becoming more reactive and barkier, and can even create aggression issues. We promise you it will cause you very long-lasting problems. 

• Have patience. It takes a long time to unwire your dog's natural inclination to bark at things outside their home. And remember, if these methods don't help you, there probably is a bigger underlying cause to your dog's reactivity and barking in the home. 

• You need repetition, repetition, repetition. Don't tell us this doesn't work if you’ve only tried it five times. This might take you weeks and weeks of the three-strike time out protocol. So be persistent.