Do you often get complaints from neighbors about your dog’s loud and excessive barking at night? Are you frequently awakened in the middle of the night by your dog’s nuisance and inappropriate barking? Do you experience sleepless and seemingly endless nights because your dog does not stop barking so loudly?
You are not alone! Barking is a natural phenomenon among dogs because it is one of their means of communication. However, barking becomes annoying and a serious problem when it already greatly affects your and your neighbors’ sleeping patterns.
Barking as a channel of communication means that your dog may be conveying a message. Dogs bark for some several reasons. Dogs’ barking at night can actually be really helpful in protecting and securing your home from burglars. Some dogs bark at night to deter other unfamiliar people from entering your property. Other dogs bark at night because of excitement, or fear and anxiety at something they are scared of or bothered about. However, some dogs bark just to get your attention.
The thing is, dog barking at night is not entirely bad, for it can provide you, your home, and your neighborhood safety and security. However, barking becomes a serious problem when it is already excessive and inappropriate, wherein the dog barks nonsensically at anything and everything, even when there is no impending danger or harm. This excessive barking problem should not be left alone, and should be addressed accordingly.
There are several ways to address the excessive and inappropriate barking at night. The solution could be as simple as changing the environment of your dog or as complex as implementing or undergoing a training program. Here are few tips to address excessive barking problem at night:
- Know the root cause of the problem and understand why your dog is barking. It always pays to know the cause first, in order to appropriately deal with the problem. Get to know and understand the specific reasons why the dog is barking excessively and inappropriately. Keenly observe and find out the triggers, if there are any.
- One of the simple ways to train dogs to stop inappropriate barking is to teach the dog to bark (and to stop barking) on command. Train dogs to “speak,” bark on command, and then train it to be “quiet,” to stop barking. With consistency and through repeated and constant practice, your dog will learn to associate the signals “speak” and “quiet” to barking and to stop barking, respectively. In teaching these commands, it is important to reinforce the correct behavior. Reward is one of the effective motivation of behavior, so it is also nice to give treats and most importantly, praise. Consistency is key to effectiveness - reinforce the behavior only when the dog is correctly following the commands.
- Bark collars are also known to minimize excessive and inappropriate barking. Dog owners – especially those who are busy and have not much time – have been using bark collar in training their dogs to control their barking. These bark collars are specifically designed to regulate barking of dogs by detecting their barking, and then sending a signal that would warn the dog or serve as a consequence of his inappropriate barking. Anti barking collars of several variations can be purchased online. OurK9 offers safe and effective bark collars for dogs of different sizes and breeds.
Excessive and inappropriate barking at night is one of the common problems faced by most dog owners. It may result to disturbing and annoying the household and the neighborhood, and also other problems. Fortunately, this excessive barking problem at night can be minimized and properly dealt with.