Causes of barking
Dogs bark for various reasons, they can:
- give signals to another animal;
- sound the alarm;
- play or provoke play;
- worry about the current moment;
- demand a reaction;
- do this out of fear and the need to drive away another animal or object;
- yapping just like that.
Sometimes the cause of barking may involve a combination of the above.
Our goal is not to make the dog stop barking altogether (especially when dog noise is an alarm signal). But it would be great if pets stopped making a fuss when asked or did not create a fuss for no apparent reason.
Some bark at the slightest noise, disturbance or movement.
Certain breeds have a genetic tendency to bark frequently.
Breeds that love to vocalize: Chihuahua, Border Collie, Brussels Griffon.
Also, the owner often reinforces this behavior. So , the dog thinks that the owner has joined him and begins to bark with even greater force.
On the other hand, if the owner gives the command to be silent in a soft or affectionate manner, the dog may perceive that he enjoys barking and this is a reason to receive praise every time. And, accordingly, it will make noise every time to receive love.
Gain trust in your dog
There are times when a dog barks loudly without even seeing you. She vocalizes when she hears your steps or smells you. This suggests that the animal senses danger coming from you.
In such cases, dog handlers recommend making friends with the neighbor's dog. You need to convince the dog that you do not pose any threat to him.
Politely ask your neighbors to come onto your property with your dog. The animal will get used to your smell and will stop reacting to your presence by barking.
Food can be a very easy way to gain your dog's trust. But under no circumstances feed someone else’s dog without the owner’s permission. This can harm their pet. After all, the animal may be on a special diet or have digestive problems. Ask your neighbors what treats they give their pet. Ask their permission to feed their dog periodically.
The neighbor's dog may bark at you if you are rarely at your home. In this case, you are a stranger to the animal. It takes time for the dog to get used to your presence. You can speed up this process. Hang your clothes near the fence between your property and your neighbor's. The dog will adapt to your scent and will not perceive you as a stranger.
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How to establish control?
Based on the reason, you can use different approaches to pacify the dog. largely due to the confidence that the owner displays. To gain confidence, the owner must understand the dog's reasons for barking.
With this understanding, the owner demonstrates calm, confident leadership and is in control of the situation.
The dog responds with calmness because it can trust the leader to take responsibility. From the very beginning of a relationship, you need to create a foundation that provides trust and inner confidence.
Remember that barking is one of the ways a dog communicates with us , so there is no need to try to get rid of this form of communication, but it should be controlled as necessary.
The ability to read your pet's signals is essential to building relationships.
File a formal complaint
If your neighbors do not make contact or are categorically unwilling to listen to you, then you can file an official complaint against them. You have the right to present the following claims to them:
- Exceeding the permissible noise level. Such a complaint can be filed if the dog barks during the day. In this case, you will have to invite specialists to measure noise levels.
- Disturbing the silence after school hours. You can make this claim if your dog barks at night. First, inquire about “silent hours” in your region.
You can file a noise complaint with your local police department. You need to write a statement to the district police officer. You can also call the police the moment your dog barks.
A complaint about exceeding the permissible noise level can also be submitted to the Rospotrebnadzor office. At the same time, it is important to ensure a visit from specialists at a time when the dog is barking.
How to silence?
There are several ways to silence an animal. Actions can be very diverse, choose those in which you can be consistent - this increases the chance of success.
Cover your mouth
If a dog barks and lunges at other people and animals, then you, as a careful and “affectionate” leader, should cover its mouth, showing that such behavior is unacceptable.
You have an advantage, use it. Put on a leash and, if the dog begins to behave inappropriately, tighten it, close its mouth and force it to sit.
Next , move, attracting the pet’s attention to you - this way you distract her from the objects to which she reacts.
This way the owner receives attention that builds respect and avoids conflict situations between the dog and the outside world.
Bring a gift
Another way to keep your dog's mouth closed is to encourage him to bring a "gift" to you, a guest, or someone in your home. You can teach her to enjoy carrying objects.
Dogs who love prey will often pick up a toy and carry it around with them just to express pleasure.
Naturally, animals cannot make noise and hold a toy in their teeth at the same time. But be careful about giving a toy while barking, because your pet may accept the toy as a reward for barking.
Bark on command
Another approach that may work is to teach your dog to bark on command and then tell him to be quiet.
If you practice treats or verbal praise, wait a few seconds after your dog finishes barking before rewarding him. You don't want your animal to think she is being rewarded for barking when in fact she is being rewarded for being silent.
To initially encourage voting, you can ask someone to ring the doorbell. Have your dog on a leash during the exercise so you can distract and stop the barking with a gentle tug of the leash.
To make the feedback even better, let your dog know that he can bark at the doorbell, but then he should shut up and go to his place by the door, where he will watch for the arrival of guests. The owner commands “Quiet” and waits for the barking to stop. When the door opens, the dog should sit and watch silently on the command “Place.”
One word “Voice” should encourage the animal to bark again. Thus, by teaching the commands “Voice”, “Quiet” and “Place”, you get a trained animal under your control .
Such a pet is able to repel danger and protect the home.
Abstraction
Some dogs need a break and distraction to stop barking. In other words, something must prevent the animal from concentrating on barking.
Sometimes a verbal command is not enough. In this case, the interrupter may be another noise, such as an instrument that produces a high-frequency sound. This is an unpleasant sound for the dog, it silences him.
Other things that can help distract your attention are a bag of beans, a heavy rattling chain, or a jar of pebbles or coins. It works like this: the dog barks, you throw a noisy object in front of it, but without it noticing. Act as if the object literally landed from heaven. This way the animal will develop a logical chain: if you bark for no reason, something appears out of nowhere, possibly dangerous.
However, barking does not always require such serious intervention. If your dog barks near you, slam a closet door or drawer so that the noise distracts or scares him. But don't try to scare her, just quickly change her mood and focus.
The dog should not see that you are the cause of the noise. She must understand that barking for no reason becomes a catalyst for something, that it has consequences.
The thrown object should not hit the pet - just distract it.
Get out of sight of the animal
If your garden area borders on your neighbor's, then the dog may bark every time you approach the fence. This is a natural reaction of the animal, because all animals defend their territory. Service dogs always greet a stranger with a loud bark. This is not a defect in upbringing. On the contrary, such a reaction indicates the good protective qualities of the dog.
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If the dog only barks when it sees you, then you should get out of its sight. Place a solid fence between your garden and your neighbors' yard. You can plant tall trees and shrubs at the border between areas. The animal will no longer see you and stop barking.
Be a leader
Earlier it was said not only about the owner’s ability as a leader to cope with difficult situations, but also about the dog’s confidence in his actions. It comes from training, spending time together, setting boundaries, and appreciating behavior that pleases the owner.
Controlled walks and games, accompanied by the commands “sit”, “lie”, “near”, turn the pet into a friend who feels attention and care and sees no reason to make noise without a reason. This creates an atmosphere of trust and confidence that allows the dog to know when it can and should bark , as well as when it can be calm.
Think carefully before you ignore the noise of a dog. It’s easier to reconfigure the animal’s behavior in the right direction than to wait for the problem to go away on its own.
Additionally, check out this short video on how to stop a dog from barking at everyone, other dogs and people:
Neighbors complain about a constantly barking dog: “Cut the dog’s vocal cords!”
Photo: pixabay.com
Conflicts between neighbors in apartment buildings are not uncommon. Some people are haunted by the eternal repairs behind the wall, which begin exactly when they want to relax. For others, loud music lovers and smokers make their lives worse. Still others complain about the child’s crying, and still others complain about the neighbor’s dog barking.
In theory, the freedom of neighbors ends at the boundaries of their apartment, but in practice, one resident of a high-rise building can disturb the peace of several families at once. This is precisely what a resident of the Frunzensky district of Minsk wrote to the editors of Komsomolskaya Pravda.
— About five months ago, my neighbors - a young couple - got a dog. Husky or husky, I don’t understand them. And every time they leave for work or somewhere else, the dog barks and howls nervously. I work remotely and spend almost the entire day “enjoying” this cacophony. And now it’s summer, it’s hot, everyone’s windows are wide open, so the sound is even louder. So that you understand the scale of the dog’s vocal abilities - sometimes I can’t hear the sounds of the computer or TV in the room! More than once I asked the dog's owners to do something. Maybe they should give him some drops or cut his vocal cords - the owners half-heartedly apologize, but they don’t solve the problem. It looks like I will soon have to take sedative drops. Now it is fashionable to talk about animal protection. And the fact that a dog cannot stand loneliness and barks continuously for many hours - isn’t this bullying the dog? Why have a pet if you can’t provide it with proper care? I myself love animals, but I think that they have no place in the apartment. Especially for such “singers” who suffer themselves and poison the lives of those around them.
Photo: unsplash.com
According to the author of the letter, other neighbors in the building also suffer from constant dog concerts. But things did not go further than discussing the problem in the elevator.
“They don’t intend to complain yet.” And during the day, the neighbors are at work, so, apparently, the constant howling does not irritate them as much as it does me. What can be done in this case? It’s useless to talk to the dog’s owners, but it’s also impossible to tolerate it any longer!
WHAT THE LAW SAYS
If a dog makes noise at night, the owner may be fined up to 30 basic units (810 rubles)
Belarus has rules for keeping pets. We publish short excerpts:
- Regardless of the size of the apartment, a maximum of two dogs can live in it. However, if several owners/tenants live in an apartment, the law allows keeping no more than one dog per family with the consent of all adult citizens living in this living space.
— Dogs must be registered: adults - within 3 days after their acquisition, and puppies - at the age of 3 - 3.5 months.
— You can walk your pet in public places if it is muzzled and on a short leash. The exception is puppies up to 3 months and decorative dogs up to 25 centimeters tall at the withers.
— Dogs whose height is less than 25 centimeters may be without a muzzle, but must be on a leash.
— Walking animals in the local area is prohibited: only on sites established by local authorities.
— Cats or dogs cannot be brought into shops, schools, public buildings, stadiums, parks, etc. The exception is guide dogs.
— It is prohibited for minors and drunk people to walk with animals of potentially dangerous breeds.
For violation of these norms, citizens bear administrative responsibility. As for the norms of behavior of pets in the apartment, they are regulated by the Rules for the Use of Residential Premises.
— There is liability for noise and vibration between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., so if a dog makes noise at night, its owner can be fined up to 30 basic units (810 rubles).
Regarding daytime, the document states that citizens are required to use televisions, radios and other loud-speaking devices only when the audibility is reduced to a degree that does not disturb the peace of other residents. Animals do not belong to loud-speaking devices.
If the above rules are violated, you can contact the housing and communal services organization that services the house, the executive committee or the administration at the place of residence. And also to the sanitary inspection or to the police (to the local inspector). Officials of these structures must respond to the appeal or complaint.
Photo: pixabay.com
COMPETENTLY
You can stop howling and barking with training and puzzles.
“When getting a puppy, many owners have romantic thoughts about how cute it is,” explains Olga Dedyulya, sports training instructor and dog handler for the television series “Mukhtar.” “But future owners do not always sensibly assess their capabilities and the efforts that will be required to care for a puppy and raise him into an obedient dog. Very often, owners are led by appearance and choose a breed that is absolutely unsuitable for them: neither in character nor in lifestyle. Huskies are dogs with a high tendency to vocalize (howl, bark). In this way, they communicate over large areas and determine each other’s geolocation at a distance. However, this does not mean that huskies will necessarily howl in the house.
According to the dog handler, the case in the letter is advanced, but not hopeless.
— Cutting ligaments is a radical procedure, which is also not at all safe. The fact is that after the intervention, the dog must be provided with complete rest and a ban on barking and howling until everything heals. Otherwise, adhesions will form, which will gradually begin to block the airways, and the dog will suffocate and suffer for the rest of its life. Initially, this operation was not conceived to silence the animal - there are a lot of ways to do this in a more humane way. The approach “the dog barks - let’s cut the ligaments, bites - let’s pull out the teeth, and runs away - let’s break the paws” is not a solution to the problem. If the pet has become a burden, then it is more honest to yourself and to it to find those hands that will be ready to take care of the dog.
Photo: pixabay.com
“Walking, during which the dog runs around with other animals, only aggravates the situation”
Olga believes that it is possible to wean a pet from howling or barking in the absence of its owners, but it takes time and effort. A dog trainer will help you accurately determine the cause of vocalization and select a set of special exercises.
- Most often, the problem is solved by increasing mental load - training, puzzles, species-specific load and educational toys. It’s like with children: if they are not occupied (for example, in sports sections, in clubs), then what will the child do? Destructivism. It’s the same with dogs: if they don’t have an understanding of how to behave, then the animal will follow the call of nature. As a rule, this call usually does not coincide with the owner’s expectations.
Another option to solve the problem is to turn to dog sitters. They will walk the dog and keep it occupied while the owners are not at home.
“The only thing I wouldn’t recommend in this case is sending the dog for live training with a dog handler. This will not solve the problem, since the dog’s stereotypes and habits will remain the same, and he will remember them at home. First of all, the owner needs to reconsider his own approach to caring for the animal. Firstly, a 15-minute walk or walk in which the pet runs around with other dogs does not solve the problem, but only aggravates it. Because this way the dog is only physically stressed. And secondly, the release of dopamine and endorphins does not calm the dog, but, on the contrary, excites it.
Photo: pixabay.com
OFFICIALLY
58 dog owners were fined in six months
Over the 6 months of 2021, the capital’s utility workers conducted 459 raids. 58 dog owners were fined a total of 1,377 rubles. According to the chief specialist of the department for improvement and sanitary maintenance of the housing stock of MGZHH Ekaterina Korneva , the violations are mainly related to walking dogs in unidentified places, as well as the lack of muzzles and leashes.
