Why does my dog bark so much at people?

“My dog barks a lot at people” is among the most common phrases (and cases) that we, as dog trainers, are faced with. There are many (really many) reasons why a dog can bark excessively, but, as trainers, we must take into account three main issues:

1. Almost every dog barks: barking is one of the ways in which dogs communicate and, for a large part of history, one of the most appreciated by human beings. It is normal for a dog to bark; what is not normal is for a dog to bark very much or compulsively.
2. Excessive barking means externalising a problem that the dog doesn't know how to manage, in other words, it is asking for help and, moreover, it is a practical way (which is not the same as a positive one, mind you!) of dealing with its problem.
3. Any behaviour that works is reinforced and makes it more difficult for us to change to a different (acceptable) behaviour and to make it stop.

Basically, what I mean is that to understand why your dog barks a lot at people, you have to understand what it accomplishes by doing so (in other words, why it works).

Today, I bring you three specific examples, but let me tell you that emotional poor management is often associated with a large number of cases of excessive barking.

Some reasons why your dog barks at people

#1. Barking due to insecurity

Many insecure or fearful dogs learn to bark or reinforce barking as a behaviours of self-defence. Often, moreover, handlers are unable to control the situation on the street and often encourage this behaviour further by becoming nervous or passing on their own insecurities to the pet. 

A large dog that barks at people out of insecurity often gets the person to walk away, making that behaviour work, so the dog will keep repeating it more and more. In these cases, we must remain calm, and present the dog with situations that it can manage and show it that barking does not achieve what it wants. At the same time, we must give it alternatives and tools that it can use to overcome this insecurity, of course.

Barking for attention, frustration, boredom...

Dogs can also associate barking with a way of getting people's attention (although this kind of interaction is of little value). This is why we must teach our dogs and also warn people to ignore them if they are barking; this way they will never get attention by barking.

In this case, excessive barking works and, if we cut out this aspect, it will no longer be effective. On the other hand, if it is a bark associated with frustration or lack of stimuli during a walk, we may need to work with a professional to provide more emotional management tools to our furry friend: tolerance to frustration, impulse control, mental stimulation, walks or richer environments…

As you can see, if we know how to identify the stimuli (reinforcers) and analyse them properly, we can change and extinguish behaviours with relative ease and knowledge.

Home contexts, territoriality and continuous reinforcement

Finally, one of the most complicated behaviours to eradicate is from within your own home. If we live in a house, for example, due to territoriality, the dog can find reinforcers in the context without us noticing: It is the classic example of the dog barking at the postman, drivers or other people behind a fence; all those people follow their regular route, however, the dog will understand that its bark has achieved exactly what it wanted (get out of here!), so it will continue to reinforce this behaviour.

As you can see, there are many reasons why your dog barks at people, as this is a complex phenomenon. Therefore, although this article allows you to get a general idea, if the behaviour is continued or increased, the best thing to do is to seek professional help that can perform a good functional analysis and prevent it from being emphasised through tools such as counter-conditioning, desensitisation or the integration of alternative or incompatible behaviours. 

I hope these tips will help you to start working on your own!

Javier Ruiz, educador canino em Dogventura e educador ambiental pela UB. Redator publicitário e autor de: De cómo los animales viven y mueren.