Barking - Part 1

Types of Barking

Barking is one of the most common complaints that owners have about their shelties, whether it is a rescue sheltie or not. There are a lot of different types of barking, but I group them into 4 major categories. Any dog can exhibit any of these types of barking—sometimes at the same time. The first part of reducing barking is to identify the type of barking.

Demand barking - The dog barks at a person in order to get something. This type of barking is very easy to fix. Typical examples of this type of barking are: When playing, the sheltie will bark at the owner to throw the ball or Frisbee again. The barking stops when the play resumes. Some shelties will bark at other shelties to try to initiate play.

Some shelties will demand bark when they want attention, food or to go outside.

Alert barking - The dog barks because of something. Typical examples of this type of barking are: Barking at the UPS driver, barking at activity happening in the neighborhood, leash reactivity—barking at things while on leash

Boredom based barking - The dog barks at everything. These dogs do not tend to be fearful, but are very smart and very active.

Fear based barking - The dog barks at a person or thing, but it is fear based. This type of barking often includes the other categories, but also has a fear element. In this case, we train a bit differently than for non-fear based barking issues.

When working with a problem barker, we first need to evaluate the dog, its environment, its health and activity levels and its overall outlook. Then, we need to set up a well-rounded training program, since problem barking is solved through a combination of training and often minor changes in the dog’s household and how its owners interact with the dog.

Next time: Case Study 1: Bruce, the demand barker!