If Belgian Malinois barks too much
How many times have you heard complains concerning your dog’s
constant barking? Don’t be upset! You are not alone. Barking is a
natural way for your dog to express his feelings. Do you know that
dogs use ten different sounds for communication? Changing the tone
of the sounds they express different feelings. For example, a dog
use one tone of growl, when he is protective and slightly other
tone, when he plans to attack. Sound communication includes
growling, howling, squeal, snapping and puffing.
Dogs bark for many reasons. Some of them do it to warn about strange
noise. Other bark to support other dog’s barking. Dogs may bark when
they are lonely, sad, scared, excited and even very happy. The only
case when the dog doesn’t use barking for communication is when he
shows his subordinate position.
Though barking is an ordinary and useful communication for dogs,
constant barking may become a disaster for family members and
neighbours. The reason of every baseless barking is mistakes in
puppy’s training. From the very beginning the owner should let the
puppy bark only in certain situations, though puppy’s barking and
growling may seem funny and innocently. It’s vital to understand, if
the puppy won’t learn something in his puppy-hood, he won’t learn it
being an adult dog.
Many people want the dog to warn them with barking when somebody is
coming. It’s convenient, because otherwise the owner won’t hear
anything being busy with laundering or watching TV.
Barking may hold the strangers back from coming into the house, but
if Malinois barks at every passerby it’s very tiresome.
Unfortunately, some owners often try to calm down the dog yelling at
him, but if the dog isn’t trained enough to understand words, he may
consider that the owner also “barks” and will be even more eager in
doing this.
Some dogs use barking to attract attention, even if it is expressed
in scream “Shut up!”. In this case dogs may bark without reason only
to get answer from their owners.
Some owners want their dogs to scare away the robbers by barking.
But, the dog may also start barking at every passerby, because he
approaches at first and then withdraw, so the dog considers that
it’s him who scared the passerby away.
Many dogs know, that they must protect your house and yard. Others
don’t understand it. For the dogs of the second category people are
perfect companions for playing and friends. Many owners do a lot to
make their dogs bark in certain situations and to encourage barking.
People often complain about dogs, who bark when their owners are
away. In this case, the dogs call for their owners and when they
finally come, the dog considers, that barking worked and next time
barks even more enthusiastically. The problem is that the dog and
his owner have too close relations and when the owner leaves, the
dog is gripped with anxiety.
Many people face the situation, when they come to friend’s place to
talk and the dog starts to bark awfully. Sometimes the barking may
continue during the whole visit. To stop it, the owner orders the
dog to calm down or strokes him. Naturally, both these actions
encourages the dog to continue barking and he starts again as soon
as the owner stops to pay attention to him.