Why do Dogs Bark?

Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 9:14 am

Our furry canine friends are great at communicating with us. All we need to do is learn how to listen to them. Plenty of people get frustrated and annoyed by incessant barking. Instead of just yelling to the dog to shut up though it might be more productive to learn just exactly why dogs bark.

Dogs are highly intelligent animals. Unfortunately they don’t have the capability to communicate in words. Instead, you have to listen to their barks and yelps and interpret their body language.

Here are a few of the different meanings to a dog’s bark.

Constant rapid barking usually means something like ‘hey look at that. There’s something in our territory we really need to check it out.’

A low growl means that danger is near or that the dog is scared and looking to defend its home.

A couple high pitched yaps is normally just a “Hi it’s great to see you” kind of greeting.

An extremely high pitched bark or yelp normally means the dog has a sharp shooting pain like a thorn in a paw pad.

If a dog is just belting out a short incessant yap then chances are it probably needs to go outside and use the bathroom. It’s more of an attention getter than anything else.

If you have a hound breed then a long drawn out howl means that the dog has found whatever it was looking for and wants you to investigate. This bark is used more as an attention getter than anything else.

If a dog is happy and looking to play it will let out a couple medium to high pitched yaps to say ‘hey there pay attention to me! It’s play time now!”

Understanding your dog’s barks is key to training the dog when it is and isn’t appropriate to start yapping. You want a dog that will alert whenever strangers are around. At the same time you don’t want an animal that won’t shut up.