Why is my dog barking at nothing

Excessive Dog Barking: Reasons & and How to Stop It

Barking is natural for dogs, but sometimes barking can be a thing of excess, which can lead to frustrated owners, and sometimes neighbors. Generally, excessive or nuisance dog barking involves a dog repeatedly barking for prolonged periods of time that interfere with neighbors engaging being able to enjoy their own property. Everyones definition of what excessive barking is will look different but if you have a dog who is barking excessively there are things you can do to bring peace to your dog and quiet to your home.

Why Dogs Bark So Much

If you are struggling with a dog who barks excessively, its important to try and understand what is causing the barking. Vocalizations are one way that dogs can communicate about how they are feeling and what they want. Dogs may bark to get attention, because they are alerting to something going on around them, because they are bored, anxious, frustrated, or feeling defensive of their homes or families.

Some barking is normal, but when barking becomes excessive not only is it frustrating for owners, but its also a sign your dog may be stressed, or their needs arent being met. Dogs use their barking as a means of communicating with us when they need things: to go outside, to play, because they are hungry, or because they are concerned about things. There is always a reason for the barking, and its our job to figure out what our dogs need.

A common reason for excessive barking is in response to things going on in your neighborhood. Historically, many breeds of dogs were kept guarding their owners homes and properties, or to alert owners about the presence of intruders. Although today many owners find alert barking frustrating, its important to remember that this behavior is natural for dogs.

Removing Distractions

If your dog is spending their day looking out the window and barking at people, dogs, and vehicles in your neighborhood a key step to stopping the barking is to remove the distraction. By managing your dogs environment and their access to distractions you may be able to reduce or even eliminate excessive barking.

Adding blinds, curtains, or adhesive privacy film (which comes in plain frosted or decorative patterns) to your windows can block the visual distractions from your dog. In addition to creating visual barriers from neighborhood distractions, it can be useful to use a white noise machine or to turn on a white noise playlist, radio, or television to help muffle distracting noises from outside your home.

Develop Alternative Behaviors

In addition to managing your space to reduce your dogs engagement with triggers that cause them to bark, its helpful to teach alternative behaviors for your dog to do instead of barking.

If you know your dog barks excessively when a package is delivered, you can teach your dog that when the doorbell rings they should run to another area of your home to get rewarded (instead of your dog rehearsing the barking behavior at the door.)

To start teaching this new behavior, have a friend or family member ring your doorbell (or use a doorbell recording online), and when the doorbell rings, get your dogs attention with a high-value treat and rush quickly with a lot of verbal encouragement to the area you want them to go. When you get to that area, jackpot your dog with lots of high-value treats. Repeat this interaction multiple times over several practice sessions. With practice, your dog will shift their behavior and anticipate running to that area of your home away from the front door to get treats instead of barking when packages are delivered.

Increasing Enrichment

Excessive barking can be a sign that your dog is bored. When dogs dont have enough enrichment in their day, they may develop destructive habits including too much barking.

In addition to making sure your dog gets enough physical exercise by walks, and active playtime if youre struggling with excessive barking, its helpful to increase the amount of mental and enrichment your dog gets during the day. If you know your dog barks while home alone, make sure to spend quality time with your dog before you leave and provide stimulating activities like a stuffed KONG for your dog to solve and eat while youre away.

Providing brain games for your dog can help alleviate boredom barking. If youre going for extended periods of time, its helpful to have a friend, family member, or professional dog walker come and visit your dog midday to get exercise and break up the alone time.

Barking At You

When frustrated or bored, some dogs will bark at their owners for attention. This is known as demand barking. Generally, this behavior is a result of your dog trying to get attention or another need met. If your dog is barking at you excessively, ignore your dogs barking and reward what you do want the quiet moments between barking, engaging with toys etc. When your dog stops barking, praise and reward your dog. While your dog is quiet, engage your dog in play or practice a trick. The idea is to give your dog engagement and attention while they arent barking.

Dont Punish

Having a dog barking too much can be stressful. The frustration can also be heightened if you have neighbors complaining about your dog. When youre stressed, it can be tempting to get loud yourself. However, getting into a yelling match with your dog doesnt solve the barking problem. The louder you yell, the louder your dog barks and generally ends up just escalating your dog instead of calming them down.

Instead of getting frustrated, try to recognize that your dog isnt actively barking to make you mad, rather they are communicating a need or desire in the only way that they know. Punishing your dog for barking through yelling or using an electronic (shock) bark collar, citronella collars, or ultrasonic machines that produce unpleasant sounds doesnt address the underlying issue of why your dog is barking excessively. In addition, being aversive doesnt help your dog learn anything it just punishes behavior without giving an alternative.

Breed Considerations

All dogs are individuals, and some will bark more than others. How much a dog barks can have a variety of causes including a dogs socialization and training. In addition, some dog breeds are naturally more vocal than others. Some breeds tend to bark more because of the jobs (like guarding) that they were bred to do.

Additionally, because of their size, some dogs will have larger and louder barks than other dogs. If you are sensitive to barking or live in an apartment, its important to keep in mind how large a dogs bark is, as well breed characteristics, before getting a dog. If you have a breed that is naturally very vocal, youll need to be especially attentive to supporting your dog to avoid issues with your neighbors.

Regardless of what type of dog you have, the key to changing your dogs behavior is recognizing and addressing the underlying cause for the barking. Once you know why your dog is barking, you can make lifestyle changes to prevent barking and you can teach alternative behaviors.

Help! Why Is My Dog Barking At Nothing?

Sometimes it feels like your dogs barking at absolutely nothing, at thin air almost, unless its a ghost. Sound familiar? If you have a dog barking at nothing, were here to help!

In this article, well explain many of the reasons that dogs bark they might even surprise you. Well dive into why your dog might be barking at nothing and how to stop it, and most importantly, what you shouldnt do us dog owners are often masters at making things worse.

Dogs often bark because theyre bored and its a fun thing to do. If this is starting to tick you off, you can get loads of training and brain-stretching done to prevent it with the Zigzag app. In it, youll have a personalized training program for your puppy, and an absurdly amazing team of professional dog training experts to help you around the clock, 24/7. Just reach out to them via our in-app chat and theyll do their best to problem-solve; whether your dog is barking, or youre struggling with potty training, theyve got the answers for you!

Why do dogs bark?

Barking is a natural instinct for a dog. Its their way of communicating, whether its with each other or with us. Just like with humans, they are usually trying to convey fear, protecting their territory, boredom, seeking attention, overarousal or excitement, or simply because its fun.

Fear and anxiety

Whether your dog is howling, barking or doing low-level woofing, barking when theyre scared is a common thing for them to do. Barking can be a dogs way of making the scary thing go away, or it can have a self-soothing effect as it can make them feel better.

Boredom

Barking can be amusing for dogs. Especially when theyre bored, barking feels great, just try it yourself. That said, if your dog chews a lot, destroys things, or generally does bad behavior, this is usually a normal sign that they need more and better mental stimulation.

Excitement

When dogs get excited and over-aroused, barking will be the best thing they can do to release and express their joy, oh and you might see humping too! It probably wont sound like confetti and trumpets to you, but theres nothing like knowing your dog is happy. You might even let this kind of barking slide.

To sound the alarm

Well, we know the mailman isnt coming in to murder us, but our dogs might think the opposite. If you have a dog who barks at visitors or your lovely delivery people, its actually pretty common its typical dog behavior that warns us about the potential danger lurking outside!

Why do dogs bark at nothing?

Although it might seem like your dog is barking for no reason, they probably arent. Dogs do what works for them and what they find rewarding, so they may hear, see or smell things we dont, not realizing theyre barking at it in the first place.

They can hear high-pitched noises

Dogs can hear things that we cant due to their more sensitive hearing. Back in the day, they needed this skill to hunt effectively and keep themselves safe from potential predators. Dont worry, its not like theyre hearing voices.

To learn more about how dogs were domesticated, read our article. Its quite a nice read, actually.

They can see better in low light

Dogs have better vision in low light, as they would have hunted at dusk and dawn when they lived in the wild. When they bark at something at night in the yard thats not there to us, rest assured they can probably see something that we cant. Probably better if we dont see it; wed shriek louder than they can bark.

Theres much to learn about dog eye anatomy, so if youve got some time to read our article on it, please do. Its a good one to learn about.

They can smell things much better than we can

With their incredible sense of smell, dogs will often smell things before they see or hear them, and this can cause them to bark when you feel like theres nothing there. If you fart and they bark, you know youve been caught.

If you have a stinky dog youll want to read our guide to why does my dog smell so much.

Barking in their sleep

You might hear your dog barking or woofing in their sleep. Dogs have similar sleep cycles as we do, and the barking occurs in REM sleep when there is a lot of brain activity. If youre wondering if theyre dreaming of fields of green and raining treats, chances are they are.Our full guide on how much puppies sleep will tell you more about that.

Canine Cognitive Dysfunction (CCD) or Doggy Dementia

If you have a senior dog who seems to be barking at nothing, then it can be an idea to get them checked out for CCD or doggy dementia by your Vet. Yep, its a bit sad that dogs also get dementia, but barking at nothing can be a symptom.

How do I stop my dog from barking at nothing?

To stop your dog from barking at nothing, you can train them to minimize the behavior. Typically, this will mean checking for health problems, managing the environment to block out or muffle external noises, redirecting them onto something else, and teaching them a quiet cue. Youll love the quiet cue, we can tell already.

Acknowledge the behavior

Your dog is trying to tell you or communicate something when theyre barking, so its very wise to not ignore it. Actually, just dont ignore it at all. Look at why the barking is happening; what is your dog trying to say?

Rule out any medical issues

A senior dog may bark due to canine cognitive dysfunction, whereas a younger dog may be in pain. Its always worth getting a vet check to rule out anything medical being the reason your dog is barking.

Play them white noise in the evenings

If your puppy is barking at night, playing a white noise machine or classical music can help to block or muffle outside noises that they might be reacting to. Humans love white noise too, just notice the sheer amount of playlists on Spotify.

Train them the be quiet cue

Teaching your dog to be quiet on cue is a great way to deal with your dog barking at nothing right there and then. With positive reinforcement training, we can train our dogs to stop barking when we ask them to, kind of like a magic spell.

In the Zigzag training app, we have a full breakdown of how to teach your dog to be quiet on cueall secrets included.

Make sure your dogs needs are met

Your dog has specific needs which, when theyre not met, can cause an increase in barking at nothing. Same as us to be honest, we tend to scream and complain when we dont have what we need. At least I do.

Check off this list to be sure your dogs needs are being met to reduce their barking at nothing:

• Give your pup the right amount of physical exercise by taking them on sniffy and enriching walks.
• Make their playtimes much more entertaining by using toys or embracing your inner silliness to meet their attention needs. Playing fetch with toys or brain games will give them great mental stimulation and get rid of boredom.
• Take your dog to the bathroom regularly! Theyll likely bark if theyre busting for a pee. Were sure you dont want any more potty training accidents that need cleaning up!

Feed them the right amount of a balanced diet. Whether you feed a commercial wet or dry food, a raw or BARF diet or you go all out and cook for your dog.

What not to do when trying to stop them from barking

Its tempting to look for a quick fix to get your dog to stop barking at nothing. Its sad to see our great human brains being used for things like shock collars, or simply telling them off these actually make the barking worse or cause a slew of other issues!

Bark collars

Bark collars generally work by setting off compressed air or citronella scent when they detect a dog barking. The idea is to startle the dog or spray something unpleasant at them in order to interrupt the barking. This method of training is aversive and can have long-lasting negative effects on your dog.

The other problem with bark collars is they go off when other dogs bark too. That isnt very fair.

Shock collars

E-Collars or Shock Collars can work manually with a person pressing a button on a remote, or automatically when the dog barks. The collar delivers an electric current to the dog which hurts quite terribly. Even we hate the static from a shopping cartimagine getting it on your neck.

The bottom line is that using punishment-based techniques is never a good idea. They can emotionally damage your dog and create negative associations between them barking and the thing they were barking at. For example, if they see a dog and bark and get shocked, they will now fear the dog more and can become aggressive as they associate the dog with pain.

Shouting

Shouting at your dog when theyre barking at nothing has a few problems associated with it as well. Firstly, it can scare your dog. Theyre just being a dog at the end of the day, and dont understand why youre so cross with them. Secondly, shouting can make them think theres DEFINITELY something to be worried about as youre shouting too!

Okay. So now that youve listened to everything weve got to say, if you have a dog who seems to be barking at nothing, understand that theyre probably barking at something; it just cant tell you exactly what it is.

To reduce your dogs barking, make sure all their exercise and nutritional needs are met and that theyre not bored and just barking at nothing for fun.

Use positive reinforcement to teach your dog a quiet cue, and turn away from fear or punishment-based techniques to stop the barking. To succeed, you need to look at the underlying issue of their barking rather than being swayed by claims of quick fixes to have a happy and healthy pup. They never work!

If youre struggling to sleep well because your pup seems to be howling at the moon, then check out our guide to why is my puppy barking at night, and get them into a perfect nighttime routine. Youll see how much your mood starts improving after that.

Download the Zigzag app today and get access to much more training content. Our team of professional dog trainers are fantastic; they wont bark at you for making any mistakes. Theyre available 24/7 via in-app chat, or via a phone call.