Puppies Barking - Phobias and Fears

There are many reasons why you will find a group of puppies barking. In my experience a group of puppies often times bark for basic needs. However, as a puppy gets older he will often bark for several other reasons (not to say that a puppy won't bark for these reasons). One of the most common reasons dogs and puppies bark have to do with fear. Sometimes fears and phobias can be a result of exposing your puppy to certain activities at an early age. Always remember when you raise a puppy to be careful to only introduce your puppy to age appropriate situations. For instance, you don't want to expose a 7 week old puppy to extreme noises like fourth of July fireworks at the park.

Puppies Barking - Fear Barking

My current dog has had several fears and phobias since puppyhood. I did my best to choose age appropriate activities for my puppy, but I was not always able to control the environment. Here are some of the reactions I get from my dog when he is fearful:

• Your puppy or dog barks at loud or unusual noises such as fireworks, thunderstorms, garbage trucks, and Harley Davidson Motorcycles. I've seen several of my puppies fearful of these things, but they don't always bark. One of my dogs is frightened when my refrigerator makes ice. I haven't seen him bark at the fridge just yet.
• Check out your dogs posture when he's barking. Is he in a fearful state? His tail is being held low or between his legs and his ears are back. I've seen this state when a loose dog charged us right before my dog started barking.

Here's what I've done to work on countering my puppies barking from fear and phobias.

• As I've mentioned earlier make sure you choose age appropriate situations for your puppies. However, some things are unavoidable. For instance, I learned my puppy was a bit afraid of garbage trucks at work. I worked to desensitize him by keeping a distance from the garbage truck and letting my puppy see that there was no reason to fear or bark. Over time we'd get a little bit closer and eventually he understood that there was nothing to be afraid of.
• When your dog is fearful never reassure him by coddling, petting, or giving him praise. He will think that it is okay to be fearful of these situations.
• If you're dog is barking because of fireworks or thunderstorms. Find him a comfortable room in your house where you can turn up the television or radio to mute the outside noises.

These are three of the most common methods I try to use when calming my dog. Probably the most important to remember is not to reinforce your dogs fear. An example was just this past Fourth of July. Fireworks were scaring my brother's dog and they get petting him and saying it's okay...that's a definite no, no. I warned them and let them know the harm it was causing, but some people consider their dogs their babies and feel this reassurance is helping not hurting their dogs behavior. Puppy training is often times a lot easier then people training.

Try to learn these causes and hopefully you'll stop dogs and puppies barking in your household.