5. loneliness & Separation stress
A special form of stress is Separation anxiety in dogs. It mainly occurs when the four-legged friend is left alone suddenly, at too young an age or for too long.
Affected four-legged friends are often very nervous: typical Signs of traumatic breakups Examples include constant barking when the owner is away, incontinence despite being housetrained or destructive behavior.
Separation stress is a very serious problem for many reasons: Dogs that bark constantly during the day are a common cause of neighborhood disputes, and in addition to material damage, there is also a risk of the dog becoming chronically behaviorally disturbed.
6. Fear
However, it is more event-related than chronic Fear: Even though dogs always want to be brave, they are not immune to this feeling. That's a good thing, because at the right moment the animal is protected against danger.
The four-legged friend then behaves more defensively and often barks in defense. If you are present, he will often try to hide behind you as the pack leader.
Because of their excellent sense of smell, dogs get scared pretty quickly, especially smaller breeds are often susceptible to it. Typical triggers include sudden noise (e.g. a loud bang), scary shadows or fast movements.
7. Pains
Dogs are very reluctant to see pain: When something hurts them, they instinctively try not to let it show. In the wild, predators are not unnecessarily attracted, so this behavior is definitely justified.
However, injuries and chronic illnesses do not leave the dog indifferent: he feels the pain, the body tries to relieve itself by producing stress hormones to protect against it. He then senses increased danger and therefore often barks randomly.
The animal often adopts a protective posture. If you try to touch him, it is quite possible that the dog will react aggressively.
8. Territorial behavior
Dogs usually see their home as their territory. Of course they want to defend that when they give her Territory threatened see, they can react quite violently.
It doesn't even have to be a serious danger: it often is harmless “intruders” like small wild animals on the property that drive the dog to despair. At some point this gets out of hand and the frustrated four-legged friends bark almost at every opportunity.
9. Warning to other animals
But not just territorial behavior; Dislikes can lead to constant barking. Dogs also have “friends” and “enemies”: Some members of their species are more likeable to them than others.
Often the animal has bad experiences with the other dog or maybe even just a similar-looking four-legged friend – they were then imprinted, so to speak. In the case of other hostilities, no real reason can be identified.
If this “enemy” is regularly in the area, your darling will always react by barking. This warning, often accompanied by a growl, occasionally occurs almost constantly, so it seems as if the dog is acknowledging every noise by barking.
10. Sounds that only the dog can hear
But even without real rivals, dogs can tend to bark incessantly. Then it may not even be due to the noises we hear: Due to their excellent hearing, four-legged friends are able to notice stimuli that are far below our perception threshold.
Then there is more or less a small misunderstanding: we think the dog barks because of noises we hear, even though he reacts to things that are far away. It is also possible that the four-legged friend high frequency sounds gets out of control.
11. Female dog in heat in the area
It is also possible that the dog is not actually responding to noises, but rather to them other signals starts barking. If you have a male dog, it is often due to the hormones: the four-legged friend then feels that a… conspecific ready to mate is in the area.
The female dog in heat can stay quite far away from the home: some male dogs even react to heat secretions left behind hundreds of meters away.
Most animals react to this with very restless behavior: This includes, for example, scratching at the front door, whining and, in some four-legged friends, strong and seemingly indiscriminate barking.
12. “Barking concert” in the neighborhood
Barking can be contagious: As soon as a four-legged friend gets loud in the neighborhood, his fellow four-legged friends are happy to get on board. Behavioral scientists suspect that this is mainly due to Feeling of togetherness serves: By calling out sounds to each other over greater distances, the animals form a pack, so to speak.
This means that a dog who likes to bark can also influence your pet: He then joins in a “concert” that can be caused by any sound. Often the whole neighborhood barks at the slightest noise.
13. Behavior learned from other four-legged friends
But constant barking is possible even without all dogs in the area joining in at the same time. Then it may be that certain Conspecifics are to blame for the behavior.
For example, if a neighbor's dog or even a four-legged friend who also lives in the household reacts to almost every stimulus by barking, an animal is happy to take on the «naughty» behavior.
14. Dog learned to bark from humans
When a dog barks, many owners react very annoyed: they want him calm down as quickly as possible and often even shout at him. On the one hand, this is completely understandable, after all, the noise can be quite a nuisance and can also annoy the neighbors.
What many people don't take into account, however, is that most dogs understand this reaction completely differently. They see their caregivers' scolding as confirmation. If I bark, the four-legged friend thinks, then my owner will join in.
This can then become chronic: At some point the dog is “trained” to bark at every noise.
15. Begging for attention
However, some four-legged friends have also learned that barking results in an immediate reaction from their owner. Whether positive or negative is of secondary importance, it is important for the dog that he has it complete attention of its owner.
If they are very feel neglected, then take advantage of it. Even though there is actually no reason, they yap incessantly. This is how they want to make sure that you don't forget them and that you take care of them completely.
16. Training to become a watchdog
Have you taught your four-legged friend to keep a close eye on the house when you're away? Then you shouldn't be surprised if the dog is otherwise very attentive. He often tends to sound the alarm at every little thing, so he barks almost constantly.
Sometimes this is the reason why Dogs adopted from the animal shelter tend to bark constantly: They were then trained to do so by their former owner.
17. Dog breed prone to barking
Furthermore there is some breeds, who naturally tend to bark more. This is often the case Working or herding dogs. They have been trained over generations to be very attentive and to report any abnormalities immediately.
This can quickly get out of hand: whether it's a walker passing by, stray animals or just a rustling noise – some animals take their «work» far too seriously and react to almost every stimulus with a bark.
18. Dog “must do”
Many dogs also use barking as an undesirable but very effective communication strategy with their human caregivers. Especially if the four-legged friends have to go out, Then make yourself noticeable.
Most of the time the animal then has one urgent need, So he has to urinate and/or do his big “business”. If you don't react to this, the dog will become more and more desperate and often bark incessantly.
This can also happen if you have just taken the dog outside. Then it's often because of one temporal incontinence, e.g. caused by a bladder infection, or even on Diarrhea.
19. Nearsightedness or blindness
myopia is also a problem for our four-legged friends – according to a study, German Shepherds, Rottweilers and Miniature Schnauzers are particularly affected.
If the dog only sees people or objects blurry, they quickly become scary for him. They then have to rely more on their sense of hearing and sense of touch tend to overreact more. Often even small stimuli such as a rustling are enough to trigger a barking reflex.
Some animals are even more severely affected and suffer from significantly weaker eyesight or even worser blindness – triggered, for example, by untreated corneal injuries or glaucoma (glaucoma).
20. Canine dementia
If your dog is older, it may also be that he suffers from the so-called “Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome” (CDS) suffers. This is the technical term for the most widespread one Dementia disease with our four-legged friends.
As with human Alzheimer's disease, this is one irreversible, degenerative brain disease. Deposits form in the brain and the four-legged friend's ability to think and remember decreases significantly.
What is typical of dog dementia is that the animal appears disoriented and often no longer recognizes its surroundings. He is often no longer happy when his caregiver comes home; in many cases the dog reacts frightened or even aggressively to things that are actually familiar.