by Christine Bennett

Created on: August 27, 2011   Last Updated: August 31, 2011

Choosing a dog is a difficult task at the best of times, and one important consideration is the level of noise a dog will make.

Important for several reasons, perhaps the dog will have to live in a flat or a house with thinner walls that tend to let noise levels through easily, neighbours will not appreciate a continuously barking or howling dog, or perhaps the dog will need to bark as a deterrent to unwanted visitors.

A guard dog may need to warn it’s handler of anything untoward in the location or a sniffer dog to bring a handler to a certain location.

Whichever need is important in the dog then the assessment of likely noise or barking can be determined, however it needs to be said that not all dogs of a certain breed will be consistent in their barking habit.

Dogs can, of course, be trained to bark on command or on finding themselves in a certain situation.

It is not always the smaller dogs that are most likely to bark, in fact the Kelpie often referred to as an Australian Kelpie is a medium sized dog which is very vocal.

Of the smaller breeds the West highland white and Jack Russell are quite consistently barking dogs, more so than the often thought of Yorkshire Terrier and tiny Chihuahua.

The Welsh Corgi too is a dog that likes to be heard and another popular dog is the German Spitz, left alone these dogs can be very noisy.

The bigger breeds would include the Bearded Collie, Samoyed (this dog can have a very high pitched bark) and often more encouraged than normal would be the German Shepherd, encouraged to bark more as a guard dog along with the Doberman, not normally considered to bark, unless guarding.

Most dogs will bark to let their owners know someone is coming to their domain, but not all bother to protect their property.  Dogs can actively be encouraged to bark when people approach the property simply because the people seem to go away when the dog barks when actually all they were doing was perhaps walking past anyway. The dog doesn’t realise this, he thinks his bark made the person go away.

Barking in dogs is simply a means of communication, it is natural to them and their way of talking or expressing their opinions.

Dogs bark to warn people away from the property, to get the attention of their owner, to call to their owners when they leave them alone at home, when excited or enjoying a game but when being submissive they give their vocal chords a rest and do not bark.

Dogs that are too attached to their owners often bark when left alone, this is their way of saying come back I can’t do without you, and this applies to any dog that has become too attached, very often these can be the smaller lap dogs who get continual attention when their owners are home.

The result of not teaching dogs to be alone is a barking, howling nuisance to the neighbours.

Rescued or re homed dogs can be more prone to barking for much the same reasons, to get the attention of their new owners, but the worst thing is to reward the barking by paying attention to it.

Owners who turn their back on dogs who bark or get up and leave the room, will soon find their dogs going quiet and learn quickly that barking is more likely to get their owners to leave them and being quiet encourages them back.

So which dogs are more likely to bark, the answer is those that are guarding, those that are seeking attention and this applies to all breeds not just a few of them and the breeds most likely to bark because of their actual pedigree are, Kelpie, Bearded Collie, German or Finnish Spitz, Jack Russell, West Highland White, Beagle, Rottweiler, Shetland sheepdog, Collie, Samoyed,  and Welsh Corgi.

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