Dog owners often complain about their dog “ barking at nothing“ but do dogs really do that?

Why do dogs bark?

Barking is communication. There are different kinds of barks and growls made by dogs that have different meanings or intent. If you like, this is the way a dog verbally communicates.

Alerting barks.

This kind of bark is often tentative and repetitive “ buff.., buff…, buff” (yes, it really does sound like they are saying the word "buff".) This kind of bark is an alerting bark and is designed to bring attention to a perceived threat. It’s a bit like a quiet call for back up, almost a whisper.This could be in response to a noise, sight or scent. It may be followed by something more, but this first stage is an alert. They want to get their owners, or other canine family members, to help them.

Territorial and aggressive  barks.

These barks are often of deep tone, loud and persistent and may originally start as an alerting “buff” bark. There isn't a pattern to the barking, it is just persistent and fast. The dog will be looking in the direction of the perceived trigger.  These barks are designed to scare things away. People seem to instinctively recognise this kind of bark and stay away, possibly because the body language will appear very offensive at the same time. However, if you can't see the dog, the tone is still very clearly aggressive. 

Separation howls and barks. 

Not all dogs howl, but dogs can howl in response to a noise or to being separated from their caregiver. Amy, my last dog, was very judgemental about my singing and guitar playing. She would sit in front of me and steadfastly howl until I stopped! 
But dogs can also howl when left alone as a howl is designed to get the group back together. If they don’t howl, many dogs bark 
in a doleful way followed by a short period of silence as if to listen for their owner returning, then the barking is repeated. This will often continue until the owner returns or they are exhausted. These barks do seem to fall in a pattern; a series of barks followed by quiet, then repeated.

Boredom barking. 

Honestly, these are so obvious, they even sound bored. There’s no emotion in these barks. “ woof, woof, woof” “ woof,wood,woof” a repetitive pattern of flat sounding barks often using the same number of barks in each sequence. These dogs are barking because it’s better than doing nothing. 

Attention seeking barking.

The give away that this is an attention seeking bark is that the dog is usually looking at the owner either during or immediately after the barking. They are checking to see if they were successful in getting attention. You would need to be careful though, as dogs can bark to ask to be let out, and in these csaes, they will come up to their owners to get their point accross. You should not ignore these barks or you may have a mess to clean up! 

Frustration barking.

This bark is of a high pitch and can even build up to a screech. Dogs can become frustrated during play, or if they can’t get away from something scary, or if they can’t get indoors, can’t get their toy that rolled under the sofa for example. There’s no real pattern to this bark, they can just continue barking until the source of frustration is resolved.

Play barking 

Dogs often bark during play and this is an expression of excitement. These barks can also be higher pitch but are softer than frustration barks. This barking is occurring during play so it is clear when your dog is play barking. There can be elements of frustration barking during play also.

Do all dog bark?

Some dog breeds are more vocal than others. This tendency can relate to the purpose for which they are bred. Cocker spaniels bark to flush birds. Watchdog breeds bark to alert you to potential threats. Guarding breeds bark to keep threats away.  But it is also true that some individuals can be less or more vocal depending on their temperament. My current Dalmatian, Lily only rarely barks, for which I am very thankful. 

I hope from this article you can see that dogs don’t bark for nothing. It is a form of communication and has a function. To address the barking you will need to discover what type of bark it is and address the underlying cause. Sometimes they have heard or smelt something that you are unaware of, but there will be a reason for your dog to be barking.