How To Stop Dogs Barking Due To Fear

Understanding Why Dogs Bark (Pt 1) – Learn How To Stop A Dog Barking Due To Being Afraid.

So, after reading the article ‘Why Dogs Bark‘, you think your dog could be barking because they’re fearful or scared. Now what do you do with a dog or puppy that’s afraid?

I would always recommend engaging the services of a professional, but that can be costly and sometimes add yet another thing for your fur baby to be worried about. If you want to try to help your dog or pup overcome their fears, follow along with these easy tips.

Firstly, you’re going to need to identify what it is that is scaring your dog. Is it thunder? The bin truck in another street nearby? Another dog? The kids’ toys making funny noises? Or even people being too close for comfort.

It is possible for dogs to become fearful for a variety of reasons. Some are overly sensitive to noise, some have never had the opportunity to see and understand the thing that they are fearful of, and some learn to be fearful during their early development, but as with humans, fear can be overcome, as long as it is tackled in the correct way.
A professional and accredited pet behaviourist would always recommend working in a way which benefits the character and personality of your dog, but nobody knows them better than you do, so here are the basics.

Systematic desensitisation is a process during which you gradually and systematically get your dog used to what they are afraid of, desensitising them to the fearful stimuli. This is by far the most gentle and steady way to teach your dog to overcome fears. An example of this may be a dog who is fearful of thunder. If you were to have a recording of a thunderstorm and play it on the lowest setting in another room, your dog may or may not react, but if you were to play it every day, eventually, it is unlikely that they will react at all. Systematic desensitisation suggests that once we see no reaction to the stimuli, we can increase the intensity, or turn up the volume and that gradually, over time the animal will become accustomed to the thing that it fears.

Positive reinforcement training uses positive outcomes to reward positive behaviours, and negatives (ie the removal of something) to reinforce those behaviours. So, let’s say for example that your dog is afraid of the washing machine. We may reward the dog with treats when they are showing calm and relaxed behaviours, to reinforce that the calm behaviour is what we want. But we may also remove the source of the fear as a reward, by turning off the washing machine at intervals during the training. Likewise, we can use the removal of something to encourage the positive behaviour that we are looking for, say for example, your attention when a dog is jumping up. Something to bear in mind however is that in some cases, a dog becomes too fearful to accept a reward, so a level of desensitisation may be necessary.

So you have identified what the source of the fear is. You have chosen which training technique you would like to engage and you’re all in. Where do you start? How do you set up the thing that is fearful? Use the following steps to begin training your dog.

1. Select treats or rewards that are ‘special’ so that they are only used during training sessions. This will ensure that your dog is much more motivated to work for the treats than they would be if it were something they received every day. Think about the value of the treats, for example usual foods like dog kibble are of a very low value, whereas cheese, chicken or sausage are very high quality and are therefore recommended in small quantities for training.

2. Ensure that your treats are cut into small pieces, if you offer very large pieces, it is much harder to keep your dog’s attention for a longer period, they may get full or distracted if eating each piece takes a while.
3. Establish a recognised pattern for training scenarios. Maybe you would like to start by putting on your dog’s collar or showing your dog the treat container to gain their attention, it doesn’t take long for dogs to learn that the box of treats coming out means it’s time to learn.
4. Where possible, engineer the scenario. If you know that your dog is fearful of the bin wagon which does the rounds on a Monday morning, be ready to train on a Monday morning.
5. Only reward what behaviours you want! If your dog is calm and not barking, offer treats. If they are barking, ignore the behaviour. I know this is incredibly hard, but it is essential to the success of the training.
6. Only begin to add in words or commands once the behaviour is regular. So, for example, ‘Rufus’ begins barking, you wait until they quieten and reward the quiet behaviour with a treat. They may then begin barking again – this is totally normal, wait again. Eventually your dog will begin to understand that they only receive the treat when they are quiet, so they will become quiet and look to you for the reward. Now is the time to begin adding a command, ‘Rufus’ goes quiet and looks to you for a reward, add in the command and praise ‘good, quietly!’ and then offer the reward / treat.
7. Consider adding in a ‘safe space’. This may be an open dog crate, a space between the kitchen cupboards or even a space underneath a table or desk. A safe space should ideally only have one entrance, be slightly darker than the surrounding area, be very comfortable, so try adding some extra blankets or bedding, should smell safe, so maybe add on old t-shirt that you have worn for a couple of hours and should never be accessed by other pets or people – especially children. This space is your fearful dog’s refuge, so allowing them to be the only one to access it is ideal. You can also extend the training to include not barking and retreating to their safe space, to allow them the feeling of additional security.

Training out fear-based behaviours is hard. There will be many setbacks and unexpected pitfalls along the way, but with gentle perseverance and patience, your dog will eventually be able to learn that they can rely on you to help them through their fear and to support them in their learning that it is all going to be ok!

If you have a question, or would like to make a comment, please feel to do so below.

Bec (Pet Behaviourist)

BSc (Applied Animal Behaviour & Training), Post Graduate Certificate in Education.
National Diploma Animal Management.
Aset Care of Animals Award & CENTRA Award in Animal Care.