For some people it is an offence to have a barking dog around them, they think that dogs should be seen and not heard. This is slightly unfair given that the bark is a dog's voice and like yourself it uses it to communicate.
But of course your dog barking may be just the behavior you are expecting from it, naturally when strangers approach your house you want to make use of your dogs natural guarding instincts. In most cases your dog is just trying to talk to you, perhaps he is just happy about something, dog obedience training will help you to find this out for sure.
The problem is that the language barrier between barking dogs and humans is well nigh impenetrable. Therefore, you are forced to resort to the facts of the situation in which your dog is barking and try to understand from its body language just what it is trying to say.
Apart from that many people ask just why do dogs bark? Deciding what is going on here is very tricky, if only dogs could talk a language we understand.
Naturally they will bark when they are happy about something such as greeting you on your return or perhaps they are happy about running around in the park.
Some dogs having barking bred into to them such as toy dogs or sporting breeds where they are trained to bark in order to notify their owners of the presence of a particular quarry being hunted. Other dogs like the guarding breeds are trained only to bark when a threat is perceived.
Some more reasons for barking that are not always obvious include simple boredom, being hungry or lonely or just a means of getting attention for the fact that it needs to go to the toilet.
Again the context of the situation will help you to decide the likely cause. But of course it is not fair for you to try to shut the dog up. She may be communicating for a very good reason, you just need to spend some effort in understanding her.
However, dogs are not stupid animals there are situations where they realise that they can use their bark to annoy or force their owner into a particular action. Bullying by barking is something you should never allow your dog to do.
For instance you dog may have decided that it is time to play and continues barking until you give in and drop what you are doing to amuse her. The problem here is that the dog then learns that all she has to do is to bark whenever she wants something and you will oblige.
This can get very wearing after a quite short period of time. The best approach would have been to show the dog that it cannot get its own way by giving it the cold shoulder.
Just take no notice and turn your back on your dog to show your displeasure. After repeated actions your dog should eventually get the message.
Please remember that part of your dog's training is learning that you go out and play at times to suit you, not your dog. This teaches your dog respect and hopefully makes for a quieter household with limited barking dog problems.
Consult a good book on dog obedience training like SitStayFetch to solve many of the problems you will encounter when you are training your dog.
