Abstract
Nuisance
barking by the domestic dog refers to excessive or unreasonable barking
which is considered annoying or inappropriate by the community. Such
barking can be very problematic, with nuisance barking complaints
comprising the majority of complaints received by Australian municipal
councils, but also signaling a welfare issue with the dog. The aim of
this exploratory study was to establish whether there is any
relationship between potential predisposing factors and the barking
behavior and whether such relationships can be extracted from owner
surveys and barking patterns. This study involved 4 Australian municipal
councils and used bark counter collars to record the barking behavior
of 25 dogs, each reported as being a nuisance barker, over 7 consecutive
days. In addition, an owner questionnaire was created to identify
factors that may be associated with nuisance barking. Our study shows
that barking patterns can be documented using bark counter collars. Four
dogs displayed barking patterns which suggested that a specific,
regularly occurring stimulus was associated with the nuisance barking. A
Spearman rank-order correlation test showed a negative correlation
between barking frequency and the amount of obedience training received
by the dog and a positive correlation with the number of dogs in
neighboring houses. This information may be used by councils and
veterinary behaviorists when addressing nuisance barking and provides
indications where further research might be productively focused.
Keywords
- dog;
- nuisance barking;
- barking patterns;
- bark counter collar
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