Dog owners will be familiar with the feeling of not being at home with their dogs. Unfortunately, just because you own a dog as a pet doesn’t mean that you get to spend time with him/her all the time. There are going to be times when your dog is left alone at home. The most common time for dogs to be home alone is when the adults are working and the children are attending school.
There is one thing that you don’t want your dog to be doing when he/she is home alone – barking. That is because barking is notoriously loud. In fact, it is loud to the point that it can be heard in the neighborhood that surrounds your home which can irritate your neighbors, especially if the barking is frequent. So, with that in mind, here are some strategies that I would recommend for how to stop a dog from barking when left alone at home.
Learn How To Stop A Dog From Barking When Left Alone With These Strategies
1. Exercise Your Dog
One reason why your dog may be barking when you aren’t home is because he/she just isn’t getting the exercise that he/she needs.
Not only is exercising good for your dog’s health, but also, it will tire your dog out by using up much of his/her energy. Without exercising, your dog will be so full of energy that he/she doesn’t know what to do with all of that energy.
That will make your dog bored and thus be inclined to engage in barking in order to keep him/her busy. So, you will want to take part in a workout session with your dog each morning before you leave for work.
I would suggest that you wake up early enough in the morning in order to give your dog around an hour of exercise.
One great way you can go about exercising your dog is to go for a jog with him/her within your neighborhood. There is also one popular game that you can play with your dog in the morning.
It is called frisbee and it goes like this – you have to throw the rounded disc thing across the air and your dog needs to run in order to catch it and then return it back to you.
Just repeat the frisbee process with your dog for up to an hour of fun time with him/her. You can order some frisbees here for play with your dog. If you heed my advice to give your dog a much needed exercise before you leave, he/she will be far more likely to take a nap while home alone.
2. Meal For Your Dog
Just like us human beings, dogs will eventually become hungry if it has been some time since they ate a meal. So, if your dog does become hungry with nothing to eat during you are gone, he/she will most likely start barking in the hopes that somebody will come and feed him/her.
So, you will want to be proactive about this by providing two bowls for your dog before you leave your home. Fill one bowl with dog food and then fill the other bowl with water.
Just make sure that you leave plenty of dog food and water for your dog in order to keep him/her content until you return back home.
If you are in need of dog food, I would suggest you check out WAG Dry Dog Food. It is especially notable for containing 35 percent protein which is good for dogs.
3. Leave Scent For Your Dog
As you bond with your dog, you will see that he/she is going to miss you as you leave your home for the day. If your dog senses that you are not at home, he/she may experience what is called separation anxiety.
This is your dog’s feeling of being lonely when you aren’t at home with him/her. If your dog happen to have separate anxiety, he/she may start barking to try and somehow get you to come back home to be with him/her.
So, if you have a cozy blanket that you use often, you will want to provide your dog with that blanket to use while you are gone. That is because if it is a blanket that you use often yourself, it will have your scent on it which will allow your dog to sense that you are at home.
So, even though you aren’t at home, your dog will take great comfort with feeling your presence with your scented blanket.
4. Toys For Your Dog
Another great way that you can prevent your dog from becoming bored when you are not at home is to provide him/her with toys to play with.
You will want to provide your dog with toys that will keep him/her engaged throughout the time that he/she is home alone. Some of the best toys for keeping your dog busy during your absence are called Bully Sticks.
Bully Sticks are a type of dog bone toys that are designed to be really hard. Those toys will keep your dog distracted because they will take him/her a long time to finish chewing them off. One great option for bully sticks that is suitable for any dogs is the Natural Farm Bully Sticks.
5. Block Out The Views And Noises
Your dog may be engaging in what is referred to as territorial barking. This happens when your dog is barking because he/she feels the need to defend him/herself and his/her surroundings from perceived threats such as a person or car passing by your home.
In order to prevent your dog from engaging in this kind of barking while being alone, you will want to draw down all the windows with blinds or curtains in order to block him/her from viewing outside.
Dogs are also more sensitive to noises than we human beings are. So, your dog may bark at even the smallest noises that he/she hears such as squirrels.
For that, you may want to set your radio or television to be on low volumes. That will help to block out any other noises that your dog may be hearing. This technique is called white noise.
How To Stop A Dog From Barking When Left Alone – Conclusion
Overall, these are some strategies that I would encourage you to look at using for how to stop a dog from barking when left alone. What are your thoughts? Do you have a pet dog who barks when he/she is home alone? Feel free to leave a comment below.
These are some amazing tips to keep your dogs quiet but what is interesting to note is the last one on the list and that is blocking out the noise and the view. In my neighborhood where I live I have noticed that when one dog starts barking it sends a chain reaction because all of the dogs, it seem start to bark also. Sometimes I wonder why is the reason for this. Thanks for sharing and quivering some tips that are so important and of great help.
You are welcome. You make a very good observation about the chain reaction that can result if even one dog barks. That is because if one dog starts barking, that can make the other dogs feel threatened and feel the need to defend themselves and their territories by barking.
That is where the chain reaction comes from. And so the dog owners will need to find a way to rein in their dogs’ barking behavior whenever the dogs are alone. With that in mind, blocking the views and canceling out the outside noise is an effective way to prevent a dog from barking when he/she is left alone at home.
Good points you have there and I would have to say that most of them are very easy to follow. I have seen many people wondering why their dogs are barking when it is really simple to understand why and act accordingly. There is nothing more frustrating than a non stop barking dog with their owners do nothing about it.
I am glad that you have found most of these strategies to be easy to follow when you are trying to get a dog to stop barking when left alone. I understand that it can be frustrating for neighbors when there are unsupervised dogs barking from inside the residences.
That is the reason why I came up with this post so that I can help the neighbors to have a peace of mind by showing dog owners how to get their dogs to stop barking when they aren’t at home with their dogs. So, if you know of any dog owners in your neighborhood or beyond who are struggling to get their dogs to stop barking when they are home alone, I encourage you to share this post with them.