Barking: The Sound of the Language (Dogwise Training Manual) Paperback – Illustrated, June 1, 2008

I have two 13 year old dogs from a litter I got as a surprise about a month after adopting their mother from a farm 13 years ago. One of them has talked nearly non-stop from the day she was born, sometimes outright barking of one sort or another and other times the faintest of whines, and everything in between. She has also always tended towards anxiety and fearfulness, with a nervous system that is easily overloaded. Her sister is calm and generally quiet. I bought this book mostly out of curiosity after reading a synopsis of it in a dog newsletter yesterday.Over the past 13 years I have learned many of the things the author discusses on my own, rather haphazardly, out of love, curiosity and necessity, and am pretty good at understanding about 80-90% of what my talkative gal says. Yet reading this book now was helpful still, as I have recently seen her working quite vocally to train me to feed her on command, as she had trained a neighbor we moved away from a few months ago.This book has helped me look at what is going on in a broader way. She is probably hungry, having lost about 20 pounds over the past several months since the move, but also probably somewhat lonely and rather bored in our new living situation. The book also serves as a good reminder as to the influence of my behavior in the situation. I have a clearer sense now of what I need to do, and not do, lol, to meet her needs better, before the barking and other behaviors get out of hand.It's a quick read, straight to the point, simple and filled with kindness. I definitely recommend it!

I have an adorable and most loving dog who just LOVES to bark at any sound or activity. He is very reactive. His bark is one of interest and not any aggression at all, but it is disruptive and he just didn't want to learn to stop. At my wit's end, I read this book. Although it is scattered in places, such as you can read a whole section that goes on for a few pages and wonder where was the "meat" of that section. Rereading, I could always find it, although often it was just one or two sentences. Perhaps this is due to the the cultural and language difference as this lady lives in Norway. Having found what I was looking for, I started immediately to keep a barking log and to do as she suggests when my dog barks his excited barks. WOW! It works! Before, in my old way, he would just keep barking, nothing seemed to get through to him to stop. The first time I used Ms. Rugaas' technique, he stopped barking and let out a whine or two and then left the window where he'd been watching and barking at the "action" outside (a car driving by) and went back to the sofa to laze around. Every time since then, it has continued to work and he has drastically reduced his barking even before I can get between him and the "action" and do as the author instructs. I am totally impressed!

This is a short but detailed book on why dogs bark and what different sounding barks mean. There are training methods with photos on how to train your dog not to bark in different situations, stressed throughout is the futility of punishing a dog for barking. The author is an experienced dog trainer and knows how dogs communicate. I found this book easy to read and filled with useful information that will be helpful to me as a dog owner and trainer.

As one who was raised by people who bred and trained animals, the action of training is second nature to me. Reading animals body language (horses, dogs and cats) is an automatic thing.I've just read Barking: The Sound of a Language for the first time.When reading Barking I was fascinated by how much I didn't know about barking. How much I did know was also fascinating.It only took a day to resolve a couple of barking, hmm problems is too strong a term, but it'll do.We live in the country and, for the moment, have critters in our attic. Since babies are involved this drives my female Cardigan Welsh Corgi wild. I just hadn't realized that she was barking so much and so loudly because she thought I wasn't listening to her.A couple of times of walking over to where she was, looking and listening, and then saying "Yes, I hear them. Nothing I can do. And I'm not letting you up there because you'd fall through the floor." and she calmed down to the point where all I had to do was say "I hear them." after her first bark and she stopped.I also was able to separate "excited" barking from "ya gotta do something right now" barking. Very helpful out here.I already knew about the "don't leave us" barking, but didn't have any idea of how to resolve it. It is only a problem when I have them in the car and they bark themselves silly until I get back. That, I think, is going to take more than a day to resolve.As always I enjoyed reading her book just for the style and vast amount of knowledge she can convey in such a small volume.

This is my third purchase. II originally bought this book to deter my pup with strong guarding/protective traits from alerting me every time a neighbor got off the elevator down the hall or a noisy neighbor was outside my building. The training protocol, which is simple and straightforward but must be followed exactly, worked like a charm & worked quickly - even without using treats to reinforce the desired behavior. I have since purchased this for 2 friends who were also dealing with excessive barking, in one dog the barking was fear related & the other barked for attention. This book worked for them too though, as the book explains, the training protocol is different depending on the root cause of the problem, which the book helps you assess..I have tons of training books and this one is the best if you have a loud barker on your hands. Forget barking collars - electric and chemical ones are inhumane & they don’t work. Nor are they necessary. All they do is exacerbate your dog’s stress.

I'm a dog trainer and I would highly recommend this book to all dog owners. It clearly outlines how and why dogs bark and what you can do about it within a positive reinforcement strategy.