Why Does My Border Collie Bark Excessively?

What else you expect him to do when you don’t listen, don’t take him to the park, and don’t play with him? Ha! I’m just kidding. Barking is the only way for your Border Collie to communicate with you, family members and other dogs, but when it goes beyond the limit and gets excessive, it becomes irritable and annoying for you and your neighbors as well.

Have you realized that by barking he may be trying to tell you something, which could be:

• You have someone knocking at the door.
• Can we play?
• I’m hungry and my bowl is empty!
• How about we go outdoors or maybe it’s time for walk?
• Let’s do something, I’m getting bored! 🙁
• Please don’t leave me home alone, I miss you.
• Keep rubbing my back, it feels real good.
• …and so many other things!

Controlling Your Border Collie’s Barking

It’s a breed that learns things faster when you praise them for good work. For example, if your dog wants to go for a walk or maybe he’s hungry, first call him to you in firm tone (don’t yell on him) and have him sit calmly. Praise him, rub his forehead and then do what he’s asking for. That will make him understand that barking won’t help him get what he wants, but good behavior will certainly do good for him. On the other hand, if you don’t give him attention on his barking, that will only lead to continuous barking.

Sometimes stubborn border collies won’t stop barking even after their needs are met, you can try these tips when that happens:

Positive reinforcement helps a great deal to control your dog’s excessive barking problem. To do that you can divert his attention to something else. For example, call him and ask to sit and stay and when he obeys your command, praise or reward with his favorite treat.

If your collie doesn’t stop barking, put on his leash and try to divert his attention on something else by taking him away from whatever he is barking at. Keep doing that until you have his full attention, and when he does that, reward and praise him.

Training your BC when to bark and when to sit quietly helps a lot. For example when a dog wants to go outdoors, they generally stop barking when you take them out, that we can think of as desirable barking, but when he continuously bark at home, that’s the time when you should teach him to be “Quiet”. This training will need you to be consistent and for that you must immediately say “Quite” and praise your dog when he stops barking.

This trick is personally tried and tested by me and works wonderfully well with my Border Collie. What I do is whenever I leave him home alone, I keep the radio or TV on, because my dog finds it a good company and that makes him feel that he is not alone at home. It may or may not work with your dog, but it’s definitely worth a try.

If you have kids or other family members, ask them to play with your dog everyday and take him out to play outdoor games for adequate amount of daily physical exercise, because a bored and frustrated border collie is more likely to bark.

The moment he start barking, you must address it immediately, because if you think he will give up on barking after sometime, that is not going to happen and that may encourage him to bark longer and louder.

Important – Training your dog to stop barking must be done while your dog is barking. Teaching him after he stopped barking will confuse him and make it difficult for him to understand what you are trying to teach him. Some owners yell at their dogs when they bark excessively, that is wrong approach, because it may make him think you both are playing the barking game.