My dog keeps barking at strangers. What do I do?
This is a common question I keep getting from my subscribers. Then there is another one:
My dog only barks to get my attention. He is not even interested in strangers. Why?
I will deal with both questions separately. But both the answers have a common root—familiarity.

How a dog reacts to a person or a situation depends on his/her familiarity with it. Take for example, the dog that barks at all strangers, including innocent passers by. This dog is either barking to alert you, or to scare the stranger. You need to assess the real reason, and then act accordingly.

A dog is guided by the pack mentality. If it is domesticated, the pack will include you, your family, other dogs in the household (if any) and people who the dog meets frequently. Anything outside this circle is strange. Yes, that includes your aunt who is visiting after two years.

The dog’s instinct is to protect/alert its pack in case it senses danger. So does it consider every stranger to be a threat to the pack? No. The dog classifies dangerous people using a number of facts:

a) the person looks suspicious/scared – When people are scared, their skin secretes a hormone that animals with a very strong sense of smell can identify. Ever wonder why your dog is more aggressive towards that friend who is scared of it?

b) the person is moving threateningly towards one or more of the pack members – In this case, barking is a natural reaction. The dog is not only trying to alert the pack member, but also letting the stranger know that “I’m watching you, I’m dangerous, so you better stay away!”

c) the person has a remarkable difference in physical appearance than most people the dog has encountered – Those in India, have you noticed how your dog reacts when it sees the rag pickers who pass by everyday?

d) the person reminds him of someone who had earlier acted threateningly towards him or his pack members – This is particularly true of dogs that have at some point of time been traumatized by human behavior. They are not well socialized for obvious reasons, and carry deep psychological scars.

I have dealt with this barking /aggression problem in detail one of my earlier posts: Aggression in dogs: Sometimes its territorial, sometimes it’s a different thing altogether. You may want to look at it if you’re looking for a solution.

Now to the second question: Why doesn’t your dog bark at strangers?
If you’re wondering whether something is wrong with your dog, let me assure you… it is absolutely fine. Your dog is a perfect example of a well socialized happy dog, who has never had the reason to suspect that someone might harm him or his pack.

Your dog is how dogs should be… happy, fearless, trusting, and without a care in life. You are lucky you have a dog like that. Now, if you ARE looking for a dog that would bark at strangers, then it always better to buy a guard dog that has been properly trained to confront strangers. Your dog does not fit the mould, be happy with it… look at it this way: You wanted a child that would grow up to be a professional wrestler. Instead he chose to be an olympic champion in amateur wrestling.

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