Barking is a natural response of dogs to situations in which they become excited, and because it requires little effort it may be overdone. Obviously barking is desirable if you want the dog to guard your house or car while you are away, and to warn you of the presence of prowlers or someone at the door. But although the dog should be praised for barking in these situations it should also be trained to limit its barking by being told after a while to be quiet, and if necessary being sent to its bed if it doesn't comply.

The dog that is let out of the house to relieve itself and then barks to come back indoors presents a problem. If ignored the barking is likely to continue and become louder, until eventually the owner lets the dog back inside. This conditions the dog to associate his loud and frequent barking with his re-entry. So inadvertently the owner is training the dog to behave in this way. Preferably the dog should be allowed back in before barking starts or during a lull of at least thirty seconds in the barking, and never during, or directly after, barking. In this way the dog learns that barking actually discourages the owner from allowing it back in.

Dogs that bark in the absence of their owner without good cause can become a great nuisance to neighbors and a cause for complaint. Essentially this problem should be tackled in the same way as that of destructiveness, i.e. by instituting a programme of planned 'absences' and rewarding the dog for its good behavior during them. In addition, regular exercise and play training sessions must be provided. As a last resort a shock collar might prove a successful deterrent, but use a remote-control one rather than one activated by barking.

Solving this problem by training is much better than resorting to removal of the vocal cords (ventriculocordectomy), otherwise called debarking or muting. Only in very rare cases is this mutilating operation justified, one such being its use on army dogs during wartime to prevent them inadvertently giving away the position of troops to the enemy.