It is very true that dogs bark in order to communicate.
However, this doesn't eliminate that the fact that it is irritating for us! Especially when it comes excessively.
To give you a quick guide, I am going to be enumerating different types of barkers and ways on how to modify their behavior.
First up! We have dogs that are alert or warning barkers.
These are the dogs that bark at mail carriers or at anyone who comes near your house.
Basically, their mentality is that they think they have done something good with barking because it resulted to that stranger's leaving.
Now, this may come excessively if you don't intercede.
The dog may want you to notice, hence, he barks longer.
A good way to fix this problem is by signaling him that everything is okay after around one or two barks.
Often, the command "Enough" will do just the trick.
To teach him this command, just set up a situation wherein he will bark but not too much.
Let's say, let him stay inside the house and knock on the door.
After one bark from him stop knocking and say "enough" then reward him with a treat.
Timing here is critical.
You must only give the treat once he stopped barking.
And say enough when he is quiet not when he is barking or he might think he gets the treat whenever he barks.
So that later when he barks, he can associate the word enough to being quiet.
Next, we have fear barkers.
These type of dogs often start with a warning bark, but then they progress to a fearful bark.
You can start training him by setting up situations wherein people would approach from far off.
If he is relaxed, give him a treat.
Slowly you can let this people come near and be sure to make them go near only to a point where he is still relaxed.
If he stays relaxed even with the proximity of the stranger, give him a treat.
This way he will be able to associate the treat with the feeling of being relaxed.
Lastly, we are going to be talking about self-identification barkers.
These dogs often come when the household is composed of multiple dogs.
Often, this happens when there is an instigator dog and then all the other dogs will join in.
You can solve this by trying to let them focus on something else, like playing with their favorite toys.
These are just three examples of barker problems.
We have to keep in mind that there are more possible problems why your dog is barking excessively.
So, probably the most important thing I would like to add is that dogs usually reflect their owner's behavior.
Therefore, we should also check our behaviors as well.
If we are nervous, they feel that and become nervous too! However, they don't have the capacity to talk like we do.
So, they bark instead.