How to stop dogs barking in the van?

Is it excitement, anxiety or are they commenting on your driving ability? Let’s take a look at how to stop dogs barking in the van.

What causes dogs to bark in your vehicle?

1. Excitement
2. Anxiety
3. Frustration
4. Nausea
5. Learned behaviour
6. Breed traits

Excitement

Nine times out of ten the barking dogs in your van are just excited. They know where they’re going, they know what to expect, they know who’s coming with them and they cannot wait to have fun. Excited barking is normally accompanied by spinning in the crates or trying to play with the other dogs in the vehicle.

Anxiety

Anxiety barking is usually more high pitched and might incorporate whining or yelping along with it.

Frustration

Frustration comes from not being able to chase the objects whizzing past at speed, or not being able to get to their doggy friends in the vehicle, or perhaps even not being able to get to you because they’re crated or restrained

Nausea

Dogs occasionally bark if they suffer from travel sickness and feel nauseous. This type of barking will be accompanied by excessive drooling or actual vomiting. You may also have some difficulty getting these types of dogs into the vehicle to begin with.

Learned Behaviour

Learned behaviour barking means that the dog has made an association between barking and a consequence. So if they always go to the park and play with their doggy friends every time they bark the entire way in the vehicle then they think they have to bark in order to get to where they’re going. It’s very similar to the dog who barks at the postman to make him go away and is reassured because the postman does indeed go away when they bark!

Breed Traits

Breed traits may influence the dog’s behaviour when travelling. Some dogs are bred over hundreds of years to be barkier than others. These dogs are barking because they love to do it.

What makes dogs bark more in your vehicle?

Telling a barking dog to be quiet might seem like a natural response but it’s probably just going to make things worse.

An excited dog will feel justified with you joining in with the barking and feel even more excitement. An anxious dog will feel more anxiety after being ‘told off’ for barking. A frustrated dog is still frustrated, speaking to them can’t change that. Sick dogs still feel nauseous, dogs convinced that they need to bark to make the car move will be thrilled that you’re joining in and no end of talking to a beagle is going to convince it that it’s anything other than a beagle.

Other dogs joining in with the barking will have the same effect as you speaking to them. It becomes reinforcing to everyone involved and escalates the barking.

Driving faster to get there quickly so that they stop barking is tempting but futile! Sick dogs feel sicker, excited and frustrated dogs get ramped up even further, anxious dogs still feel anxiety and those dogs barking in order to make the vehicle move will be pleased that they’ve hit a personal best time.

What makes dogs bark less in your vehicle?

How to stop dogs barking in the van? We need to reduce anything which might reinforce the barking (even accidentally) whilst making adjustments depending on what type of barker you have with you.

Some of the things which are worth trying if you have a barker are;

Windows.

Move your barker from not being able to see out of a window to increased visibility if possible (vehicle dependent). Or, the opposite, and move them from being able to see to a much less stimulating view (or cover their crates).

Change the group

It could be that your barker is far less inclined to continue if no one is there to encourage him by joining in. If you’ve got a quiet bunch who tend to kick off the minute barky McBark gets in the van then try him in a different group. Fewer dogs or even a solo walk might suit him better.

Crates

Some dogs don’t have crates at home so be sure to line yours with a non-slip option to make them feel more comfortable and safer.

Install dividers to block the visibility of dogs to each other. Even something as simple as cardboard to see if it works, and then upgrade to something that’s washable.

Crate covers that enclose the entire crate can calm some dogs. Use a big towel to test if it works.

Biscuits

Ginger biscuits really do work with the nauseous ones. Check with the owner first in case of allergies or special diets.

Travel position

Vomiters, just like people, do better with a window view.

Anxious dogs may do better in the passenger seat if they’re well behaved enough (and restrained as per the law).

Dogs who aren’t used to crates at home may be quieter when not in crates so look to using car harnesses instead.

Shorter drive

For the excitable ones, less time to practice their singing in the car is a godsend so try a shorter drive to a nearer park. Maybe even look at rearranging the route to collect them last and using a green space near to them.

and remember, there are always earplugs…

What about using anti-bark devices?

All training can be broken down into two basic methods.

Either the dog is rewarded when they do something and so the dog repeats it hoping for another reward.
Or the dog is punished when they do something and the dog stops doing it to avoid the punishment.

Anti-bark devices, whether a spray, a sound or an electric shock, all work by punishing the dog when it barks.
The main issue when using them is if the dog doesn’t connect the barking with the punishment. They might instead connect whatever they’re looking at at the time with the punishment.

They might bark at other dogs, so they connect other dogs with being punished. That makes them anxious about other dogs, so they bark which means they get punished and so on and so on.

They might bark at other people, so they connect other people with being punished. That makes them anxious about other people, so they bark which means they get punished and so on and so on.

What if they connect the vehicle with being punished? Or you?

Using anti-bark devices outside of a controlled training session with a qualified trainer is just not worth the risk and 99% of the time, a good trainer won’t use them either and will have far more effective and kind methods available to use.