Here are seven great tips to reduce barking in your boarding, pet sitting, pet minding, grooming, breeding or pet retail business. Loud, prolonged barking in pet industry businesses is stressful to you, your staff and to animals. It can result in neighborhood complaints, Council or EPA action; and business closure in extreme cases.

1. Make the Kennel/Crate/Cage/Yard A Great Place to Be

• Use comfortable bedding and stimulating toys to keep dogs happy and reduce boredom.
• Have volunteers and staff go into the kennels and spend time with the dogs there.
• Make an association between “quiet” and “treats” by having staff reward quiet dogs when passing, or attach containers with treats on each kennel and reward dogs for being quiet as you pass

2. Decrease Visual Stimulation

To decrease visual overstimulation, especially for very reactive dogs, put barriers between dogs and where dogs are regularly taken past kennel/gate openings.  Some kennels install “Stable doors” where the bottom half of the kennel door is covered so dogs can’t see other dogs as they walk by.

3. Control Noise Stimulation

Soothing music can decrease barking. Studies suggest gentle classical-style music with long, continuous notes, pure tones with regular rhythms and tempos that match a dog’s heart rate. Train staff to speak calmly and quietly in low tones to increase authority and reduce excitement. Reduce irritating sound sources, eg squeaky doors and loud cleaning equipment. Hanging fabric “sound baffles” form the ceiling or front openings can also reduce sound intensity, but these must be washed regularly.

4. Consider Pheromones

A pheromone is a natural compound produced by the animal that works at a subconscious level to control emotion and activity in humans and animal. Adaptil, a synthetic version of a natural “calming” pheromone, comes in a great plug-in diffuser and has a calming effect on animals (and humans, we are told, but there is less evidence for this).

5. Manage activity

A little activity outside the kennel/yard can actually increase the risk of barking when the animal is taken back to the kennel/crate/yard. If you are going to take the animal outside, keep it working/playing to the point of tiredness rather than setting all that energy up for no reward.

6. Manage nutrition.

Horse people know all about “hot” (energy intensifying) and “cold” (calming) feeds and dog people can learn the same. Most foods we give our pets are “hot” – rapidly burned to energy. Consider high fibre/low GI diets in large chunks that have to be eaten slowly.

7. Consider a Friend

Where Codes and regulations allow, placing two or more well matched dogs together in a yard/pen/kennel can decrease stress and reduce barking. You MUST ensure that the animals are well matched, that the “lowest” on the hierarchy has a place to hide from the “bully”, and close supervision is vital. Even if the animals normally live in the same household,  a change of environment can result in unexpected stoushes.