Dog Only Barks at Certain People & Strangers – Top 3 Reasons Why
Dogs can sometimes sense things that we wouldn’t. This could be one of those cases when a dog starts to bark at a certain person and that person only. Here are the most common reasons that may explain this behavior, whether it’s to a stranger or to a person the dog knows.
1. Your dog had a bad experience with the person
The dog might be barking at a certain person because he or she recalls a bad or stressful experience. You may not have been there at the time stressful experience happened. This could be a number of things such as if the person scared or punished the dog. Keep an open mind to this as what the person did may have been completely accidental.
2. The person reminds the dog of a traumatic experience
Alternatively, the person may not have done anything wrong. The person’s demeanor and smell might just remind the dog of someone else that created a traumatic experience. This might happen more often with rescue dogs that have come from an abusive background.
The dog could also just be being silly. One dog owner mentioned his dog wouldn’t stop barking at his long-hair child until the child cut his hair short. Not all reasons for this barking behavior are due to something concerning.
3. The dog is being protective
The dog could also be sensing something off about the person. The dog could be perceiving the person as a threat to his “pack”. Perhaps it’s the way this person approaches you or the way he talks. Body language can share a lot of things about a person and the dog might be picking up small but threatening signs.
How to stop a dog from barking at one person
This barking behavior is probably something you wouldn’t want your dog to continue with if the person the dog barks at isn’t a stranger. There are a couple of steps that may help.
Reactive dogs, for example, are known to bark at certain people. It doesn’t help if this happens in an outdoor setting where there are a lot of strangers. Reactive dog training may help in this instance.
Letting the person give the dog some tasty treats may help if the person is innocent of any wrongdoing. This can help break a dog’s anxious fixation as long as it’s not too severe.
This was very helpful and I think I know why my dog barks at my adult son. He and his father have a tense relationship. My question is what do I do about it. I don’t want him to ever bite my son.
It sounds like you’re projecting onto your dog, the two of them might not be interacting enough with him and he gets jealous. The father should try harder to hang out with the dog. My opinion. Whatever makes the dog happier.
Why does a dogs scrunch his forehead and begin being aggressive to others in the household, and our other dog? No apparent reason, just starts.we have to put a special collar on him when he does this.
I would assume that the special collar is only making him more afraid so it’s understandable for him to act like that. He doesn’t understand y the collar would be in him, imagine if it was a human, the human would be angry
My dog barks at people in the house he knows, and seems to like. Thank you for sharing this article. I live in the country with medium size town 15 miles away, but no pet specialists so I read what I can find on barking.
Depending on breed and personality, he may bark at them for attention, the person might have played with or petted the dog in the past, my husky does that.
My dog barks excessively to an aide that comes to the house for my mother-in-law. The aide does have dogs but so do alot of other people that visit our home. The aide comes one day a week for the last six months. Should I hire another aide? I am very concerned about this behavior. My dog lets the aide pet her and takes treats but then continues to bark from different rooms.
Same here!! We have a neighbor that my very friendly dog barks at non stop. We don’t see this person often but when we do, its non stop. We have other friends with all types of dogs. She doesn’t bark at them. One of my friends in particular has a very large and somewhat intimidating dog and my dog just worships this friend so ( other dog sent) is clearly not the issue. I don’t know what to do? This neighbor is really nice but im embarrassed to have them over.
Depending on breed and temperament the dog may be doing this as a protective instinct. Is the caretaking situation relatively new? It’s possible the dog dont understand why the person is there doing the caretaking with their person, in their house ect. Or maybe something happened with the person that scard the dog, such dropping something or a loud noise. Also is the caregiver happy in there job or was she nervous or afraid at any point because dogs sense all that. Some dogs are more in tune or intuitive than others.
If you do hire a new aid, have the person take time to meet the dog first, give pets and some attention before getting to work on the aide stuff.
My dog bark at my boyfriend every time he comes home. We’ve been living together for years yet she seems to get so worked up when he arrives . I have to call her to come to me and calm he down . She rolls her eyes and huffs and puffs . Once in walks in she slowly approaches him and sniffs his shoes and walks away. She doesn’t bark when I arrive home if he’s there . She’s very calm when I arrive .
That’s a wonderful dog. Ignore it.
My dog barks at my grown son, he’s 6’11”. Very tall but she barks when he comes in , moves etc. I’ve tried the ultrasonic buzzers, no bark , leave it & no. Nothing works. Help!!!
My dog never use to bark at my mom’s morning caretaker but ever since she has been working in the hospital he barks at here all the time. What could have changed about her as a person for my dog to bark like this. When he barks his ears are back. She pets him and he sniffs and licks her but then she goes about her business and he barks again. He barks even more when i am around her.
My son has had dog issues since he was little like 8 years old. Randomly every where we went dogs growled at him and were very aggressive towards him. My son is not an aggressive person. We have dogs and they are fine with him. Now my son is 25 and this is happening again. Dogs randomly want to attack him. What does this mean??
I’m reading this because the same happens to me quite often. Went to a friend’s house to measure a couple rooms for new flooring. He has 2 medium sized dogs that he put in wire kennels so they wouldn’t jump on me. But when I walked in, they went nuts! Had to walk between them (with my friend) to go upstairs. One of them was going so crazy he was able to pry the top of the cage open with his head and got halfway out barking angrily. Scared the heck out of me. My friend said they’ve never done that. I told him this sort of thing happens with other dogs. No idea why!
I would like to get an answer for that too. Never had problems with dogs but since my own beloved JRT died may 2020, dogs bark at me whenever I get near to them while passing
My cousin’s dog usually bark at my aunt anytime she hears her voice or sense her coming from the house or coming from outside
So mysterious
l rescued my male pitt bull he should be around 7 He never bark when people come up to the house and is too friendly toward stranger.
You put the blame on people! Face it, some dogs (and their owners like my neighbors) are CRAZY – they never stop their dogs from barking at us even a football field distance away in our own yard. I think dog owners have a blind spot about their bad-behaving dogs and don’t provide what the dog(s) really need (like exercise).
I had last night at 3:00 AM some guy staring at me through the window and my dog started growling and howling and barking I was scared to death and i could not move then my mom and dad came in and asked whats going on some body please give me some advice.
I love the way certain people ALWAYS try to put the dogs behavior on the owner “projecting” or emitting some kind of “negative energy” I ain’t buying it cause it is not logical being all over the board with who a dog singles out…..until someone figures out how to read a dogs mind I am quite certain it will remain a mystery 90% of the time ….the other 10% is typically DUHH when there is a new wierd hat or something….I do know this about dogs…they can take a slight fear of something and blow it all out of proportion so that it gets scarier and scarier and scarier….and IF you can figure out WHAT that thing is? THEN you can work with the dog and probably maybe fix it…but so long as ONLY the dog knows? What are you gonna do to desentize him to a thing you don’t even know what is??
My guess is it could be something really simple that scares the dog but THEN the dog transfers his fear to the person’s smell and once that happens then the original scary thing might not even matter from then on….just a now illogical fear of THAT person
My good friend is getting married and I’m part of her wedding. Her dog who hates me is also part of the wedding. I’m not afraid of dogs however I fear that the dog will just bark for those 15 minutes while I’m up there by the bride. She is also concerned by how much her dog is barking. Could it be my race? Is it the fact that I have really curly hair and the dog is unfamiliar with it?
My dog has met my son and his wife two or three times. She will initially bark, as she does with all visitors, but then settles down. They recently came to our house for the first (and only) time with our 4 month-old granddaughter. Throughout the night, the dog barked only when my son held her. We’re perplexed. Any ideas? Thank you.
I moved in with a couple, we all get along great, they have a small dog that barks at me only when the femal owner is present, I’ve asked them not to chastise the dog for doing so to no avail been there now almost 3 months ,and the dog continues to aleart and bark when femal owner is home???
Dogs constantly seem to bark at me for no reason, for instance when I am riding a bike through their neighborhood in town, they seem to pick up a vibe (or my exertion) and then just randomly bark, even if they are inside the house and cannot see me. I feel like they can somehow sense my energy field or something, but that’s just a guess. Unless I am possessed by some Neandrethal like demonic spirit which they can feel? (hope not-lol)
I’ve been living with someone I knew before I moved in. His dog would bark but would stop. Since moving in now 2 yrs. Later she bark’s at me at every move! Can’t even leave my room without her aggressively running up and barking. I’ve NEVER EVER done anything but be tolerant, understanding and Nice to this dog! Seriously!!!! Given her treats an she will turn around an bark at me. I’ve read that they will do this if having a BAD or Traumatic experience. NEVER has this happened. I DON’T understand??? He doesn’t do much of ANYTHING that has any consistency at all.
My big Husky-Malamute mix, 7 months old and 60lbs. Very healthy and huge! She is soo very talkative. She def has bouts of barking, but mostly she’s just yelling things lol my wife will get home and right away gets a talking to. Often the pup tells and yells at her to do “kitchen stuff” I think the pup wants to learn to bake 🙂 it’s tough to differentiate between a “talking/chatty” dog and barking excessively.