This is not a post about hot cars and dogs. We all know by now that they don’t mix. In the summer, leave the dog home unless you want a cadre of angry people breaking the window of your car to rescue your dog.
This is about your territorial pup, sitting in the small enclosed capsule of your car, waiting for you and guarding the car at the same time. This is the dog that goes ballistic if someone pulls up next to you in the parking lot, or walks by the car, or dares to even look at the car.
When I see that dog throwing a fit at passersby in the grocery store parking lot, I have an inkling of what that dog is like at home. This dog will be perched on the sofa, looking out the window and barking at everything that walks by the house.
Summer means the main door of the house is usually open, and the screen door exposed to let in the sun. Here is where our barking companion resides, watching the street for joggers, bicycles, UPS trucks, or worse yet, another dog.
Dogs that do this are pretty convinced that all that noise is an effective deterrent. Loud, menacing barking makes people (and trucks and dogs on leash) go away. Therefore, the dog must bark. Otherwise, that mom pushing a stroller will break into your house!
And by extension, that guy with a shopping cart is a threat to your car.
So if you are the not-so-proud owner of a in-car barker, you are probably experiencing that same behavior in your home. And that is where to start training your dog NOT to bark.