What is your dog's bark saying?

The kinds of bark Bokedex tells apart

Every read lands on one of these. Each comes with the app's suggestion for what to do next.

Alert bark

Something caught their attention, like a sound or someone outside.

Check what they noticed, then calmly call them away and reward quiet.

Asking for you

Wants contact: attention, a walk or a game.

Wait for a quiet second, then respond, so quiet is what works.

Asking for food

Sounds like asking for food or a treat.

Reward calm waiting, not the bark. Keep meals on a schedule.

Play bark

Upbeat and social, often during a game.

Fine in play. If it keeps building, pause the game for a few seconds.

Hard to tell

The clip didn't match one kind clearly, so Bokedex says so instead of guessing.

Record 5 to 10 seconds closer to your dog, with less noise around.

How worked up is your dog?

Next to the kind of bark, a three-step meter shows excitement: calm, engaged or very excited. It's often the more useful half of the read. An asking-for-you bark that's calm is a polite request; the same bark at very excited is a dog who has been waiting too long.

A play bark that climbs to very excited is your cue to slow the game down before it tips into mouthing or zoomies.

What a bark tells you

Barks carry urgency and emotion. People who hear recordings of barks can tell the situation they came from, like a stranger at the gate or a game, well above chance. Bokedex reads the same signal: the kind of bark, a match percentage and how excited your dog sounds.

What the barks mean while you're out

Getting a cleaner read

• One dog barking, not a group.
• Phone within a few steps of your dog, not across the house.
• TV and music off, windows closed if it's noisy outside.
• Five to ten seconds of barking is plenty.
• Got “Hard to tell”? Move closer and try again.

Answer the dog, not the bark

The quickest way to get more barking is to reply to it. The Respond row puts three tools next to every result: a clicker to mark the moment your dog goes quiet, a recall whistle to call them away from the window, and Calm to sounds for barking set off by the doorbell, knocking or other dogs.

For barking at home, Quiet minute (Premium) turns quiet into the thing that pays. Keep the phone near your dog: it listens, and when your dog has been quiet for 15, 30 or 60 seconds it buzzes “Treat now”. A bark starts the clock again, so a treat only ever follows a quiet stretch.

Calm to soundsTraining in Bokedex