The third most likely reason that dogs are surrendered to a shelter is excessive barking but exactly what is excessive barking?  If you were to ask a municipal bylaw officer to define “excessive barking”, you may be surprised to learn that there is no legal and precise standard to go by.  Furthermore, you may be told that they judge the loudness of a dog’s barking on the loudness of the person making a complaint.  This is disturbing as, in some municipalities, owners of excessively barking dogs can be fined and repeat complaints will result in the dog being seized and destroyed.
There have been no studies conducted to determine how much a dog barks in a given day, however, a small study involving 40 dogs was conducted at Massey University in New Zealand which is considered a pilot or preliminary piece of research.  The reasoning for the small size was because of stringent conditions required of the dogs that participated and scoring was done by hand   Dogs living near high traffic areas, dogs with a history of nuisance barking and dogs with any medical condition that might affect normal behavior were excluded.  Researchers wanted dogs who were left alone at home for eight hours a day or more.
The participating dog owners were given a sound activated tape recorder which they turned on in the morning upon leaving and turned off when they returned home at the end of their work day.  The dogs were recorded approximately eight hours a day for five days.  The results; it’s surprising how little the dogs barked.  In an eight hour time span, the dogs typically barked between four and five times with each barking episode averaging about 30 seconds in length.  Younger dogs bark more than older dogs but the older dogs tended to bark somewhat longer.  Also, the total average bark time was greater for females than males establishing a sex difference as well.
On the whole, dogs left at home alone do not bark very frequently or for a very long duration.  Researchers found that on some days, dogs did bark more frequently and for longer periods than usual as a result of atypical events such as an increase in traffic, lawn care workers or tradesmen in the area or deliveries being made and the like.  This is why it is important to monitor a dog, who is the victim of a barking complaint, over a period of several days.
In a perfect world, authorities could use sound activated recorders to evaluate complaints; some offer up to 500 hours of continuous recording.  An easy computer scoring method could be created and the data could be used to confirm nuisance barking or if complaints are unfounded, authorities could show the complaining person the level of barking is within normal boundaries for dogs, and encourage social tolerance, hopefully.  But sadly, we do not live in a perfect world and, therefore, the action of the authorities are more likely to be based on the loudness of the human complaining about the barking than on the sound of the dog barking.