What is your dog's bark saying?

Dogs bark for a handful of reasons, and each one calls for a different response. Bokedex listens to a few seconds of barking and tells you which kind it is, how excited your dog sounds and what to try next.

Download on theApp Store

Bokedex Bark result: “Asking for you”, an attention bark at 79%, excitement Engaged, 3 barks in 1.7 seconds, with a tip.

How it works

Three steps.

Record or listen

Tap Record a bark and hold your phone a few steps from your dog, or turn on hands-free listening and let Bokedex wait for the next bark.
Get the read

Bokedex names the kind of bark with a match percentage, counts the barks and rates the excitement: calm, engaged or very excited.
Respond

Follow the tip, or use the built-in clicker, the recall whistle or the Calm to sounds drill, one tap below the result.

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.

Why it doesn't turn barks into words

Barks carry urgency and emotion more than meaning. People who hear recordings of barks can often tell the situation they came from, like a stranger at the gate or a game, but there's no vocabulary to decode. Bokedex works at that honest level: a broad kind, a percentage, an excitement level, and “Hard to tell” when a clip doesn't fit.

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.

What it can't do. A bark read is a hint from one clip. It can't tell you why your dog barks at 3 a.m. or whether something hurts. If barking changes suddenly, or comes with pacing, panting or hiding, talk to your vet.

Questions

Bark: common questions

Can an app understand what my dog is barking about?

It can tell broad kinds of bark apart, like an alert, a request or play, and how excited your dog sounds. It won't give you sentences, and any app that claims to is guessing.

Why do I get “Hard to tell”?

Usually the clip is noisy, too short or recorded from far away, or more than one dog is barking. Try five to ten seconds from a few steps away with the TV off.

Does it work for any breed?

Yes. It listens to the bark itself, not the breed. Very soft barks, whines and howls are harder to read.

Are my recordings uploaded?

No. Bark reads run on your iPhone and nothing is sent to a server.

Is it free?

The free plan includes a number of reads each month. Premium makes them unlimited.

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