If your dog has clearly been barking but the app is silent — or the bark count is stuck on 0 — don't worry, this is usually easy to fix. Work through the checks below in order.
Jump to:
- My bark count shows 0
- I get no barking alerts even though barks are counted
- I saw an error when saving my settings
My bark count shows 0
Check that bark detection is switched on. This is the most common cause. While bark detection is off, the collar switches off its microphone and reports zero barks every hour — which looks exactly like a silent day.
- Open your pet's profile → GPS tracker settings.
- Look at the Barking alerts row. If it says Barking alerts are off, tap in and turn the toggle on.
Check that today's data has arrived. The collar only sends its bark count once an hour, so a fresh figure can take up to an hour to appear.
I get no barking alerts even though barks are counted
- Is it inside a schedule? Alerts only fire during an active detection window. Open Barking alerts and check the Barking detection section — if it says No detection schedules yet, tap Add schedule.
- Is your threshold reachable? An alert needs the Barking count to be hit inside a single Barking cycle. A high count paired with a short cycle can be very hard to trip. Try lowering the count or lengthening the cycle.
- Is the tracker reachable? If the Barking alerts row is greyed out and tapping it shows "Tracker is unreachable — get in Bluetooth range or wait for mobile network", the collar currently has neither mobile signal nor a Bluetooth link to your phone.
- Are notifications allowed? Check that notifications are enabled for the Ask A Vet app. On Android, tracker alerts arrive on their own Tracker Alarms channel — if that channel is switched off in your phone's settings, you won't see them.
- Repeat alerts are spaced out. If your dog barks continuously, you won't get an alert per burst — repeat bark alerts for the same pet are limited to one every 5 minutes.
I saw an error when saving my settings
| Message | What it means and what to do |
|---|---|
| "Failed to update bark alarm settings." | The change didn't save. Check your phone's connection and try again. |
| "The collar rejected the bark settings." | The tracker turned the change down. Try again while you're close to your pet so the app can talk to the collar over Bluetooth. |
If the collar simply couldn't be reached when you saved, the app won't show an error — we keep retrying automatically, once an hour, until the collar confirms.
Still stuck?
If bark detection is on, a schedule covers the time in question, the tracker shows as reachable and you still see nothing after a full day, get in touch with our support team [CONFIRM: support contact channel and address] and tell us your pet's name and roughly when the barking happened.
Related articles - How to set up barking alerts (threshold and schedule) - What is bark monitoring on your Ask A Vet tracker?