Barking natural or should it be stopped?

Play barking is normal yes, IMO. it is an expression of joy or an attempt to get another dog to play. It CAN be annoying when dogs play bark...for ex at dog parks that are in civilization...where it goes on...and on....and on. If that is the dog's ONLY form of play...standing staring and barking into another dogs face or at people? Might consider addressing that...but otherwise? If it's under control when YOU want it to be I see no issue.

normally he is barking when he is playing with me, sometimes it's when he is charging around but never like right in other dogs face or anything. I think his barking is fairly harmless and the breed hunterway that he is crossed with is a working dog breed that is breed to bark that is their trade mark they are a barking dog.

 I have one barker and one non barker.  Onyx barks her fool head off when she gets excited.  Its her way of getting out some of the extra energy.  Crusher doesn't bark, not when playing, not at strangers, not ever really.  He makes noise, but not barking.  I would no more try to make Crusher bark when they are playing, than try to make Onyx stop.  Its her play time, not mine.  Like Gina said, if she was really bothering somebody or some other dog with it, then I would try to calm her, but otherwise, no. 

For me a few alert barks in the house is good. Part of the reason we have the dogs we do, is so they guard the house/us. We use "thank you" as the sign that we understand there is a possible threat, and don't feel action is needed. We also reward the dogs for returning to us after the alert bark and a second reward after settling down after an alert bark.

During play and while we're out and about I have different rules for each dog:

Lexi - doesn't bark, so not an issue. If she did bark, I'd take it as a sign from her about her comfort level or something happening.

Rosco: Barks when overstimulated. If he's barking, he's too excited and needs to be redirected into something more positive.

Luna: Barking fool! LOL. Luna barks during play, but she can be rude about it with other dogs and occasionally with people. She mostly does it to Lexi, who will put her in her place and refuse to play with her when she is being a brat. I am fine with Lexi regulating that because they don't escalate and Lexi is very fair about her corrections. If it was a strange dog then I watch that dog very closely to see if Luna's play style is not a good fit.

If Luna barks at me during agilty or while playing chuck-it/other games, then the bark ends the game temporarily. She can be a bossy handful, and her barking at me during play is like saying, "Mom, throw my ball. I said throw my ball. Throw it now! I said throw my ball!" (Hence my not rewarding that behavior by throwing the ball, and my request for her to be polite.) I will turn away, wait until she is quite and calm, turn back and ask for a hand touch to start the game again. I also see this as an exercise for her to learn/practice self-control. She is also young, so her rules may change as she matures, but for now I am trying to raise a wild teenage Aussie!

Everyone I think has there own idea of what kind/amount of barking is OK. In your situation, I think I would ask my friend not to worry about my dog's barking, but to let me know if she's not comfortable with the play style so you can intervene.

rwbeagles

Play barking is normal yes, IMO. it is an expression of joy or an attempt to get another dog to play. It CAN be annoying when dogs play bark...for ex at dog parks that are in civilization...where it goes on...and on....and on. If that is the dog's ONLY form of play...standing staring and barking into another dogs face or at people? Might consider addressing that...but otherwise? If it's under control when YOU want it to be I see no issue.

Harry play barks.  It is very annoying when he does it at the dog park, and he only seems to do it with some dogs, but even if the other dog's owner says it's okay, and their dog isn't acting afraid of him, I stop him anyway and redirect him to play elsewhere/with another dog.  Just because it annoys me and he won't stop unless I tell him to.

Earlier this week, there were about 5 young folks (late teens, early 20s, maybe?) at the park with one dog, a white boxer (first time I've ever seen one of those...I've heard they can have a lot of health problems, but anyway...), Harry loves playing with boxers, so he was play barking with this dog.  Before I could even get over to him to get his attention and redirect him, one of the "kids" pushed him away with his foot.  GRRRR!  I was so angry, but they were kind of intimidating.  I just said to them, "He's my dog, he's just playing, I'm coming to get him right now" and recalled him to me to move to another part of the park.  BTW - these kids had food (prohibited) and, I couldn't believe this, two of them were SMOKING inside the dog park!!!  For the rest of the time we were there, I kept myself and my dog as far away from them as possible!

Cheyanne is a very well behaved dog. She only barks when there is something to be barking at. BUT when the bike comes out she goes crazy. She cant wait to get going. And she lets everyone in the neighborhood know that we're going running. Now once we get going down the road she quits barking. It's just the first 2-3 minutes getting everyone ready to go that she is barking.

So as long as it's play barking I wouldnt worry about it. But I also think if you want him to quit at some point you should teach him a command for it.