I was asked recently my opinion as to which dog breeds bark the most and gave the answer that, in my experience, smaller breeds were the most likely to bark randomly.
It set me thinking that maybe my own experiences as a dog walker, trainer and behaviorist were just that...my own experiences and studies maybe showed that in the big canine picture most dogs were given to bark randomly at around the same level.
My research lead me to a book by Benjamin and Lynette Hart The Perfect Puppy: How To Choose Your Dog By It's Behaviour in which the authors had listed the dogs that were most and least likely to bark randomly without justification.
According to the book...
The least likely breeds to bark randomly were...
Akita
Bloodhound
Chesapeake Bay Retriever
Golden Retriever
Newfoundland
Rottweiler
And the most likely breed to bark randomly...
Beagle
Cairn Terrier
Fox Terrier
Miniature Schnauzer
West Highland White Terrier
Yorkshire Terrier
I also noted that many of the bigger breeds such as Labrador Retrievers, Great Danes and Malamutes ranked highly as least likely to bark randomly whilst the smaller breeds such as Chihuahua, Pekinese and small Poodle breeds were rated more likely to be 'random barkers'.