Why do some people need to bark at you until you bark back?

They want more social territory, but aren’t willing to fight for it. By resisting, they choose to go elsewhere.

Another possible reason is that they don’t realize how badly they’re behaving.

I second @Nullo Humans are territorial by nature. We test limits, we know what is good, we know what is bad, we see how much we can handle etc. Just hang around people with similar attitudes as you and you will be fine.

There should be a psychiatric term or a syndrome to pin a label to that kind of behavior. Also sounds like a test mechanism of sorts. Either coming from someone who is secretly a coward, putting up a false tough facade or someone really assertive, testing someone else’s assertiveness before they could even begin respecting them.

Some may not even realize they’re being like that. They may think they’re just acting the way they normally act. And some people just plain don’t know any better or any other way to behave. Perhaps this is the way they were raised, maybe this is the way they were treated by their family, friends.

Sometimes, it’s a bid for attention. ANY attention is better than being ignored.

Yeah I knew somneone who used to do this to me and she said she did it to get a rise out of me because she wanted me to swear back at her. I’m not the kind of person who just starts swearing their head off when people are around so I just went out of my way to avoid her. I figured out if she plays those kind of games, deep down she’s really insecure with herself if she feels threatened by someone who’s quiet.

Abused people will sometimes do this. When they are with the abuser and they see the abuser’s temperature rising they’ll provoke to bring about the explosion on their terms.

This is a maladaptive but often spills over into regular life.

Having been raised with a gaggle of siblings though I know that some people just enjoy poking at you to try to get a reaction. Most of those people grow up at some point and realize that they are being douches when they partake in that behaviour and they stop. Then again some never grow up.

In some cases, the person may not know they are being rude until they see you act the way you are perceiving them to be.

They want to appear bigger than they really are! Ever heard of the saying “The bark is worse than their bite”? Lol