That's not strange at all ....
The barking is a sign of anxiety or stress
Dogs will bark when they want something or when they get excited
But strangers or people coming through a door
will be someting else
That's an alarm bark
My Mike barks an alarm bark when people pass by
or when he gets frightened of something
and it sounds completely different from his regular bark
He's got a whole repetoire
His alarm bark is loud and sounds a little like a Beagle
My Zach .... doesn't bark like that
Maybe he's letting his brother take care of it
and the circling the dish ....
a lot of dogs have this habit
again ... my Mike sometimes forgets how to eat from his dish and he'll push the food around and try to see if it came out the other end
