Some dog owners seem to want their dogs to stop barking, period: a good dog is a quiet dog, and the only time that barking’s permitted is when there’s a man in a black balaclava and stripy prison outfit, clutching a haversack marked ‘Swag’, clambering in through your bedroom window. Dogs don’t see barking in quite the same light. Your dog has a voice, just like you do, and she uses it just how you do too: to communicate something to the people she cares about. I don’t think that barking is necessarily a bad thing – in fact, I think it’s encouraging that my dog wants to “talk” to me, enough so that I can overlook the stentorian qualities of his voice (which, in enclosed spaces, is positively overpowering) in favor of his desire to communicate with me. It’s the thought that counts (even though I feel better-equipped to stand by this sanctimonious belief when my ears are sheltered safely behind industrial-quality ear-plugs).

Unfortunately, the language barrier between dogs and humans is pretty well impermeable, which means it’s up to us to use the context, the body language of our dogs, and the circumstances of the vocalization to parse meaning from a volley of barks.

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I agree that the dogs' communication to us should not be suppressed. But it's easy for me to say that, my dog rarely barks at home apart from if there is someone at the door or noise outside the house. She does more dream-barking than real barks, soft whistly barks in her sleep which I find absolutely adorable! The only times she barks a lot is when queueing for her turn at agility.
For people with close neighbours, having a barking dog often leads to big problems.

Yep I echo what burrowig said. I woud love to live in a detached house in a rural setting and let my dog chat to me all day, but with neighbours (terrace houses) I don't think that's appropriate.

But she's a bright spark and has learnt that if she wants to get my attention onto something she just needs to look at me and then the thing and back at me again - that's when I can't stop myself from saying " what is it Lassie? A boy? Trapped in the old mine shaft? " !!

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I disagree that dogs want to "talk" to us. They want to communicate with us, and do this by subtle body language, which we ignore (because we don't see it) but when a dog barks, it is to get our attention because we haven't taken notice before. A barking dog is essentially shouting because we wouldn't listen. If we read our dog's body signals correctly, then a dog has no need to bark. Wolves and dogs very rarely bark in the wild. Barking has only become more usual dog behaviour as they have become domesticated.