Is the two-rak'ah prayer at the time of barking a forsaken Sunnah, and is the Hadith: "The expiation for every bark is two rak'ahs" authentic?

The aforementioned hadith (definition) is considered weak by most scholars, such as Al-Iraqi and Al-Haythami, while Al-Albani graded it as hasan (definition) (good), stating: "This is a good isnad (definition) (chain of narration); all its narrators are trustworthy, and there is a slight weakness in the memory of Abd Al-Wahid ibn Qays, which does not diminish his hadith from the rank of hasan, Allah willing."

However, this hadith is munqati' (disconnected), as Abd Al-Wahid ibn Qays did not hear from Abu Hurayrah, as explicitly stated by Al-Dhahabi and others. This is also what Al-Albani himself reported in his book "Silsilat Al-Ahadith Ad-Da'ifah wal-Mawdu'ah" (Series of Weak and Fabricated Hadiths), for Abd Al-Wahid ibn Qays narrates from Abu Hurayrah but did not hear from him, nor did he meet him.

Accordingly, the hadith is weak through the narration of Abd Al-Wahid, and also weak through the narration of Maslamah ibn Ali Al-Khushani. Acting upon it would fall under the category of acting upon a weak hadith, which is permissible under certain conditions.