Have you seen the stage play, Sylvia, in which a man brings a stray dog home from the park and adopts it? The dog is always played by a woman, who often barks at appropriate (and inappropriate) moments. Except, as a person playing a dog, she doesn’t say BARRR RARRR or WOOF. She says HEY! HEY! HEYHEYHEY!!!
I saw the play with a girlfriend, another dog lover, and we both thought that “Hey!” was a brilliant translation of dog barks. Not to mention being hysterically funny. Every time we saw each other for months we’d bark HEY! HEY! HEY! at each other. And crack up like school girls.
But what are dogs “saying” when they bark? We don’t know, but there are two primary hypotheses about what is going on when they do. 1) Barks are examples of “referential communication,” in that each bark refers to something specific, like an approaching visitor, or a desire to play. In this case the dog is providing information to the recipient(s). In the case of the visitor, it could be “Stranger coming, need back up from the pack!” and/or “Stay away from here unless you have authorization!” We know that at least some animals communicate in this way, including the well-studied Vervet monkey, who has different alarm vocalizations dependent upon the danger.
Here is a fantastic video of some of their calls, which vary dependent of the type of predator. Researchers Seyfarth and Cheney wrote a fascinating book, How Monkeys See the World, about their extensive research that suggests that the vervet’s calls are truly context dependent, and not purely expressions of different emotional states.
This parallels the hypothesis of Sophia Yin, DVM, MS, who argues that the barks of domestic dogs are related more to context than to the dog’s emotional state.
2) The second hypothesis about dog barks is that they do not specifically refer to a person, place or thing, but are expressions of the internal state of the dog. That is the argument of Kathryn Lord, PhD, who made a compelling case for that interpretation at the SPARCS conference last month in Rhode Island. (You can watch all the talks for a membership to SPARCS, although they were live streamed free around the world while they occurred.) Dr. Lord cited the well-known “Morton’s rules,” in which high, “thin” sounds (narrow band) correlate with fear or affiliation, and low, “thick” (broad band) sounds relate to threats. Morton noted that barks, common in many species including deer and monkeys, are sounds that combine the features of both fear and threats. They are used by a variety of animals when in danger, but when they are also unwilling, or unable to run away. They are most common when predators approach a nest or an animal’s young, and thus the adult is in danger but can’t run away without losing its young. You can read an abstract of this argument here, or find the entire article online if you have access to the journal.
What is important to note is that both hypotheses allow for the receiver to be able to distinguish the context in which the bark is given. We all can tell a play bark from a threatening bark to a stranger, because for one thing, it is higher pitched. (Which, of course, follows Morton’s rules.) Thus, knowing that your dog is barking at a stranger approaching the house, instead of barking another dog away from a bone, does not tell us what the noise actually means to a dog. It means that we have learned to associate a particular bark with a particular context, but that could be because the dog is specifically signaling “stranger coming” or is expressing ambivalent emotions that correlate with “Uh oh, trouble coming, I’m worried, pack, come back me up!” along with “You! Stay away from here.” Or, of course (and you knew this was coming), they could mean: HEY! HEY! HEYHEYHEYHEY!!!
Here’s Maggie saying something like that when I knocked on the door as if a visitor had arrived. (I evaluate her face as looking both nervous and expressing a mild threat, which fits Morton’s rules and how she behaves until she gets a sniff of anyone new and then is thrilled to see them. We’re working hard on counter conditioning her to visitors, which involves lots of treats being thrown in the driveway. Tootsie and Willie love it, they get to search for the goodies along with Maggie.)
What do you think? Remember that being able to interpret your dog’s barks (and Farago’s research suggests we are all pretty good at this) does not tell us what the message that is being sent by your dog is. Both hypotheses allow for nuanced interpretations. By the way, I wrote about this issue in 2009, but I revisit it now because it is so interesting and we still have a long way to go to sort it all out. Watch Dr. Lord’s SPARCS presentation when you can, it is very interesting indeed.
By the way, this blog obviously is not about how to deal with a barking problem, but here are two books that do a great job of it: The Bark Stops Here by Terry Ryan and Help! I’m Barking and I Can’t be Quiet by Daniel Estep and Suzanne Hetts.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: The bounty of summer is keeping us busy. Picked and pitted enough tart cherries at friend’s for six cherry pies this winter. (Thank you Sandi and Dave!) Picking raspberries at a friends tonight. Lots of green veggies to get into the freezer, weeds to pull and Japanese beetles to pick off my flowers, one at a time (argh!). Working the dogs on sheep almost every day, Maggie sometimes twice. Here’s a photo of the benefits of all that hard work, just a few of the flowers from the garden.
Laceyh says
I don’t see any mention of request or demand barking, when the dog wants something from a person. Perhaps especially little dogs are very apt to develop this behavior. It can be helpful, as letting people know the dog wants out, but it can easily become a trying habit. When it was present, I usually worked to decrease it in my fosters, with fair success in several cases (but none in a couple) just by not reinforcing.
Harry George says
My theory about barking accommodates both concepts, but you have to start not with dogs, but with humans. Shortly stated, my concept is this: we are the species that barks. Dog barking results from their association with us. We bark commands/communications at them. When they wish to communicate with us, i.e. when they have something important to say to us, they mimic our barking to do so. Barking is not a primary language for dogs, it is them attempting to speak human. Their barks vary as they perceive ours varying. We have alarm barks, playful barks, etc. Note that wolves do not bark at all. “Hey” is a good catch all. Go to Philly and listen to all the variations on ‘Yo!” Same thing. The nuances, however, vary by circumstance – by what they have to say. Perhaps involving a human linguist would add a whole lot more to the study of dog barking than one might expect.
em says
I think I first saw dog barks translated as “hey!heyheyhey!” in a Gary Larson cartoon years ago. I thought it clever and apt then, and I still do today. (He also has a funny one that contrasts ‘what we say’ with ‘what dogs hear’ that still makes me chuckle).
I do think that dog barks express an emotional state, and I do think that dogs use their barks deliberately to prompt desired action from their social partners (dog and human). Whether the dog thinks that his own bark actually translates into something analogous to a word, I don’t know, but sort of doubt. To me, dog barking has always seemed like pre-verbal child language- noise made with intent to communicate, but not necessarily noise that “translates” into wholly developed conscious thoughts.
What an interesting topic to mull over!
Congrats on the fruit score, by the way!
Roberta says
My “Energizer Beagle,” Annie, demands barks when 1) someone is in HER spot on the couch, 2) when Angel, foster Dachshund, is snuggled under the chair blanket and Annie doesn’t want her to bark at her (Annie) who wants in the chair, too, and 3) when Mom (moi) left her locked behind a gate or in her crate.
With a large number of hounds here, I know a distress bark from a bunny BAWL from a this is OUR home. We often have Houndsong, led by Squishy Choirmaster (Beagle) – everyone joins in, even the un-hounds. What amazes me is most stop at the exact same time (except for Annie, go figure). How do they do that??
Kat says
This is fascinating to me. Looking at my own two canines, Ranger barks to communicate something. If he’s barked at my husband asking to go out and my husband offers him a treat Ranger will come to me and bark his “I need to go out” bark so that I can translate for my husband. If there’s something that isn’t right Ranger has an “alert” bark to tell me there’s something he needs my input about. I respond to the alert by going to where Ranger shows me the problem is and then either assuring him that it isn’t something that we need to worry about (strange car in the driveway next door where the house if for sale) or dealing with the issue (inviting the stray dog circling our fence into the yard to play with Ranger while I contact animal control or the owners depending on whether the dog has tags).
By contrast, I’m pretty sure that Finna is barking due to her internal state. She barks when she’s excited that we’re going outside. She barks when she’s worried about the stray dog circling the fence. She barks when she’s afraid of the stranger in the driveway. She barks when she wants to chase the stray dog or stranger away. She barks when someone startles her. She barks when she needs to go out. I’ve very seldom gotten the feeling that see views barking as any sort of communication.
Let me see if I can do a better job of explaining what I mean. Take the desire to go out. Both dogs bark when they want to go out but Ranger will look at a person, bark his “need to go out” bark once or twice and wait for a response. He only heads for the door when the person he’s “talking” to says something indicative of a willingness to take him out or when they begin to get up. Finna barks to go out and continue barking until the person is moving toward the door with her. She’s dancing around in the vicinity of the person she wants to take her out but she hasn’t made eye contact, she isn’t waiting for a verbal or physical response, she barks until she has you within sight of the door and once she sees the door she runs to it and waits.
It makes me wonder how much socialization has to do with barking. Ranger is very well socialized and recognizes a number of nouns well enough that if I offer two of the things he knows and ask him to touch one he’s more than 80% accurate. Finna was raised by animal hoarders and I haven’t managed to teach her any noun except possibly ball since she will go find a ball if asked. So looking at my two I can hypothesize that a well socialized dog is more likely to use barking as a language to communicate externally and an unsocialized dog is more likely to bark as a reflection of their internal state. Or it could just be that some dogs are wired more for ‘language’ communication than others.
Kathryn says
I agree with Kat that dogs can bark for both reasons: to express emotions and to communicate something in a given context. I have two dogs who are very verbal; my mother-in-law used to comment on one’s extensive “vocabulary.” I believe they engage in both forms of barking. They bark when excited if I get out the hose or if someone they know pulls in the driveway, but they also direct puppy barks and whine towards me to get out of a crate or into the house or to get a turn if we’re training. One even has a very cute grumble that he uses to let me know that he is displeased about not getting his way. I believe it is context driven communication because he does not use the same sounds for my husband when he denies the pup access to whatever it is he wants.
LisaW says
There are so many different types of barks. There’s the “I’m coming, and you should be at the door ready to open it for me as I reach the top step,” bark. There’s the “I want to play more but my body says no,” frustrated by hip dysplasia bark. There’s the “Truck backing up beeping,” alarm bark. There’s the “I want to come closer to you but I’m nervous,” bark. There’s the “Danger, danger, someone is in the back field, all hands on deck,” bark. I think there are as many different kinds of barks as there are dialects.
Doesn’t barking to communicate within a specific context and expressing an internal, emotional state go hand-in-hand? Isn’t language a way of communicating an emotional response to a stimuli within a context? That doesn’t make it easy to interpret, but fascinating to think about.
Trisha, are those lilacs in your bouquet? How did you get lilacs and lilies blooming at the same time? They’re beautiful.
widogmom says
After getting past my automatic lip-curl response to having Gary Larson shamelessly plagiarized, I did find this article interesting. I have a very vocal dog (she’s supposed to be a spaniel mix, but I think there’s a sheltie in the woodpile). I believe, like our language, dogs have a variety of motivations. Some people talk when they are nervous; some talk to actually communicate (though this is increasingly rare), and some talk to hear themselves talk, or to make themselves important. How funny is it that our species, who sets themselves on a pedestal because of our language skill, struggles so to understand the communication of other animals?
Ariel says
I have two Shelties, and while they have alarm barks and demand barks and play barks, they also have what I can only call dialogue barks. They love to bark, they do it joyfully when we speak to them, when we’re training and playing and even when they’re working. They bark to eachother. Sometimes more than I would like…especially in group classes where the trainers don’t know Shelties, but we’re working on that…
Danica says
Hmm. Interesting topic! I’ve raised three deaf dogs, fostered three others, and the most frequent question I get is, “Do they bark?” Well, yes. They certainly do. But I’m wondering if studying deaf dogs might be a good way to get some answers. I will pose the question in some of my deaf dog groups – I only have my own experiences to speak from. All three of my deafies would bark at me and at other dogs to get their attention or initiate play. None of them do property warning/defensive barks or greeting barks. We could be over-run by a horde of stray dogs, cats, and ne’er do wells and not one of them would make a peep. Although perhaps breed has something to do with that; I have English Setters. Not known to make particularly good guard dogs…
My first deafie would sometimes sit in the backyard on a beautiful day, completely relaxed, and bark gently at the sky. It was a different, breathy bark and he was supremely happy while doing it. I always suspected he just enjoyed the “feel” of barking.
Kristina Spaulding says
One thing that I think is interesting about barking in dogs is that they bark far more often, and in a wider variety of contexts, than wolves. This raises the possibility that barking evolved specifically as a way to communicate with humans. Of course, that still doesn’t tell us which hypothesis is correct, but it adds an interesting new dimension.
I also wonder if the two hypotheses are truly mutually exclusive. Emotions could have an impact on the “tone” of the barking, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t have specific meaning beyond emotion. I think I probably lean in the direction of barking as a reflection of emotion, but I definitely wouldn’t rule out the first option at this point.
Milissa says
Em summed up my thoughts, especially the far side! Though I suspect dogs have in their mind a concept of they want to communicate. Whether that is the same as our concept, and fits your definition of “wholly developed conscious thought” probably depends a lot on your definition. It certainly will be interesting to see how this topic develops! As anyone who works in partnership with dogs will understand, the motivation to understand and effectively communicate with our dogs is huge!
Erin says
I have 4 Border Collies and none of them bark much at all. I don’t think I’ve ever hear 3 of them bark in their lives, once out growing tiny puppy stage. Those three also grunt, moan, chuff and have fabulous body language. My youngest alarm barks if a stranger approaches the car or house he doesn’t think I’m around. It is a very much a “stay the heck away”, and in honesty he’s my least out going dog so I believe it stems from insecurity of being” trapped” in a crate (car) or behind the fence/kennel (at home) and not being able to leave far enough from the situation(strange person).
IMHE they barkiest dogs I know are the most insecure OR they are from typically “vocal” breeds.
Linda Johnson says
My Great Danes will Bark at people/dogs walking by until I acknowledge them and tell them to stand down as it were. I don’t like it but it is easy enough to issue the stand down command of “enough”. If I see the “threat ” before they do and issue a command of leave it …they will not bark at all. Interestingly , this behavior didn’t the patio repair guy came early and let himself in the gate without my presence. He had worked at my house before and knew my former Danes, he didn’t know that they had passed and I had new ones. He was only a patio door away from my 140 lb girl and she told him to leave, his description is actually quite hilarious. He thought that the door was enough of a barrier to allow him to work on the screen that was stuck. She then showed that dogs can make it up as they go and started to use the door alert bells that hang on the handle to pull the door open . She has not done this before or since. He left at that point and waited for me. Accompanied by me later , she was cordial to him and very calm. But her bark for strangers changed after this incident. It is louder and more everything, deeper , angrier and more scary. They have different barks for different things as well, none of those barks changed. They did learn howling from the Beagle across the street. They never howled until she moved in. Now that is the go to voice if they have a complaint about being separated but still within ear’s reach. There is nothing like a howl from a Dane that was learned from a Missouri borne and bred beagle. It just doesn’t sound right.
Marjorie says
Oh Laceyh, don’t pick on little dogs. I see far more boarder collies and labs demand barking incessantly for someone to throw their ball.
MJ says
Far Side … hey hey hey
http://m5.paperblog.com/i/31/315809/day-1-portland-to-cubbys-camp-great-south-wes-L-KHfusH.jpeg
HFR says
I have seen “Sylvia” and loved it! (It was first produced in 1995 which is around the same time as Larson’s strip I think, so not sure if it was blatant plagiarism.) My favorite part was when Sylvia sang “Every Time You Say Goodbye I Die A Little” when her owner left. I think all of our dogs feel that way, don’t you? So sweet. Have you watched “Wilfred” at all? It’s pretty raunchy and over the top but the writer really knows dogs and every episode has something in it where I go “That’s so true!”
Barking. I once took my hunting dog to a hunting clinic (biggest mistake ever btw, I don’t hunt but I thought he would have fun and he did, but it wasn’t worth the trauma for me). Anyway, the trainer had a pheasant in her hand and my dog was literally shrieking at her to let him at it. It was the highest pitched bark I ever heard. I said he was really frustrated and she said, no, he was demanding. It was so interesting to me how in an instant his piercing bark went from sounding like he was screaming that life wasn’t fair to “give me that thing, dammit”. Made me realize that it’s so easy to misinterpret what we think is so clear.
SarahA says
I’ve always subscribed to the “hey! hey! hey!” theory. With variations on the “hey!” So it can be “hey you kids, get out of my yard!” or “hey, it’s great to see you!”
I believe I had read before a theory that dogs bark more than wolves because of neoteny, the theory as I recall being that wolf cubs bark and adult wolves don’t. (I read this a long time ago, though, so I could be misremembering). Adult wolves do bark, though, so that seems less likely. And I don’t know that we’re sure which wolf species dogs developed from, different wolves vocalize differently.
My own dogs are Staffordshire Bull Terriers, and don’t tend to bark a lot, though they make plenty of other noises. (they’re known for a weird chortling noise which a zookeeper friend of mine compares to hyenas and African wild dogs). My youngest, who has a protective streak, pretty much only barks if he hears an unusual noise outside at night, in which case he has a deep chested bark that makes him sound like he weighs 80 lbs instead of 35. The deep quality of it makes me interpret it as a warning. His dam rarely uses a warning bark (she used to, but now she figures her son has it handled), but she uses a more staccato demand bark when she wants to make something happen. She doesn’t look at whoever she’s demanding something from, she just sits in the middle of the floor and barks.
Ravana says
I think barks are giving very specific information. My dog (he may have been a coydog) had distinct barks for different kinds of animals. His categories were so obvious that I actually changed my language to fit his barks. A “bunny” was anything that was brown with long “ears” and a light tail that “hopped” this included rabbits (bunnies), deer (big bunnies) and nesting female mallards (bunny birds). “Cats” were tiptoeing nocturnal animals and included cats (kitties), opossums (weird kitties) and skunks (stinky kitties). Dogs were divided into big dogs and small dogs. The bark for fox was “cat/small dog/cat/small dog” (kitty dogs). One night while staying in a cabin in the north woods he ran to a window and started barking “big dog/strange human/big dog/strange human”. To his great disgust I would not let him out to confront the creature I couldn’t see in the brush. The next morning he led me to black bear tracks.
em says
I did want to add that I do believe that dogs ARE capable of wholly developed conscious thought, and are capable of expressing it. My own don’t really do that with barking as much as with gesture and eye contact- Otis is an especially nuanced and successful communicator, even with strangers (the big face might help with this), he’s just not a barker, and his barks tend to be only very generally communicative- they express emotion, emphasis, and general intent/desire, but as far as I can tell he doesn’t have a bark that means something as refined as “squirrel”, for instance. Nor does Sandy who barks much more often by inclination.
I guess I don’t really doubt that there are dogs who can learn to use barks to express specific ideas, but I myself haven’t owned one who does (I am rather drawn to non-barkers and don’t encourage barking from my dogs, so that may play a role).
On the other hand, I absolutely can read and translate a variety of gestures down to a very fine point of specificity, especially from Otis, without the barking. Sometimes this seems to be the result of deliberate communication, as when he’s asking for something specific- his ball, his belly rubbed. But sometimes it seems to be unconscious on his part. I can see at once whether he’s scented a deer vs. a coyote, for instance, just by the way he holds his head, but I don’t know if he’s even aware of it, much less trying to communicate this information to me.
What a fabulous puzzle to think about.
Glauber says
How about the book “Barking: The Sound of a Language” by Turid Rugaas?
It’s been in my “to read” list for a while, but I haven’t yet.
Joe says
I’ve had two Labs who actually had to be taught to alarm-bark! Dear old Shane was just too polite (or perhaps he thought it was beneath him) and had to be conditioned to bark at the doorbell. Once he understood that that was part of his job, he did it, dutifully. He never barked, otherwise. Current lab, Cocoa, came to us very nervous, unsure of herself, and it was only after some weeks that she alarm-barked. When we praised her for it, she continued. After living with us for a year, now, she’s still not really sure of herself, but SO much more comfortable than she was. Cocoa doesn’t bark for anything except someone at the door. She will whine in eagerness if I’m too slow getting out to throw her dummy to fetch, though. Other than that, no vocalizations at all.
The above posters have about covered the ground. BTW, I, too, liked the play, Sylvia.
Michael Peterson says
Dogs make lots of sounds to communicate. My Question is ….. What are people saying when they make sounds? And is the answer for people the the same as it it is for dogs? Does English sound different than Khoesan ?
Kerry M. says
Thanks for the book recs! I hadn’t known there were any books specific to barking. I’ll check them both out.
Trisha says
A few things: I agree that it is not just small dogs that bark demandingly. I’ve heard such barks from many a dog, and some of them big enough to knock your socks off. Interesting issue about that–that dogs often bark when they want something. So true, but that doesn’t tell us anything about what is behind the vocalization itself, whether it began as an expression of emotion (and still mostly is), or in reference to something external. Either one could be occurring when a dog barks for us to speed up making his dinner.
Re both hypotheses being true: Kathryn Lord was asked that at Sparcs, and her answer was that no, each hypothesis is mutually exclusive. I’m not 100% convinced that is inherently true in terms of the dogs themselves, but I do agree that as formulated by the scientists, the hypothesis suggest only one or the other.
I don’t agree though with Harry George, that dogs learned to bark by listening to people talk. Yes, dogs bark far more often than wolves, it is true. Right now the belief is that is a result of dogs being paedomorphic wolves, or animals whose development has changed such that they retain juvenile characteristics in the adult form. It’s young wolves who do the most barking, so that fits. However, it well could be true that we have indirectly selected dogs who are the most vocal. When I was in Africa I asked the Masai and Samburu tribes why they had dogs in their villages, and they all said because they bark when the lions come. But remember, lots of animals bark, not just dogs. My sheep even have a bark like noise when they are alarmed, that I suspect has the same function as most alarm barks: to threaten predators and alert the rest of the group.
Trisha says
em: I think you summarized it well–that barks can be expressing emotional states and at the same time be used to influence the behavior of others. That doesn’t mean that the dogs are consciously saying “Stranger coming” or “Give me the damn chicken” but that barks can be full of information, and can be used also to change the behavior of others. My Maggie seems to be experimenting, if I can use that word, right now with her barking. I think she’s learned that barking can get my attention, and every once in a while she’ll start barking when there is nothing there. Perhaps there was, and I just didn’t see or hear it, but there is something about her behavior that makes me suspicious. Willie did exactly the same thing, and I learned to say “Willie, don’t be silly” and not get up and change what I was doing. The phrase, as such things often do, evolved into “Silly Willie, don’t be a Silly Billy.” And other such inanities, all of which were designed to squelch the behavior.
Trisha says
Danica: I will keep the image of your deaf dog “barking gently at the sky” with me all day. What a lovely picture! And would that any of my dogs could bark “gently!”
Trisha says
One last comment before I start doing more research on next week’s topic (resource guarding, dog to dog): After Tulip died Jim and I were worried that the coyotes would plunder the barn and kill our new lambs. When we hear them yip-howling close to the farm I’d run outside and try barking like Tulip in hopes it would scare them away. I tried a noise like BARR RARR RARR RARR but it had no effect. Then I switched to a deep, low WOOOF, WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF and to my amazement, the coyotes got quiet, and we assume, left. I was telling this story to a friend who has coyote-sensor Great Pyrenees herself and when I illustrated by WOOF WOOF WOOF they immediately ran to their ‘guard stations’ and began barking their heads off. Beth and I laughed our heads off, and I drove home quite pleased with myself. By the way, my Woofing at coyotes has finally resulted, after several years, of Willie now barking at the coyotes too. It’s quite the scene to watch us!
Tiffanie says
We have a border collie that will bark at all strangers that come to the house. In a way I like it because it lets me know when someone is there but on the other hand I’ve been too afraid to let too many new people meet him because I don’t want anything bad to happen. Just curios if you’ve had similar things happening. This is my third border collie and I’ve never had to deal with this before. Sad thing is he’s an amazinggggg dog. Loves everyone that he already knows. Will be your BEST friend if you throw the Frisbee to him. Plus, he’s even a baby when it comes to our cat. He’s scared of her! He’s never aggressive with his food which is awesome. You just never know what a dog has been through before you rescue them, ya know? Maybe I’m just a worry wart.
SarahA says
Here’s actually a clip of my Staffordshire Bull Terrier bitch demand barking. In this case, she manages to lure her son into play after only a couple barks, she would normally be doing this for longer. Always like she does here; facing away from the subject of her demands.
I interpret it here as “Hey! I’m bored. Hey! Entertain me!” She’ll do the same thing at meal times, though, so the only way to be sure what she wants is to know if it’s time to eat or not.
Meg McR says
I don’t watch Family Guy, but my niece showed me this clip, and I thought it was perfect:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3SN3Bghkxw
I’ve heard my dog have this conversation a couple times… Too funny!
liz says
If I had to pick one hypothesis, though it’s unfortunate that both cannot apply simultaneously, I’d pick barking as reflective of emotional state. I err on this side because, given what we now know about the emotional lives of animals, I question if there’s ever a time where dogs are purely emotionless. People too, for that matter- even among the most straight-faced and matter-of-fact humans, isn’t there still some emotion there? I guess then it’d be a question of what emotions animals can experience which is another topic altogether. But it’s a weird thought to me that animals could have such rich emotional lives and suddenly go blank in the experience/feeling dept. in order to communicate by barking.
Donna B. says
I have Irish Wolfhounds, and they are similar to wolves, in that they very rarely bark, though they do a communal howl almost every day (or night/early morning), as a group. I am also puzzled at how they manage to end the chorus at precisely the same time (nine of them)! It is as if an invisible conductor gives that circular signal!
A few years ago, I did hear a bark that immediately had me flying downstairs, yelling, “Snake!”. And there was one, fortunately only a blacksnake, but I have no idea how I knew that is what that bark was “saying”. I have heard the “snake bark” two more times over the years, and it always triggers this adrenaline rush in me, and it has always been a snake.
They do bark otherwise, quite rarely, but it is very different than this ” snake bark”.
Frances says
I can think of many situations when human speech is an expression of an internal emotional state, rather than a desire to communicate – the stream of invective when I hit my thumb with a hammer, for example. I think some of my dogs’ barking is almost reflex: they hear an unexpected noise and let out a yip. Some is habit: postman at the door. Some is stranger alerting, some sheer OTT excitement – they are far more likely to bark in the first few minutes of a walk. I think of that kind of barking as like small children screaming with excited happiness.
I do find one situation when they bark unusual though. I often walk them with my neighbour’s dog reactive terrier. Mostly they are all off leash, but if I spot another dog I call Jill to me and put her lead on. When Jill is with us, Sophy will bark at the sight of another dog, even in the distance. When we are alone she rarely barks at dogs – she either greets them or ignores them. At first I thought she was picking up on Jill’s reaction, but she does it before Jill has even noticed the other dog. I deliberately keep the process of calling and leashing Jill as calm as I can, but there has been the odd occasion when things have got fraught – for whatever reason, Sophy has taken on the responsibility of alerting the rest of us.
Nina Worthe says
My pug is a fairly vocal creature. She doesn’t bark all that much, but she yips and roos and snorts and snuffles, and a lot of these seem to either reflect an emotional state, or be directed at something outside of her, so I have no idea which of the two hypotheses are right, if either. It’s probably something along the lines of “it depends on the context” or perhaps even something else entirely. Pet my pug just right and you get a low rumbly sound – pleasure. Greet her as a stranger with a pat to the head and you’ll get a snort – this same sound only ever happens in this context. She has a couple of barks too, one that she makes when she gets over the top excited, one that tells me there is a stranger outside the home, one that tells me a familiar person has arrived, and one that she reserves for ‘talking’ to humans. Then there’s a play bark and a general ‘alarm’ bark, and she can be a bit demanding too, this one I would also call “HEY!”
When the conversation between humans gets animated, she joins in, with a specific high pitched little bark. She punctuates this with other groans and moans, it really sounds like she’s trying to talk too.
Do you think dogs can imitate us talking? I don’t think she understands why we’re making all the noise, but she definitely picks up on us having fun, and she does join in – probably wanting to have fun too.
Shaya says
Reading this it seems like the main difference is the dog’s intent and maybe a little bit of nuance. (I haven’t watched the videos so apologies if my understanding is a little off.) In Dr. Lord’s argument the dog is not trying to communicate, barking is more of an automatic response to their emotional state. In Yin’s referential communication argument the dog is intentionally trying to communicate something specific. But is that specific communication, “I’m scared” or “There’s a stranger I don’t know”? The only way to pick those two apart is if we knew a dog felt the same emotion toward two stimuli but barked differently. It seems like testing for intent is incredibly hard, if not impossible.
Beverly Ann Hebert says
I have a young Border about 20 months old who has recently become a problem barker – becoming more and more vocal over the past few weeks. She has started barking (while standing and looking at me) with a very loud piercing bark that can actually hurt my ears whenever she wants something – which is pretty often. As far as I can tell she is not in any distress and is indeed doing this to say HEY-HEY-HEY to get my attention – to go out, to have me play with her, etc. Going on the supposition that if a behavior is increasing in frequency it is being reinforced, I tried to analyze what was going on here, and realized how very hard it is for me not to respond to her barking. My responses include making eye contact, turning toward her, getting up from my chair, scolding her, playing with her, letting her out and letting her back in, etc. I’m guessing that, given how smart she is, it didn’t take much of this for her to learn that barking was a good strategy – it worked better than anything else to get my attention. I am now trying to turn this around. When she barks I now try to either ignore it (momentarily) or turn away. I am also pro-actively teaching her other ways to communicate – for example by ringing her poochie bells when she wants to go out. I also want to teach her a signal to use when she wants to play – like doing a spin or a play bow. I do try to also meet her exercise needs but that is always a challenge.
Susan says
This post is really interesting to me because I have three dogs and every one of them has a different way of barking. Corky, a standard poodle who was never socialized and wasn’t adopted until he was a year old, is insecure and watches out the window and his fence lines and barks at everything that moves. He reminds me of Will Smith’s robot: “Intruder, Intruder!” It might also be a bit of “my place, keep away!” But Corky never learned to bark a demand or to get in or out. The 8 month standard poodle constantly barks, although he’s not barking as a guard dog, just a constant stream of talk. He barks at Corky if Corky is lying down – “Play! Play! Play!” He does your bark when he’s at class and other dogs come in – “Hey! Hey! Hey!” He demand immediate gratification in all things and barks to be let out, let in, when he sees it’s time for food…I’m sure he thinks his name is Oh For Pete’s Sake, Shutup! If he does see something he feels is threatening outside the fence, his bark is totally different and totally impressive. I’d be scared of it if I didn’t know him! The Jack Russell…well, Dewey is 14, was 4 when I got him and always had issues, mental, I think. He will stand and bark at his box of toys…”Yap! Yap! Yap! Yap! Yap!” For 10 or 15 minutes. Sometimes he’ll stand and look at me and do the same thing. It’s almost like he wants me to chase him and I do on occasion but I’m not sure if it’s making him happy or frightening him – he runs away like the crazy dog he is and then comes back and wants to be petted. He never learned to play and I’m not sure is this is his way of trying. But the pup has taught him to bark to go in and out which may or may not be a good thing. I’m learning as I go!
Laceyh says
@ Beverley Hebert:
Yes, this is the sort of “demand” barking I was bringing up above. With most of my fosters with this behavior I found turning my back and waiting for quiet to be effective in reducing the noise – after the initial extinction burst, of course. In this barking there doesn’t seem to be a clear referent – just a demand, like “Do it now!”
Katy says
Interesting topic! The problem I see with these as mutually exclusive hypotheses is that we are then ignoring the idea that dog barking could be both an instinctive and a learned behavior. Instinctive barking could reflect internal state while learned barking could be referential, much the same way that humans make noise. We have some instinctive noises that reflect emotional state (like crying) and others that are referential (like talking).
I have seen both in my dogs. Allie makes a Xena Warrior Princess-like yodel when she is just gosh darnit way too excited about that dog over there whom I am not letting her meet and I do think that is an emotional outlet. But some of her other barks are clearly aimed at communicating, like when she lets me know that Yuki wants to go outside.
Nic1 says
I love reading all these comments. Trisha can you ask Jim to video you and Willie barking at the Coyotes?? Barking seems to be communication with intent when you look at that particular context, rather than an outlet for an emotional state. ‘hey, hey! We are dogs! Enter at your peril’
My own dog rarely barks off her own turf. She has an alert *head thrown back* ‘Bow wow wow wow wooo’ bark when she can hear or small potential human territory invaders. A deep low ‘gruff’ if startled by an unfamiliar noise. A high pitched yelpy bark when she is bored and we are riveted watching a film. I have also seen her bark at quarry. She is obsessed with hedgehogs unfortunately. It is the only time I have ever seen her display a windmill tail if she has tracked one in the garden and when she can’t actually reach them she elicits a high pitched yelpy bark in excitement. It seems that she barks to both communicate and to express her emotional state. I’d say we do that too no? I like to use some expletives when no one is listening if something has hacked me off. Or elicit the occasional ‘arggggh’ It’s an effective outlet for pent up frustration. Why would dogs whose emotional landscape is so rich be any different I wonder?
My girl tends to communicate with us using telepathy mostly. She will come and sit and stare at us with a look that says ‘human do something’ 🙂
Premier Dogs says
A good article on a very interesting topic – thank you. To me, on a decidedly unscientific level, “context” and “emotional/internal state” are intertwined… and decidedly nuanced.
Julie says
My GSD 9 years old started about a year ago when I let her out to potty when she gets up in the morning walks out into the yard head back and sniffing she then sits and does one bark then 3 short barks guess is she’s letting the world know shes out and about.
Jeannie Callaghan says
My Irish terrier has learned from a friend’s dog to make a “ba-ROOO!” bark when he wants me to take him out to play. It has a somewhat mournful quality to it, but he play bows and wags his tail while ba-ROO-ing, so I don’t think he’s sad; I think he’s saying, “Give a poor dog a break! Come out and play!”
He only does it when I am reading or doing something at home and he thinks I’ve been occupied long enough without paying sufficient attention to him. Unfortunately, he can read me pretty well and has had success with his ba-ROO-ing, so I suspect it’s here to stay! I want him to have a happy life, though, so since he only ba-ROOs on weekends after a few hours at home, I am amenable to being trained to take him out when he gest bored with hanging out at the house.
Love your flowers (in this post), your books, and your comments. Thank you for your work! (And please come back to Germany and/or Austria again soon!)
Robin Jackson says
In 2010, a paper was published in ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR on the referential functionality of dog growls, specifically whether dogs could distinguish the meaning of one type of growl from another even when the humans could not. The answer turned out to be yes.
http://familydogproject.elte.hu/Pdf/publikaciok/2010/Faragoetal2010.pdf
Robin Jackson says
While the same bark cannot be both things, I see no reason why one dog couldn’t make both types of noise, just as humans do. Humans cry, laugh, giggle, gasp, etc as an expression of internal state. But they also threaten, whine, cajole, flatter, etc as intentional communication. (Imagine all of the previous as a single word, the other person’s name, but said with different affect.)
I see no scientific reason why one bark can’t be an expression of internal state while a different bark is communicative.
Beth says
Hmmm. I too tend to think it can be both.
When Jack barks softly once at the time we are meant to be getting up in the morning (but are still sleeping), waits a minute or two to see if we respond, and then barks softly once again, it is hard to imagine that he is NOT trying to intentionally communicate something. Or when he finds a toy stuck somewhere, barks at it, looks at me and then pointedly back at the toy and barks again. Or again if he needs to go out urgently at 2am because he ate something he should not have, he will bark sharply once, wait for a response, and if we don’t respond bark sharply again…. and as soon as he hears us getting up the barking stops, but is interspersed with urgent whines which seem involuntary… again, the barking seems to be intentional communication of specific information. All are “attention barks” but they have different tones, different levels of urgency, different volume, and the lengths of the pauses are also different: the pauses are short when we are there and he is asking for help getting the toy. The pauses are long when he thinks we should be getting up in the morning but did not. The pauses are of in-between length when he really needs to go out. The barks are loud and demanding for the toys, polite “ahems” when we should be up in the morning, sharp and frantic for the emergency bathroom trip.
Then again, when he is waiting for me to throw ball or frisbee and barks in metronome-like rhythm, with a weird head-cock ear-waggle that corresponds with the rhythm of each bark and is so predictable as to be almost a short stereotypy, it is hard to interpret it as anything other than an expression of an inner state of extreme arousal and impatience.
I can yell “Hey!” as a communication to get attention and I can also yell involuntarily in pain or surprise. I’m not sure why, for a dog, every vocalization has to be always one or always the other.
Beth says
The bark-pause-bark pattern seems to me, on reflection, to be a “request-wait for response-repeat request” sequence that reminds me of a person knocking on a door or a child tugging on a parent’s sleeve. How hard you knock or tug, and how long you wait to repeat, are based on both the urgency of your need and how you interpret the ability to respond of the other party. In that regard, it is a mix of expressing your inner emotional state and an intentional communication of “I need your attention.”
If my elderly neighbor is slow, and I’m dropping off mail, I’ll knock and wait. If I’m being chased, I’ll pound hard and not wait before knocking again even if I know she needs time to get there. So it really is both inner state and communicating an idea at the same time.
Attention barks seem that way to me.
Angela says
My border collie mix does a “fake bark” where he goes to the window or the door and barks as if somebody’s there, and I can usually tell by the tone (not full energy) that he’s faking it, and especially if he looks over at me as if to say “Are you getting this? I’m barking over here.” (In a real Red Alert situation he’s focused like a laser beam on what he sees.) His goal seems to be to make me stop what I’m doing (eating supper, reading a book, etc.) and pay attention to him, because if I do go over to check things out he immediately stops barking, wags his tail, and sometimes picks up a toy. Or if I was eating, he runs to the table to see if he can swipe something.
PD says
Very interesting that the scientists tend to think the two hypotheses are mutually exclusive, while anecdotally the commenters generally think a bark/vocalization could be both. Because we can’t read our dogs’ minds, I don’t know that there is a way to accurately experiment to “prove” either one.
Post one dog blowing a disk, I baby gated the stairs. When I head upstairs without them, my girls will wait a few minutes, and then their inner hound takes over and they howl…and howl…and howl. So, is it an inner emotional state: they don’t want to be alone or are frustrated they can’t come upstairs? Or is it communication to influence my behavior: come downstairs? And does what we think it is change because they don’t usually howl at all–so are they not experiencing the emotion when they don’t howl? Or is it clear that they’re trying to influence my behavior because if I stand at the top of the stairs and say “Nih” (picture Monty Python’s Knights of Nih for the sharp sound that means “cut it out”), they’ll stop howling because they know I’m not coming down?
And what does it mean that one always starts the howling and her sister may not chime in for a minute or two? I’d guess that the reluctant howler is showing solidarity with her sister (or because howling is what hounds do ), rather than feeling and/or trying to communicate the same thing as her sister.
And what does it mean that they didn’t howl until they were eight years old, when the new Bassett hound next door “taught” them how to? I suspects that I’ll never know the answers, but know I will always love to hear that low, jowly, mournful basset howl coming out of my slender, needle-nosed whippets AND that I’ll keep trying to figure them out.
I’d be interested in anyone’s thoughts!
Beth says
I’ve been thinking of all the different controlled vocalizations Jack has that are directed at his people: the soft “huff” to remind us a meal is running late, the sharp single bark to let us know that something in the house is out of place— an open door, a light left on that should be off, the frantic barking and leaping to get my fast attention if a member of his family– human or animal— is in distress, the tattle-tale bark to tell me when another pet is breaking a house rule. I’m thinking about them and wondering how any researcher can honestly think that barks only reflect internal state and are not intentional communication of an idea.
But then I think of Madison. Sweet, people-pleasing Maddie who would not dream of trying to tell her people anything. She pretty much barks in two circumstances: if other dogs are barking (be it real dogs, or tv or radio dogs) or when other dogs are running. She also sometimes barks at toys. Her barks are so reflexive and seemingly mindless that they make us smile. She seems to just be reacting to stimulus, not conveying anything.
And then I remember something the boarding kennel we use told us: they commented on how quiet Jack is. He never barks at all, even when every other dog in the place is raising the roof. My husband and I laughed and said he never shuts up at home. But we noted that, from his point of view, why should he territory bark at a kennel? It’s not his. They take him out and put another dog in. And he’s clever enough, we think, to get that general idea.
Which brings home this point: there are two real types of dogs, barkers and talkers. It is so self-evident to people that talkers “talk” that that is the word we use for it. Jack is a talker. Like most talkers, he only talks to US. Talkers only talk to the people closest to them. They don’t tell strangers that dinner is late or something is out of place. They don’t moan or yodel in response to questions from people they don’t know.
The sorts of barks that commentators here mention, the ones that seem to be directed at the person rather than at a stimulus, are not heard by outsiders and are hard to replicate in a lab. So unless a researcher owned one of these dogs, they would not see this behavior.
Perhaps the answer is to have lots of people video and audio-tape their dogs.
Jack’s “I think you forgot to feed the dogs” huff is the same whether it’s breakfast or dinner he’s missing. But if we are upstairs asleep and he is downstairs, he huffs once, waits a good five minutes, and huffs again. If we are sitting downstairs, his gap between huffs is seconds, not minutes. It is hard to interpret that as anything other than his using context to guide his efforts to communicate with us.
Trish K says
@Trisha- I always love pictures and stories of your dogs and like Nic1 would like to see video of life with the dogs and sheep on the farm but would understand that it could be too time consuming and a bit intrusive. I’m really ready to win a PIE in an online contest you could be having soon! Hint
@Beth- I recently read about the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab that has dog owners send in info and video of their dogs to help with whatever study they might be doing at the time such as dog and human play, that was a few years ago I think. I’m going to read more about it as it seems so interesting and fun.
As far as the bark hypothesis I think my dogs experience a particular emotion and the bark conveys what they are feeling whether it be fear, impatience or happiness. So I guess they feel then express?
HFR says
This may be to late in this post to ask, but does anyone have a whiner? My dog has whined to communicate since she was a pup which I thought was cute for 5 minutes. And now that she’s 14 she whines almost constantly. The thing that’s difficult is because she whines so easily, it’s hard to tell when there is a problem. When she started whining more I took her to multiple vets but no ne could find anything. It is definitely her way of talking/complaining but I’ve often wondered where that could come from in a dog’s behavior. Have any studies ever been done on whining/crying ? I don’t think I’ve ever heard a wolf whine. And, most of all, is there anything short of earplugs to save me from strangling her?;-)
Mireille says
My dogs hardly bark at anything but I think Spot might be trying to tell me something here 🙂 http://youtu.be/6NVtpvOA8lo
Athough he also barks at his kong if he can’t get the goodies out…
John Silberstein says
We have a rescued Border Collie who was picked up as a stray. When Speck came into our home, it became obvious that he had not been socialized much, he did not know how to play with toys, he did not know how to lick a spoon and he did not bark or make many sounds at all.
He quickly learned about playing and licking a spoon. Barking and other vocalizations took a bit longer. He is now very vocal but not too vocal. He does not bark at every passing person or dog outside, he does not bark when someone comes to the door.
Speck barks to tell us he is excited about something to tell us something. He has a large vocabulary of barks, groans, growls and grunts. Typically, in the morning, he will bark to tell us that he needs/wants to go out. As we head down the stairs he will stop at the landing (3 story house) and bark at us to hurry. When we get to the bottom he will howl and run towards the door. If we do something else he will look at us and bark some more.
If it is after 5pm (dinner time), he will put his head in my lap and groan. I believe that Speck communicates not just emotion but also his thoughts.
Robin Jackson says
Wolves do whine. They also huff, bark, grunt, and various other vocalizations.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wolves/howl.html
As for dogs who whine, it’s almost always the same as kids who whine–they tried it, it worked, they keep trying it again. The problem with trying to extinguish it is that if a dog, say, whines to go out, eventually you ARE going to let him out, so trying to get him to understand why the whine didn’t work is complex. You almost always have to try to come up with an alternate behavior that you can reward before the whining starts. Tricky stuff.
chloe says
Donna B, very interesting comment!! Amazing how we know a lot more than we are conscious of…
chloe says
My Border Collie Baruch has many different barks. The one to get me to play, the one when a dog walks by, when a cat walks by, the one for skate boarders, the one when I ask her to bark, and the one I heard only once when a man came out of the bushes on our last walk a few years ago. I did not recognize my dog on that last bark; it was a seriously dangerous bark, the man immediately walked backwards muttering he meant no harm.
HFR says
Thanks so much, Robin. Interesting stuff. It is definitely true that it gets my attention, I’m going to try and see if I can reward her for a behavior before she starts the whining. Thanks again!
Vicky in Boise says
My border collie, Zoe, is barking at a squirrel as I type this. To borrow from an old adage, she can certainly bark like a sailor!
Lolly says
Always rerenshifg to hear a rational answer.