Welcome back to Talking Tails!
We always laugh when our grandmother tells us about her neighborhood’s “bark” that occurs around 11pm every night. Several dogs must go out to do their business at that time, and they all talk to each other. She wonders what they are saying! Although we can’t answer that question for her, we can share some information about dog communication in general.
Within animal species, including dogs, a universal sound code is used for communicating. It is based on three dimensions: (1) the pitch of the sound, (2) the duration of the sound, and (3) the frequency or repetition rate of the sound.
A dog’s bark is generally low or high pitched. Don’t assume that big dogs only make a low pitch sound and small dogs only a high pitch. Any size dog can growl, a low pitch, when threatened or angry. Humans or other dogs interpret this as “Stay away.” Joey makes this noise when he occasionally gets into a territorial mood with his toys or food. On the other hand, a high pitched sound, like a whimper, indicates “come on and let’s get to know each other.”
The duration or length of the sound tells you how serious the dog is about the situation. A low pitched growl that is long and sustained is clearly conveying that “I am not backing down.” Long, sustained barking at a mid-range pitch is a call to the pack, “there is a potential problem.” Conversely, one or two short, sharp barks at mid-range pitch is a “Hello there!”
The frequency or repetitiveness of the sound indicates the level of urgency. This is urgency from the perspective of the dog, for us, the UPS truck is an urgent situation! With that in mind, barking that is repeated often at a fast rate indicates a degree of urgency or excitement. An occasional bark at the window shows only mild interest, while repeated bursts of barking indicates that the situation is much more dire…the UPS man is now on our porch!
Barking is our way of communicating with you and with each other. From our analysis, we have determined that the neighborhood “bark” heard by our grandmother on a nightly basis is of the “Hello there, how was your day” nature!
Talk to you soon!
Buster and Joey
0 Comments