Barking

June 20, 2024

Zena is a bit of a scaredy baby when she comes across new items in what she defines as her space.  I put her outside last year and she went into a fit of continuous barking.  I looked out the window and did not see anything unusual, but the barking continued.  I finally went out to see what had gotten her into such a tizzy.  I had placed a 40 pound (18 kg) bag of compost up against the fence.  Zena knew it was not there the last time she had gone out and believed it should not be there now.  She continued barking until I went with her and let her sniff the strange object.  On the other hand, Loki is very adventurous and loves to check out any unknown critters that ramble into our yard.  Several weeks ago, I had come across a three-toed box turtle (Terrapene triunguis) crawling along the ditch next to the neighbor’s fence.  The turtle sent both Zena and Loki into a barking frenzy, but for different reasons.  Zena was barking to let the intruder know it was not welcome, while Loki was barking because he wanted to investigate this new presence in his territory.

When I looked online, I found according to Dr. Stanley Coren’s, “How to Speak Dog: Mastering the Art of Dog-Human Communication,” there is far more complexity to a barking dog than you may realize.  Barks are not a one-size-fits-all vocalization.  The sounds made in different situations not only sound different but likely have different meanings.  While dogs may bark when they are excited and trying to get your attention, they also bark when frightened, lonely, surprised, irritated, and other reasons.  A dog can vary the pitch of their barking, the number of barks in a row, and the space between barks to change the bark’s meaning.  The lower the barking pitch the more serious the dog.  During playtime a dog will tend to have a higher-pitched bark than one designed to warn off intruders or discipline a rude companion.  A lonely dog makes higher-pitched barks to request attention, and sometimes this can rise to a plaintive yelp.  The more barks in a row, the more aroused the dog is.  A single bark may sound when a dog is surprised or annoyed, but a long string of barks indicates the dog is more worked up.  The space between barks is also telling, and the quicker the succession of barks, the more aggressive the dog is feeling.

When I first let the kids outside, they are always on high alert.  If the birds (or squirrels) are in the feeders, they will run to the fence.  Their next move is to the back of the fenced yard to see if the German Shepherd next door is in the yard.  Zena will then take a prance around the fenced yard to see if anything is unusual.  Loki is less predictable, but often comes back to the patio area to see if anything new catches his eye.  Yesterday I let the kids out and they took their normal stroll, but this time there was a new player on the patio deck.  The turtle that had caused a commotion last week had crawled onto the deck and hidden up against one of the concrete blocks used to hold down the pool cover.  Zena pranced right past the hidden turtle, but Loki stopped to sniff and check it out.  The turtle immediately tightly closed its shell.  Interestingly neither began barking at this new intrusion.  I picked the turtle up and put it outside the fence to keep it safe from any unwanted nips.

THOUGHTS:  Research has found that humans are good at classifying barking dogs, even if they do not own one.  Prerecorded dog barks were played to human listeners who were asked to categorize the barks given a list of possible situations.  They also rated the emotion the barking dog was feeling.  The results showed people can match the bark to the situation with a far higher accuracy than chance and can identify the dog’s emotion using the pitch of the bark and the pause between barks.  While humans may be good at identifying barking, we appear less so paying attention to the words of other humans.  Perhaps barking dogs are identified as a threat.  Perhaps we just choose not to listen to others who hold different views than we do.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.