Posts tagged "bark"

To humans, a growl is a growl. But to dogs, all growls are not created equal, it seems. Those growling sounds contain a wealth of important information to other canines, according to new research described in Discovery News.

For a recent study, Peter Pongracz, a behavioral biologist at Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary, recorded growls from 20 pet dogs in three different scenarios: watching a threatening stranger approach, playing tug-of-war with their owners and facing off with another dog for a bone.

Then he played the recordings to other dogs as they chewed on meaty calf bones (yum!). The dogs that heard tapes of the bone-guarding dogs backed away from their snacks in reaction to the threatening-get-away-from-my-bone growls. Most of the dogs that heard the other types of growls kept on chewing, New Scientist reports.

Pongracz and his team analyzed the growls with a computer and found that playful growls are typically shorter and higher pitched than threatening growls, Discovery News reports. But the difference between the two threatening growls wasn't evident to the human -- or computer -- ear.

Pongracz believes that dog growls contain more meaning than dog barks, New Scientist reports. After all, the dog's wild ancestor the wolf rarely barks. It is possible that domesticated dogs might have learned to bark to get humans attention, while growling is a more ancient method of communicating with other dogs, he suggests.

Someday, maybe we'll be able to understand every nuance of a dog growl--and understand what parts of the growl (pitch, volume, etc) other dogs are reacting to. Hey, it's not so far-fetched -- after all, even babies are able to distinguish between hostile barks and happy ones!

If you pride yourself on being able to interpret your pup's every whine and whimper, you might be disappointed to learn the cold, hard truth: Decoding different dog barks is little more than child's play, according to U.S. News & World Report. Researchers at Brigham Young University report that babies can understand the meanings of different dog barks well before they say their first word.

BYU psychology researchers showed six-month-old babies two photos of the same dog. In one shot, the dog had a playful, friendly stance, in the other, the dog assumed an aggressive pose. Then the researchers played sound clips of friendly-sounding dog barks and aggressive-sounding snarls.

The brainy babies spent most of their time looking at the friendly dog while listening to the welcoming yaps, and they stared at the mean-looking mutt while listening to the threatening snarls. Even babies who had never been around dogs before successfully matched the sound to the correct photo. The findings are reported in the journal Developmental Psychology.

"Emotion is one of the first things babies pick up on in their social world," BYU psychology professor Ross Flom said in a BYU press release. And now, evidence indicates those emotional signals aren't limited to humans. But if babies can understand dogs, count us doubly disappointed that six-month-olds can't talk. If only our babies could translate, maybe they could tell us why Rover keeps chewing on the remote?

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Ever been woken up by your dog in the middle of the night? Try waking up to Daz, a German Shepherd whose woof is as loud as a chainsaw. The four-year-old dog from Essex, England has just set the first Guinness World Record for the loudest bark in the world.

The pup's triumphant woof of 108 decibels crowned him the champion at a Disney event to promote the DVD release of Bolt, a movie about a dog who thinks he has superpowers.

While Daz might not have magical paws, the noisy world champion is amazingly lovable and unaggressive.

Daz's proud owner Peter Lucken owes the victory to their postwoman -- the main recipient of the dog's barks. "Without having someone for her to bark at, I don't think he would have got the record," Lucken told the BBC Magazine.

Daz's next door neighbor, Denise Parker says the pooch doesn't bark often, but when he does, he roars. "I hear him sometimes when I'm watching television, but he only barks when he hears someone and he's trying to warn them away," said Parker.

Lucken never even realized his dog's bark was so powerful. "To me his barking is just normal, run-of-the-mill dog barking," he said.

Congratulations, Daz! We hope you continue to be loud and proud.

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Sounding more like a really annoyed cat than a French bulldog, Buddy's "bark" is a sound you truly have to hear to believe. But isn't that just one of the many reasons we love our pets? They make us laugh without even trying. Bet you can't watch this video without smiling.

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