Barking mad

In the realm of dog behaviour, I know very little. I'm learning, but at this point it feels the more I learn the less I know. Most dog behaviour, especially when it comes to communication, is very nuanced. One turn of the head, shift of the ears, slight paw lift, arching of spine and dropping of tail, all in a millisecond, all so subtle that only the luckiest photo catches even half of it, is a whole conversation about access to resources, threat level, pack rank, mood and sociability that we, as a rule, miss almost completely.

So, let's set that aside and work on an easier one. Barking.

This is probably one of the most problematic things for dog-people interactions. For one thing, aside from toilet habits, this is perhaps the most vilified of harmless things that dogs do. This is downright weird, though.

If we accept that our dogs are domesticated wolves, it helps to contrast dogs and adult wolves to see what is 'nature' and what is selectively cultivated by humans. Adult wolves don't bark. Adolescent wolves bark - this is another wolf puppy trait, like attention seeking, playfulness and a greater dependency on others that we chose to keep in the formation of dogs.

We wanted barking. It's easy to see why. Sheep-herding dogs need to be very alert to small movements and change - and guess what? They're typically your worst barkers. Flock guards are pretty high on the list too, with a low tolerance for things being 'out of order'  -like a wolf bothering the sheep is out of order, or, in our more typical modern context, the garbage van collecting the garbage is out of order. It is because of this, on the one hand, the very sensible reasons for having dogs that bark, and on the other, the deliberate selection of puppies that will keep on barking their whole lives, that I get saddened by people punishing dogs for barking.

But let's take a step back. We now know why our dogs are capable of barking, but this tells us very little about why dogs bark.

It seems that barking comes when a current situation boils over a certain point. If you want to anthropomorphise, this is when a situation gets to a certain point of stressfulness - good or bad stress. When excitement becomes a lot of excitement, there is barking. When there is tension, and the tension does not alleviate, the dog begins barking. When there is something to be aware of, and turning your head, pricking your ears and generally calling attention to it in a normal way completely fails to alert your human (or the other dogs), barking is what happens. When there is fear, a moderate amount, many dogs will bark (a lot of fear often leads back to silence). Different breeds, and different individuals within breeds will have different tolerance levels, different points where they will start barking.

When you're yelling at your dog to stop barking, you're actually yelling at it to feel differently about a situation. This does not seem vary fair, honestly. It also explains why distraction often is the best way to end a barking session, and why bark collars only sometimes work.

With this in mind, I think barking is one of the less nuanced behaviours of a dog. This does not mean barking cannot, or does not convey a wealth of information, it simply means that it's more of a one sentence thing than most other dog communication. There seems to be five types of bark:

1. An informational one, "something is going on over there"
This most often sounds like the Hollywood bark. A clean, clear 'woof' that does not rise or fall in pitch.

2. An aggressive/threatening bark, "come closer and I'll do more than make noise"
This bark is often low in pitch, can be quite slow and is sometimes punctuated with growls. 'Grrrrruf!'

3. An excited one, "oh, my gosh, greatest thing ever!"
Here is often where you hear the high pitched 'yip-yip-yip'. Excitement has gotten so much that he doggy cannot hold it inside anymore, and it bubbles out in rapid, high pitched barks. Watch dogs doing agility, barking all the way - that is a typical excited bark.

4. A fearful one, "help! Scared!"
This bark goes up in tone at the end and is often half whine. It starts off as a bark but ends in an 'eee' sound, or an 'ooo' sound.

5. An attention seeking one "look at me, play with me!"
This is a bit trickier to describe, since it will differ from dog to dog, and I would argue that this is more common with companion breeds than others. It is a bark that starts or ends with a 'm' or an 'n' sound. It can be soft, but it can also be quite loud. Talos makes a soft, almost muffled "nuff".

 "Nuff" says little Talos, who is not impressed with me fiddling
with the camera in stead of playing. 

Of course, a list of types like this is idealised. The barks are often used in combination, or change halfway through from one to another. I'm also pretty sure this is not exhaustive - but, it does give me a starting point when listening to dogs going at it.

As my very last word - if your dog is barking too much for your liking, please, don't de-bark it, or use a shock collar, or a spray collar. If I (and other people who are actually dog behaviourists and scientists) are correct about why dogs bark, you need to address the underlying emotional state if you want less barking. Usually, a good distraction works (oh, you mean 'keep your dog busy with mentally and physically stimulating activities'? No way!). Also, we all need to let go of barking as a 'bad dog' behaviour. They're just letting their feelings be known - even if it sometimes makes us barking mad!