Verbal and Sound Communication: Dog and Human
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Verbal and Sound Communication: Dog and Human
Dogs and humans have coexisted for probably thousands of years, since wolves discovered that they could forage scraps by following human hunters around, and they eventually began to hang out and become part of the human “pack.” Slowly, through evolution and intentional breeding, many different breeds of dogs have been developed, until by a recent count, we now have well over a hundred wonderful dogs from which to choose. I have decided to write about sound communication in dogs and humans, because it is the closest thing to canine “linguistics.” I am familiar with the large range of sounds that dogs can make, and some of their meanings, and my reading informed me even more. In addition, I have a friend who was the mistress of a wolf for fifteen years, and she has shared some of her experience for this paper.
Dogs can produce a great array of different kinds of sounds: howling, whimpering, different kinds of barking, growling, panting, whining, sighing, woofing in their sleep, snoring, wheezing, moaning, and more. Very interestingly, humans can and do produce most of the same sounds, and more. And while dogs cannot speak words, they can be taught to understand a large number of human words by the sheer act of repetition. Dogs may have an “understanding vocabulary” for up to sixty words or more (Caravan & Schneck, 1992. Page 55.)
Let us proceed with the thesis that many sounds that are made by dogs are also made by humans, and that they share many of the same meanings. Whining, for example, has practically the same meaning for both dogs and humans. Dogs have learned that by whining they can get their way (e.g., whining to go out for a walk), and human children (and adults too, unfortunately) have learned the same thing: if they want something badly, whining will often accomplish the
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result they are after (e.g., a child whining for a candy bar in the grocery store will often get the candy bar just to stop that noise.)
Growling is very similar. People “growl” in the sense that they make nasty guttural sounds not too different from the sounds that a dog makes. These sounds in both species are signs of aggression and hostility. If a dog engages in eye contact and growls at the same time, he may be showing dominant behavior, and it seems the same for humans. In both dogs and humans, growling may lead to actual fighting, so growling is quite threatening in either species.
Sounds made during sleep can also be quite similar in both dogs and humans. Both snore, and both are capable of uttering little barks or cries in the course of their sleep. Humans, of course, are capable of really sleep-talking, sleep-walking, and conditions like REM Sleep Behavior Disorder in which the subject may do things like leave the house and walk around the neighborhood while totally asleep. Dogs don’t engage in the same outrageous sleep behaviors that humans can, but they do utter the same kind of little startled sounds while sleeping that humans do.
Panting means mostly the same thing in both species. Dogs have sweat glands all over their bodies, but complete cooling only happens when air is moving over the dog’s tongue. So dogs pant when they are overheated, like humans. Dogs also pant when they are tired and have “overdone it,” just like humans do. Panting in either species means that some rest is called for. Both species may also wheeze while breathing—a sign of some kind of respiratory obstruction in many cases, perhaps just minor, perhaps more serious.
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Dog howling reaches way back into dog history, to the early days of the wolf. Howling is used as a means of communication between animals in the pack who are far away from each other, as a sign of unity and a way to bring the pack together. Thus, a dog who howls when left alone may be trying to communicate with an owner who is too far away to hear him. The dog may be feeling lonely and isolated. Humans don’t really “howl” per se (unless they’re drunk or showing off!), but because they are capable of making all kinds of other sounds to communicate over long distances, they don’t need to. (Humans can blow whistles, honk car horns, set off flares, shoot guns, yell as loudly as possible, etc.)
My friend’s wolf used to sigh often when she felt resigned to a situation, and she would lie down, sinking further into the floor or the grass and appear to go to sleep. This seemed to occur when she was expecting something that was important to her like a car ride—and then the car went nowhere. Human beings sigh in exactly the same kinds of situations—when their expectations are let down and they are disappointed but are in the process of resigning themselves to the outcome. These sighing sounds from dogs and humans sound almost exactly the same, probably closer than any other sound that the two species make. But also very similar are the moaning and whimpering sounds that both dogs and humans may make when they are injured and in pain.
Barking comes in almost as many speeds and “tones” as the human voice does. According to Nancy Lester in the PawPrint, these are some of the variations on the canine bark, and her suggested meanings: Continuous fast barking at a mid-range pitch may mean, ‘Round up the
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pack! Possible problem! Someone is intruding in our territory!’ Humans do something like this when they yell, ‘Help! Help! Help!’—or even scream--when they sense or know that they are in danger.
Incessant or prolonged barking, according to Nancy, may mean, ‘Is anybody around? I’m lonely and I really need a friend.’ While it may not sound the same at all, I think of humans crying when they are really lonely, and how it can be prolonged and incessant like the dog bark. Some humans even make a kind of honking sound when they cry, which does sound like a bark! A single short sharp bark at a higher range can signify, ‘What’s this?,’ or ‘Huh?,’ or ‘What’s going on?’ This is a startled, confused, or surprised sound. If repeated three or four times, its meaning is changing to, ‘Come take a look!’ alerting the pack to an interesting discovery or event. Humans do something very like this when they are startled. They may let out one sound of surprise, and if the confusion continues, they may continue the sound in order to summon aid or companionship. And if two friends are out hiking and one finds a cow skull on the ground, he may call, ‘Jim!’ for his friend, and if Jim doesn’t hear, may repeat it: “Jim! Jim! Jim! Come here!”
A single yelp or very short, sharp, high-pitched bark means, ‘Ouch!’ Human beings do exactly the same thing when they are injured—they yelp! This is in response to a sudden, unexpected pain. Finally, ‘ar-ruff.’ To signify, ‘Let’s play!’ a dog will make a stuttering bark like ‘ar-ruff.’ Human children will make all kinds of novel and interesting sounds to encourage their friends to play with them. During a rough-and-tough tumble play time, a dog may emit a rising
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bark which is almost a yelp. It means ‘This is fun!’ Again, human children (and adults) will emit all sorts of loud expressions of joy when they are having fun playing. They may whoop like Native Americans in ceremonial dances, or make animal noises of all kinds—really, anything goes.
Whether Ms. Lester’s interpretations are totally accurate or not, they do suggest a wide range of meanings for a wide range of sounds. We humans, similarly, have available in our vocal cords a huge range of intonations, pitches, volumes, speeds, etc. for our speech and the sounds we make.
My friend with the wolf says that her Crystal used to make crooning and trilling sounds when she was showing her deep affection, which often consisted of licking my friend’s mouth and ears and all around her face. (Wolves in the wild are very oriented towards using their mouths and tongues to communicate affection too.) This is not only similar to the sounds humans make when courting, but the very behavior is similar.
Still, in spite of the huge range of sounds that wolves and dogs can make, the one thing that they cannot do is form words, even though they are able to understand the meaning of many words if they are well-trained. Many is the time that people feel frustrated that they cannot really talk to their dogs and have them understand the content, but the dog understands the tone of voice!
Human communication is fantastically complicated since it consists of a huge range of body language as well as the spoken word, but so is dog language. Dogs’ senses are so much more
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acute than ours are: their hearing is ultrasonic, their sense of smell is finely honed and much more sensitive than ours is, and their vision in dim light is much more accurate than ours. They just can’t write poetry or short stories or newspaper articles, or give speeches, or lecture their children in words that they can actually hear and respond to. It is almost a cliché to speak of the many words that the Inuit people have for snow (52 is the last figure I have heard), whereas for a dog, most snow means only one thing: sheer joy!
Bibliography
Caravan, J. & Schneck, M. (1992). You’re Okay, Your Dog’s Okay. Secaucus, New Jersey: Wiley.
Lester,N. The Paw Print. (2002, March 2). Accessed at http://www.petsafe.net/blog/2012/03/02/10-translated-barks-know-what-your-dog-is-saying/
Millan, C. (2007). Be the Pack Leader. New York: Random House.
Monks of New Skete. (2002). How To be Your Dog’s Best Friend. Boston, New York, London: Little, Brown and Company.
