Bark (sound)

A bark is a sound most commonly produced by dogs. Other animals that make this noise include wolves, coyotes, seals and quolls. Woof is the most common representation in the English language for this sound, especially for large dogs. “Bark” is also a verb that describes the sharp explosive cry of certain animals. A bark is a sound most commonly produced by dogs. Other animals that make this noise include wolves, coyotes, seals and quolls. Woof is the most common representation in the English language for this sound, especially for large dogs. “Bark” is also a verb that describes the sharp explosive cry of certain animals. Dog barking is distinct from wolf barking. Wolf barks represent only 2.3% of all wolf vocalizations and are described as “rare” occurrences. According to Schassburger, wolves bark only in warning, defense, and protest. In contrast, dogs bark in a wide variety of social situations, with acoustic communication in dogs being described as hypertrophic. Additionally, while wolf barks tend to be brief and isolated, adult dogs bark in long, rhythmic stanzas. Dogs have been known to bark for hours on end. While a distinct reason for the difference is unknown, a strong hypothesis is that the vocal communication of dogs developed due to their domestication. As evidenced by the farm-fox experiment, the process of domestication alters a breed in more ways than just tameness. Domesticated breeds show vast physical differences from their wild counterparts, notably an evolution that suggests neoteny, or the retention of juvenile characteristics in adults. Adult dogs have, for example, large heads, floppy ears, and shortened snouts – all characteristics seen in wolf puppies. The behavior, too, of adult dogs shows puppy-like characteristics: dogs are submissive, they whine, and they frequently bark. The experiment illustrates how selecting for one trait (in this case, tameness) can create profound by-products, both physical and behavioral. The frequency of barking in dogs in relation to wolves could also be the product of the very different social environment of dogs. Dogs live in extraordinarily close range with humans, in many societies kept solely as companion animals. From a very young age, humans tend to be one of a dog's primary social contacts. This captive environment presents very different stimuli than would be found by wolves in the wild. While wolves have vast territories, dogs do not. The boundaries of a captive dog's territory will be visited frequently by intruders, thus triggering the bark response as a warning. Additionally, dogs densely populate urban areas, allowing more opportunity to meet new dogs and be social. For example, it is possible that kenneled dogs may have increased barking due to a desire to facilitate social behavior. Dogs’ close relationship with humans also renders dogs reliant on humans, even for basic needs. Barking is a way to attract attention, and the behavior is continued by the positive response exhibited by the owners (e.g., if a dog barks to get food and the owner feeds it, the dog is being conditioned to continue said behavior). Barking in domestic dogs is a controversial topic. While suggested that barking is 'non-communicative,' data exists to show that it may well be a means of expression that became increasingly sophisticated during domestication. However, due to the lack of consensus over whether or not dogs actually communicate using their barks, there has not been much work done on categorizing the different types of barking in dogs. That which has been done has been criticized by Feddersen-Petersen as 'lack objectivity.' Using sonographic methods, Feddersen-Petersen identified several distinct types of barks, and then analyzed them for meanings, functions, and emotions. He separated dog barks into subgroups based on said sonographic data: Turid Rugaas classifies barks thus in her book Barking: The Sound of a language. This is brief description of the types: Not all breeds demonstrated every subgroup of barking. Instead, significant variance in vocalization was found between different breeds. Poodles showed the least of all barking subunits. Additionally, barking in wolves was observed as notably less diverse. For example, wolf barks are rarely harmonic, tending instead to be noisy. There is some evidence that humans can determine the suspected emotions of dogs while listening to barks emitted during specific situations. Humans scored the emotions of dogs performing these barks very similarly and in ways that made sense according to the situation at hand. In one example, when subjects were played a recording of a dog tied alone to a tree, a situation in which one could reasonably infer that the dog would be distressed, the human listeners tended to rank the bark as having a high level of despair. It has been suggested that this may be evidence for the idea that dog barks have evolved to be a form of communication with humans specifically, since humans can so readily determine a dog's needs by simply listening to their vocalizations. Further studies have found that the acoustic structure of a bark ' considerably with context.' These studies suggest that barks are more than just random sounds, and indeed hold some sort of communicative purpose. Nuisance-barking dogs sound off for no particular reason. 'Many dogs bark when they hear other dogs barking,' says Katherine A. Houpt, V.M.D., Ph.D., director of the Cornell Animal Behavior Clinic. Nuisance, inappropriate, or excessive barking comprises between 13 and 35 percent of behavior-problem complaints by dog owners, Houpt noted. The electric collars deliver an irritating shock of adjustable intensity when a vibration sensor in the collar detects barking. The citronella collar releases a spray of citronella when a microphone in the collar senses barking. For the eight dogs that wore both types of collars (one shepherd mix did not complete the study), all owners found the citronella collar to be effective in reducing or stopping nuisance barking and most preferred the fragrance spray. Four out of eight owners said electric shocks had no effect on their dogs—they kept on barking. The citronella collars had problems, Juarbe-D'az noted. One dog owner complained that citronella oil stained the upholstery when the dog, fond of lying about on upholstery, barked. 'One owner thought the scent was preferable to her dog's body odor.'