My sister and her husband used to live down the street from a fire station. At least 10 times a day (often many more), they would hear sirens from fire trucks leaving the station, responding to fires and medical emergencies. Their little dogs would howl every time they heard a siren, which, in these “work from home” times, would have been a huge distraction. But my sister and her husband thought it was cute! They enjoyed the little dog howls; they also had to keep their windows closed at all times, to keep the noise from bothering the neighbors. When I was visiting them, I thought it was mainly a pain in the rear, having our conversations interrupted every hour or so!
Today, they live in a semi-rural neighborhood. If they hear a fire engine, it’s a real cause for concern, not a prompt for a fun little “singing session.” So sometimes my sister starts a session herself. It doesn’t take much, just one or two howls, and the dogs all immediately get to their feet and join in.
Here’s the funny thing: When my senior dog Otto stays with them (when I’m out of town i.e., not much any more), he joins in with the little dogs, adding his big deep voice to the chorus of little voices. I keep telling my sister to try to get this on video, because at my house, Otto will NOT join in! And I have no idea why! If he’s outside when a fire truck or ambulance goes by, he will howl for a moment or two – but not if I’m near him. He will grow animated, like he’d like to howl, but he won’t do it. It’s so strange to me! I’ve never admonished him for howling, I would think it’s cute, too! But he just won’t do it in front of me!
Otto is sticking to his no-howling-at-home standard
My son and his girlfriend drove up here last weekend for a socially distant visit. I cleaned my detached home-office thoroughly and put mattresses on the floor for them, and gave them their own bathroom to use, and we ate meals and hung out outside together. They spent the days canoeing and playing disc golf at a course in town, relaxing, while my son’s hound dog Cole and his girlfriend’s parents’ dog, Bailey, stayed with me and my dogs. One evening after dinner, we were having the dogs show off their tricks for various bits and pieces of leftover dinner, and my son mentioned that Cole now knew how to howl on cue as a trick – and that little Bailey, a terrier-mix, would join in very earnestly. We turned on the camera to capture the action, and I hoped Otto might join in.
Nope. He wagged his tail and paced and looked like he wanted to join in, but held to his “no howling at home” standard. The big surprise was Woody, who did join the fun, in a surprisingly high-pitched tone. I would have thought such a big, big-chested dog would be more of a bass, or at least a baritone. He’s nearly a mezzo-soprano!
Now I want to practice, and see if I can put the behavior on cue, too, for one or both dogs. (For video of our one-time howling fest, see the Whole Dog Journal’s Instagram page, dogsofwholedogjournal.) What’s your stance on howling? Cute? Or annoying? Can your dog do it on cue? If so, share a video on our Facebook page! I’ll put a post there, asking for your contributions.
My Golden Cooper, will howl if I come home from shopping, and I stop and talk to a neighbor. He can hear my voice from in the house, and will howl because he wants to be out front with me and the neighbor. He barks at strangers when they knock at the door, or come on the porch. But he only howls when he hears me talking to someone outside. He is a Golden, they love people. They don’t like to miss out on visiting.
My Golden Cooper, will howl if I come home from shopping, and I stop and talk to a neighbor. He can hear my voice from in the house, and will howl because he wants to be out front with me and the neighbor. He barks at strangers when they knock at the door, or come on the porch. But he only howls when he hears me talking to someone outside. He is a Golden, they love people. They don’t like to miss out on visiting.
I wonder why dogs howl and what is the function of their howling. Our Springer’s nature is shy cautious. When she was a puppy I would howl and try to get her to join in, but she wouldn’t and actually seemed stressed so I stopped. She is now four and I may try again. However I wonder. Is the howl a communication to join up with the pack. Do dogs howl because they have become separated from the pack?
In a wolf pack, if the alpha doesn’t howl, then no one in the pack is “allowed” to howl. Sometimes, the pack members will try to encourage the alpha to howl by licking his or her face. But if the alpha doesn’t feel like it, everyone stays silent, even if other packs are howling. I wonder for the dogs that seem like they want to howl, do they need their alpha to set the pace?
Singing with my dogs is my favorite!
When my husband’s garage door goes up my two Chinese Crested dogs barely lift their heads off of their dog beds. When my garage door goes up, it sounds like the Alps with all the yodeling and howling going on. As I come into the house from the garage I join in the howling fun and its mayhem. I can get my dogs to howl if I start to howl. I makes me laugh, I love it.
Some years ago, I had a dog, a setter mix, Emily, who would howl whenever she heard Bruce Springsteens song Born In the USA. She would only howl to that song. Not to any other songs, and never at any other time. She just seemed to enjoy it.
We had a rescued Dalmatian that would howl only for fire engines, not fire trucks, fire ladders, paramedics, ambulances or police patrol, just fire trucks. Asked a fireman and he confirmed that each type of vehicle have a unique siren. Our current Dalmatian puppy hasn’t learned to howl as yet.
The only times Stella howls is when the dog walker comes, 3x week. She’s never howled at any other person and she doesn’t howl even when I try to encourage it. When the dog walker gets here Stella will start howling. Sometimes I join in and she looks at me and we kind of have a little sing along. It’s so funny. When she first started I looked it up because I didn’t know if it was a stress reaction, (like when little kids get overly excited and excitement turns to anxiety). I couldn’t find a good answer and I know she loves the dog walker so I don’t worry about it. She’s happy just knowing she’s going to get loved, walked, play and treats. I have a video somewhere. I’ll post on your page if I can find it.
We had four dogs sometime back while living on 185 acres in the NC mountains. One dog, Barney, who was one of the smartest dogs we have ever lived with, would look around at his pack and, for no apparent reason other than the joy of it, start howling. The other dogs joined him and they kept it up until Barney got tired and trotted off. He was a hoot.