Barking Dogs

Barking Dogs

Most humans get irritated when they hear a dog bark. You have to understand that’s not easy for me to understand. As a group, humans certainly make their share of noise: large engines booming, their picture machines screaming, little humans crying and yelling, big booms from the dark sky, horns blasting, humans talking among themselves to see who can talk louder and a lot more too. So why do they get so mad when they hear a dog express himself vigorously?

A bark has so many meanings. I get the idea that humans think we only make one sound: arf! We really have our own language, though not with all that complicated syntax and grammar that humans seem to have. Dogs speak with their voice, tails and bodies. We are also not bashful about expressing what we feel when we feel it. We live in the moment.

Being an RV Dog, I get a lot of time to observe different dogs barking and the reaction that humans have to it. You might find it interesting to learn about barking from a dog’s perspective.

Sometimes you just have to listen to us and give us what we want. (I wanted this shoe!)

For instance, you’ll no doubt have heard a high pitched bark that is fairly constant coming from inside of an RV. It seems like it will never stop. I do have to admit that it bothers me, especially when I’m trying to get a few winks after a long walk. That dog is telling everyone in hearing distance that he is dissatisfied with being left in an RV without the TV on, the remote up out of his reach and his owners nowhere to be seen. He intends to keep barking that message until either someone turns the TV on, his owners come back to the RV or his voice is so raspy that he sounds like Hound dog ! There’s pretty much nothing you can do to stop him otherwise. Here’s a hint for his owners. Take him for a 2 mile walk before you leave him and he’ll be too tired to watch TV and he’ll just sleep quietly.

I’ve been known to bark a bit when Dad and Mom leave the RV together. I do it to tell them they have forgotten to take their one and only dog with them. As I jump on the couch and look out of the RV window, I can see it won’t do any good to continue because they just ignore me and continue walking away. So, I just look around the RV for some treats laying around (I think Mom leaves them to make her feel less guilty for leaving) and then I jump up on the couch to await their return. If I feel like it, I’ll jump into Dad’s chair and do a little surfing on the internet. I especially like http://www.k9web.com where I can find out what humans think about taking care of dogs. It’s a blast to read! And when I’m really lonely, I’ll check out all the beautiful dogs at Smugmug: http://tinyurl.com/dogPics or at Photo.net http://tinyurl.com/docPics2. I surf the dog blogs too. Check out this guy at http://mogley-adogslife. blogspot.com/. So, I keep pretty quiet while my owners are gone, unless provoked by outside events.

Casey doesn't bark, she sings. Dad calls it howling, but I think it's pretty.

Now my girl friend Casey (a beagle), has the same routine but instead of barking, she sings. Dad says it’s really called howling, but I think it is beautiful. Different strokes!
Another reason we bark is to let others of our species who walk past our RV know that we are guarding the RV and to keep their distance. You’d be surprised how many come into our yards to do their deed and try to sneak away unnoticed. I can smell them the instant they are near and bark to let them know who’s the boss on this lot! It’s works too!

If you’ve ever approached a dog at an RV park and he starts barking directly at you, you should know that he feels you are not worthy of his company until you approach properly. Always come with good tasting treats in your hand. We’ll know you have them and you’ll usually get the proper greeting (usually an enthusiastic jump, a lick on the face and our nose planted wherever the treats are hidden, whether it be your shirt pocket, your back or front pants pocket or in your hand.)

Of course, some barks are serious business. If you fool with us, make fun of our hair cuts, call us “too cute” names like ‘Fido’ (that’s been an out-of-date name for years), try to take our t-bone or share our food dish, or act like you are about to harm one of our owners, well, you’ll get the bark and growl with teeth! Our tail stops wagging, our ears lay back and we are ready to attack. So… just be cool with us. We are normally gentle by nature.

Some dogs are just born complainers. They see me laying down on the grass in front of our RV and decide I should be someplace else or who knows what goes through their dog brains. So they start barking at me. Like it’s their spot. It’s usually the small guys that do that. I think they have some kind of mental problem. Maybe a Napoleon complex. (Dad told me that one.)

These guys had some to yelp about. They were kept in a small cage all day!

Other dogs just crave attention all the time. Today, next to us are two small dogs in a small cage outside their RV. One is squealing, barking, whining, yelping…. you name it. His owner is there talking with another human and every so often leans over to say ‘sush’. The dog keeps barking. He wants to be picked up and placed on their lap. They don’t get it, so he just keeps barking. How’s a guy supposed to catch up on his sleep? Dad wasn’t too pleased with the owners or the dog. It’s one of the problems of living in close quarters with other humans and dogs. A small price to pay for our freedom on the road I guess!

I give a few little barks and look straight at Dad and he knows we need to continue our walk.

When Dad is taking me on a walk and he stops to talk to some other human in the park, I sit still and listen as long as I can stand it. But geez, how much talk about the impending weather can you stand. It’s going to rain.. so what, get over it!. When I’ve had enough, I’ll let Dad know by barking a couple times and looking straight at him. He seems to know what I mean and we continue our walk. You’ve got to be firm with them sometimes!

When I play with my friends we all bark for fun.

Barking can also be an invitation to play. Some of my friends love to engage me in play by crouching up and down, barking in a friendly tone, and wanting me to return the favor. If I’m in the mood, I’ll bark a couple times, look at Dad and ask if we can play. Sometimes he lets us run around off our leash together. It’s fun to do that. My friend Otis, another Golden Retriever, barks every time he sees me coming around the corner. He’s young and impetuous and just loves to see another dog. It’s a bit tedious (another word from my on-line dog-human dictionary) but also very flattering. He’s always anxious to play. He has a habit of finding large tree branches in the forest and running with them. (That is, until he runs between two trees with one in his mouth. Ouch!!)

My friend Otis carrys a big stick. He's young and barks whenever he sees me.

I bark when we are in the car or RV and the big ugly cows seem to come so fast towards us that they might attack. Mom says that my job is to bark and scare them away from us. I must do a good job because we’ve never been actually attacked by one of them and thousands of them have passed us very fast.

Sometimes I bark to keep the cows from attacking when we are in the car. (It works!)

Some of my friends bark when the mailman comes up the walkway. It’s the same thing. No mailman has ever attacked a human owner when we bark at them. They are just too afraid of us.

Sometimes we only want to be picked up and hugged!

Barking can be also be informative for humans too. My recommendation to humans is to listen closely to your dog. When they bark they are telling you something. We know you aren’t born with the same brains we have, but you should be able to figure it out. Give us whatever it is we want, and we will quit barking. Pretty simple actually. Usually, it’s only a bit of attention and loving. Occasionally it’s a bite of the steak you are eating.

Arf, Reggie