The
article What Are Dogs Saying When They
Bark is an excerpt from the book The
Genius of Dogs, written by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods. This article was
written to explain that dogs can differentiate between different types of
barks. It tells us about the vocal chords of dogs, which they can use to alter
their voices in many ways, some ways identifiable to humans.
First of all, the author mentions
some of his personal experiences with dogs and their reactions to different
types of growls, although they sound the same to his human ears. He also wonders
if his dog would do something different with her barks at night if a stranger
was coming to alert them.
The author goes on to tell us about
some experiments that have proven this. The
first experiment was to see if dogs reacted differently to “food growls” and
“stranger growls.” The researchers played both growls to a dog that was
approaching a bone. The dogs were more hesitant to approach when they heard the
food growl.
The second experiment tested the reaction to “alone
barks” and “stranger barks.” The dogs were much more attentive when they heard
the stranger bark. They tested the experiment on many dogs in random orders,
and every time that proved true.
The third experiment played many different barks to a
group of people. Most could tell the difference between different kinds of
barks, but they had trouble telling the different dogs apart, except for the
stranger barks. These studies show that growls and barks have different meanings
that other dogs can tell apart. And based on the last experiment, humans can
recognize the different meanings too.
Science is based on evidence
Science is collaborative
Person’s view and experience can influence data
Role of motivation and curiosity
Lexi Reed
I absolutely love animals, especially dogs, I really like the concept of this experiment. My dogs has special barks that my family and I have noticed like her "Daddy's home!!" bark and her "there is a stranger" bark. Each has its own uniqueness and it is interesting to see that dogs pick up the different meanings and react differently to them. Now, i want to more about the psychology about dogs.
ReplyDeleteDogs are so fun! I think its so cute how some paeople say they are the only animails who love their owners more than themselves. I found this really unique website that says all about different types of dog barks and it is so interesting how paople have spent the time decihering how dogs react and their different barks correlate to different things.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nativeremedies.com/petalive/articles/what-different-dog-barks-mean.html