# KBLover's Stupid Dog Questions: #1 - Why Doesn't Wally Howl?



## KBLover (Sep 9, 2008)

They say there's no stupid question...I'm about to challenge that.

I heard the coolest dog howl a couple days ago. I don't know where exactly it came from or who the dog was, but it was close and in the neighborhood. It made me wonder: Why doesn't Wally ever howl?

I've seen those youtube videos where someone makes a noise or fake howls and the dog howls and all of that. Wally just looks at me like "what's that mean?" and starts sniffing my breath, especially if I've eaten recently.

So, my stupid dog question: Do all dogs howl? If so, why doesn't Wally howl?


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

Have you ever tried using a musical instrument around him to see if he howls? Leeo began howling at a harmonica. I implemented when the harmonica was played and used the word " Sing " until he could howl on cue! It is cool to teach.  Teach and treat!


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## Tofu_pup (Dec 8, 2008)

I don't know why some dogs don't howl. We like to play a youtube vidoe of a dog howling and it gets everybody going...except Kaki. She gets nervous, paces, and looks at me as if to say,"Do you need me to shut these guys up for you?!"

She doesn't howl with the daycare dogs either. Mystery.


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## KBLover (Sep 9, 2008)

Abbylynn said:


> Have you ever tried using a musical instrument around him to see if he howls? Leeo began howling at a harmonica. I implemented when the harmonica was played and used the word " Sing " until he could howl on cue! It is cool to teach.  Teach and treat!


Well, I have this music composing program so I could try that (it has instrument sounds - not just loops and such). That would be a cool trick, getting him to howl on cue. I could have him howl at the tea kettle and bark at the kitchen timer. Next best thing to talking is making different vocalizations for different events 



Tofu_pup said:


> I don't know why some dogs don't howl. We like to play a youtube vidoe of a dog howling and it gets everybody going...except Kaki. She gets nervous, paces, and looks at me as if to say,"Do you need me to shut these guys up for you?!"
> 
> She doesn't howl with the daycare dogs either. Mystery.


Wally does that head tilting thing while staring at the speaker (he knows the speaker isn't a dog, but it's making a dog sound so it confuses him?). Sometimes he'll bark, or he'll do the head tilt thing and then look at me like "WTF is this?"


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## Voidious (Jan 21, 2011)

Well, I have one data point to offer: I had my dog about 7 months without any howling. Then we moved into a big apartment building and he started with this weird howling bark at the guys that work in the building.

I figured it was something territorial or just anxiety about the new environment, but I don't really know. With time and some treats he got over it. I've since heard him do the same at uncooperative (ie, not playing with or chasing him) dogs at the dog park.

(Now you've got me thinking I should teach him to howl...)


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## hamandeggs (Aug 11, 2011)

My parents' bird dog howls when fire trucks go by. ONLY fire trucks, not any other kind of siren or truck or emergency vehicle. Howling at him doesn't do it. I like to think he's communing with his fire truck brothers. 

Meanwhile, Biscuit never howls, even when she hears other dogs howling at fire trucks. If we howl at her, she just looks at us like we've obviously gone insane. If we play Youtube videos of dogs howling, she looks curious but quickly becomes bored and departs. The closest she gets is she'll sort of howl-grumble if she's trying to get something or someone to do something sometimes, like if another dog at the dog park has a stick she wants to chew on. Kind of sounds like the dog in this video. I haven't tried a harmonica, but I certainly will! I love howling.

I used to live with a mutt who was adopted around age 2 and never howled when I was living with him (2 years). Two more years later, I hear he's learned how to do it. I used to think it was a yes/no thing, like either the dog howls or it doesn't, but maybe not.


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## zimandtakandgrrandmimi (May 8, 2008)

calls have a genetic component. Ill tweet you the info.


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## spotted nikes (Feb 7, 2008)

Two of my 3 howl. Christy (dog in my sig) howls the most perfect low toned howl with her lips in a perfect "O". Rusty, the chow mix, howls with his head thrown back, like a Coyote. Poor little Snickers, my Cocker that looks like he was put together by a committee, is severely howl challenged. He wants to howl, so badly, but ends up doing these high pitched screeches that sounds like he is being murdered. It's horrendous! 
They howl at sirens, and occasionally when the coyotes out back howl.


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## KBLover (Sep 9, 2008)

hamandeggs said:


> Meanwhile, Biscuit never howls, even when she hears other dogs howling at fire trucks. If we howl at her, she just looks at us like we've obviously gone insane. If we play Youtube videos of dogs howling, she looks curious but quickly becomes bored and departs. The closest she gets is she'll sort of howl-grumble if she's trying to get something or someone to do something sometimes, like if another dog at the dog park has a stick she wants to chew on. Kind of sounds like the dog in this video.


Wally sometimes makes sounds like that. Kind of a marowrow sort of moan/bark/some sound that sounds more like a cat. It's weird. He makes lots of weird sounds - but not a "standard" dog one LOL


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## KBLover (Sep 9, 2008)

zimandtakandgrrandmimi said:


> calls have a genetic component. Ill tweet you the info.


Looking forward to it!


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## ChaosIsAWeim (Feb 12, 2011)

BB howls at anything and everything lol. But its more of a baying howl, like a hounds almost. We call it her whoo whoo. Its funny when she holds a note for a long time, and she can hold it for quite a while.

I have been told that both her dam and sire had this howl.


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## Pawzk9 (Jan 3, 2011)

He doesn't have anyone to sing with? Howling is a very "mature" behavior (on the scale of dogs who juvenilized and are not) I have one old rescue boy with a most deep and mournful howl when anything with a siren goes by. Everybody joins in. But Alice (who acts a lot like a pup and looks a lot like a pup at 10) only manages some pitiful yips. I don't think she can actually howl. Wouldn't know where a coton would fall on the scale, but I would guess pretty juvenilized)


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## Morrwyn (Aug 13, 2009)

Puck used to howl when he was a very small puppy, but only at the alarm clock going off. Now we try to get him to do it (insturments, youtube dog howling, howling ourselves) and he just looks at us like we are crazy. The weirdest part is we KNOW he is part husky and those are one of the howliest dogs ever.


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## Jewelzee94 (Jul 18, 2011)

Jewel would howl to very odd things... spongebob squarepants, and opra. She'd howl if we did to, but spongebob always got a howl. We should a trained her to do it on cue... 

Sounded similar, but lower and shorter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl28CHFwCyo&feature=youtube_gdata_player


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

All of my shelties howled, but I notice the behavior a lot less in the paps. My shelties would all howl at almost everything- you, certain songs, fire trucks, each other, etc. I loved to get them going in a chorus.

Bernard is the papillon that is closest to howling. He almost bays and the last note gets drawn out. It is something like 'Woo woo woo woooooooooooo' Come to think of it, I have heard him howl a few times. His dam also woo wooo'd instead of the typical papillon yap. And Harry (my old papillon, who was Bernard's uncle) also howled that way. They come from a different line than the other papillons. So I think there must be a genetic aspect to it. 

But the rest don't at all. I just tested Mia and she just came up and started trying to lick my mouth.


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## Greater Swiss (Jun 7, 2011)

Heh, Ceada doesn't howl really. She'll occasionally have a long bark. The closest she comes to howling is when she REALLY wants to be with us and we are in the laundry room or something and she makes this HORRIBLE sound that she has made since the day I brought her home. She sounds like she is trying to howl but she sounds like a dying monkey! Yips squeals chirps whatever you want to call it. Before she realized that it doesn't get her what she wants she would do it until she got hoarse. Now she does it for a minute or two if she is really lonely/bratty then stops. What a horrid sound. If she learns to howl I'll take that any day lol.


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## JohnnyBandit (Sep 19, 2008)

KBLover said:


> They say there's no stupid question...I'm about to challenge that.
> 
> I heard the coolest dog howl a couple days ago. I don't know where exactly it came from or who the dog was, but it was close and in the neighborhood. It made me wonder: Why doesn't Wally ever howl?
> 
> ...


Physically he is capable of howling.... Maybe he doesn't know he can, Maybe he does not know how....


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

My hound won't howl or bay and the Pit Bull sounds like a dang Beagle with her howling....


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## Tofu_pup (Dec 8, 2008)

Shell said:


> My hound won't howl or bay and the Pit Bull sounds like a dang Beagle with her howling....


Lol.

I have noticed(how can you not?!) that every single Dobe I've ever worked with has been a major howler. Even the puppies would get revved up over a siren or missing "mommy" and start spinning in circles howling.

There was also a Newfie, named Moses(I lurve him), that had such a low howl that it was barely audible. I could actually feel it but I could barely hear it.


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## Avery (Nov 22, 2011)

Mumble doesn't make much noise to begin with. I've never heard him howl in person, but one day I set up a video camera to see how he acted while we were gone. He made a lot of really sad noises that I had no idea he could make. One of them was very howl-like but probably would still be considered more of a cry.

Our Westie never howled. Sometimes to get our attention he would "talk" to us. It was a sort of growl where he drew it out and opened and closed his mouth, changing the pitch. GarowGarowGarowGarow.


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## kadylady (Sep 23, 2010)

The closest thing to a howl that Luke (retriever) has done is when something startles him he does this crazy scared bark that ends with a high pitched bayish howl sounding noise. Its pretty funny, he only does it when something has really startled him out of a sleep. My MIL has 2 huskies who love to howl, and Luke always looks at them like they are insane.

Zoey (plott hound/lab mix) learned how to do to this very high pitched, very long whoo whoo type howl in the middle of the night in her crate...I'm positive she will impress us with more noises as time goes on, she's a pretty vocal dog.


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## Active Dog (Jan 18, 2010)

Yeah Miko naturally howls constantly and I have tried to teach Ava but she just can't manage it lol. She wants to but can't figure out how to get a sound like that out. So she settles for a sound that sounds kinda like a growl/bark lol.


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## melaka (Mar 31, 2010)

I've only seen/heard Buffy howl once in her life - it was her first night home with me, in her crate. She had her little nose pointed straight up in the air and was making the most mornful howling noise. I felt bad because I couldn't stop laughing at her.


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## Keechak (Aug 10, 2008)

Hawk has howled a few times, he's done it as an alert to an intruder on the premises when he thought he was home alone, and he has done it when kenneled alone when the other kennel dogs start howling. Kechara has never even come close to howling and Lark I think is just too young still to know if she'll ever do it.


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## KBLover (Sep 9, 2008)

Wally just howled!

I have no idea what made him do it. Far as I know, he might have been dreaming. I went over to him and gave him some attention and a treat, hopefully enough to capture it. At first, I was like "what's that sound?" then I realized it was Wally. 

Seems awfully random that he would just up and howl like that - but maybe it's that fixed action pattern thing again like the first time he started digging around in his bed. I was like WTF? And then Curbside introduced me to the concept. 

I know he seems to be changing some in his personality - more watchdog-ish (barked at the lawnmower for 20 minutes one night and he barks his head off at the doorbell now), and just somewhat different...like he's "grown up" (At nearly 5...it's about time LOL...I know Cotons are slower developing because of their long lifespans, but sheez).


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## Amaryllis (Dec 28, 2011)

I wondered the same thing about Muggsy. In 12 years, I never heard him howl. He rarely made much noise at all and he only had three sounds: a bark, a growl and a grumble.

Kabota howls all the time. And bays. and barks and squeals and shrieks and mutters and grumbles and growls. When I come home from work, it sounds like I'm torturing a penguin. I can't imagine what the neighbors think.


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## KBLover (Sep 9, 2008)

Amaryllis said:


> I wondered the same thing about Muggsy. In 12 years, I never heard him howl. He rarely made much noise at all and he only had three sounds: a bark, a growl and a grumble.
> 
> Kabota howls all the time. And bays. and barks and squeals and shrieks and mutters and grumbles and growls. When I come home from work, it sounds like I'm torturing a penguin. I can't imagine what the neighbors think.


Heh, Wally does a lot of those sounds like Kabota - just missing the baying and howling, at least until this morning. My mom says Wally is trying to learn how to talk, speaking "Caninenglish". Makes me wonder if those sounds have any specific meaning or he's just trying to find the one that makes me or her look at him.  

Hehehe torturing a penguin. I might have to sign up for the faux-torturing-a-penguin-but-it's-really-just-the-dog-talking club.


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