Close this window to return to IVIS wwwivisorg

Proceedings of the 36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress

WSAVA

Oct 14 - 17 2011 Jeju Korea

Next Congress

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA httpwwwivisorg

1352011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

AL_A30

14(Fri) ~ 17(Mon) October 2011

ICC Jeju Korea

2011 WSAVAFASAVA World Congress

wwwwsava2011org

BH-E04

UNDERSTANDING BARKING IN DOGS CAUSE AND CREATIVE AND HUMANE TREATMENT

Karen L Overall MA VMD PhD Diplomate ACVB ABS

Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist

Philadelphia PA USA

Communication involving ritualized displays or graded signals is used to confirm or reject information

received from others Contexts in which this occurs varies considerably general social interactions indications

for species sex and sexual receptivity situations pertaining to relative social status negotiation of social

interactions et cetera Communication can be instantaneous as is the case with tactile behaviors and visual

displays These behaviors are also relatively ldquoshort-distancerdquo signals Vocal communication is instantaneous

but may reach over longer distances Olfactory and pheromonal signals provide information that can be

assessed over distances and across time Dogs use all of these modalities and we can best understand what the

dog is telling us when we have sets of information that are congruent (eg the vocal signal matches the physical

behavior) Extremely important signals are always redundant so that more than one modality is involved in the

signal Such patterns act over evolutionary time to minimize costly errors

To understand canine vocal behavior behaviors it is critical to understand the component signals as they are

used to communicate with conspecifics (see table)

CANINE SIGNALS

Signal Circumstance Information

barkingbull alertingwarning

bull attention-seeking

growlingbull warning

bull distance-increasing

crying

whimpering

whining

bull et-epimeletic

bull paindiscomfort

bull fear

bull solicitation ndash depending on frequencies

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

136 2011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

Signal Circumstance Information

howlingbull elicit social contact

bull anxiety situations (social contact = reassure

moans bull pleasure contentment

tail and ears up forefoot in front of other bull alert ready to participate

direct gaze

bull challenge

bull confident

bull absence of threat and seeking information

bull distance-increasing

averted gaze

bull fear

bull profound avoidance

bull deference

bull absence of challenge (not the same as deference for confident high-ranking dogs)

bull distance-decreasing signal

belly presented

bull deference - if neck back and other solicitation cues given

bull disengagement - if inguinal area and or chest covered may become aggressive if pursued

bull relaxation - if flaccid

tail tucked when belly presentedbull fear

bull uncertainty

tail tucked when belly presented with

urination

bull profound fear and social withdrawal

bull panic

grinbull deference

bull distance-decreasing signal

piloerectionbull arousal associated with anxiety fear aggression

bull distance-increasing

piloerection restricted to neck or tail

regionbull confident dog

rigid stance stiff torso musculaturebull confidence and intent to interact (may not be aggressive)

bull distance-increasing

tail above horizonbull confident

bull assertive but calm

tail below horizon

bull less confident

bull less assertive

bull deference

bull fear

tail wag bull willingness to interact

tail tip wag stiff

bull confident

bull assertive

bull offensively interactive

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

1372011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

UNDERSTANDING BARKING IN DOGS CAUSE AND CREATIVE AND HUMANE TREATMENT

Signal Circumstance Information

neck erect or archedbull confident

bull challenging

ears erectbull alert

bull confident

ears back bull fear

ears vertically dropped

bull deference

bull avoidance

bull withdrawal

bull anxiety

snarlgrowl with only incisors and canines

apparent

bull confident

bull offensively aggressive

bull distance-increasing

snarlgrowl with all teeth and back of

throat apparent

bull defensively aggressive

bull fearful

bull distance-increasing

body lowered

bull defensive

bull distance-decreasing

bull fearful

bull deferential

bull relaxed

licking lips flicking tongue

bull appeasement

bull et-epimeletic

bull distance-decreasing

bull anxious (and solicitation of reassurance derived from et-epimeletic)

raising forepaw

bull distance-decreasing

bull solicitation of attention

bull deference (off balance)

paws out front end down rump up tail

waggingbull body bow invitation to play

perpendicular posturebull challenge

bull confidence

mounting or pressing on back or

shoulders of another dog

bull challenge

bull marking claiming

licking at corner of another dogrsquos (or

personrsquos) mouth

bull et-epimeletic

bull deference

bull solicitation

blowing out lipscheeksbull anticipation (positive or negative)

bull anxiety (if very fast)

popping or snapping of upper and lower

jaws (bill pops)

bull capitulation to a non-preferred request

bull intention to comply as a last resort but without agonistic behavior

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

138 2011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

Vocalizingbarking is an excellent example of a canine behavior that is complex and best interpreted within

the context of the circumstances and the dogs other behaviors Human response to the barking becomes part of

the context

Dogs do not continuously bark in response to every stimulus nor do they use the same bark in all

circumstances We can measure aspects of vocalizations by using sonographs ndash voice spectrographs - of the

vocalizations Analysis of dog barks has revealed that regardless of their experience with dogs the vast

majority of humans would correctly identify a dog who was vocalizing in a fight and one who was vocalizing

when a stranger approached [1] Less agreement was found for dogs who vocalized on walks in play when

alone or for those given a ball While people may be confident that they recognize a frank aggressive or alert

response we should be aware that they may not know that they are not accurately identifying the information

contained in barks in other situations This is important because the information contained in vocalizations

across such situations is different

One study examined growls in 3 contexts (play when guarding a bone and when approached by a

threatening stranger)[2] Play growls differed from growls in the two agonistic contexts with respect to

frequency and formant(spectralamplitude peaks in frequencies) dispersal play growls had higher frequencies

and lower formant dispersal While lower frequency growls usually correlate with larger dogs itrsquos important to

note that growl frequency has a functional component which can be altered by contracting the muscles of the

throat Formants can also be functionally altered when a dog stretches his neck he behaviorally lengthens his

vocal tract and disperses formants making him appear lsquolargerrsquo to someone who has made the general

association between these vocal characteristics and dog size This information content is recognized by and

affects dogs [3] When dogsrsquo heart rates are measured in response to a series of auditory cues they significantly

increase after hearing a recording of a dog barking at a stranger

Classes of barks and other vocalizations are consistent across different dogs given the specific context [4]

When 10 pet dogs were tested in 3 contexts (play isolation and disturbance) the dogs vocalized in ways that

were similar showing that the signature of the bark was associated with the context This pattern indicates that

dogs are communicating useful context-dependent information We should learn from such information

Similar patterns for vocal signatures were found when barks from dogs with separation anxiety were

compared with barks from unaffected dogs [5] The barks used by unaffected dogs in response to outdoor

stimuli indicated an alert similar to the high frequency solitary note shown by dogs in play but the repetitive

atonal complex barks exhibited by dogs with separation anxiety resembled the vocalizations in both the

disturbance and isolation contexts Dogs can clearly recognize the information provided in such signals and for

us to understand dog behavior we must do so also

Humans have been shown to classify the lsquoemotionalityrsquo of canine vocalization with respect to tone pitch

and inter-bark interval [6] If both formant dispersions and fundamental frequencies are manipulated lower

formants and fundamental frequencies are rated as belonging to larger dogs and those doing the rating give

more weight to formants which more accurately reflect vocal tract length because they correlate with the weight

of the dog [7]

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

1392011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

UNDERSTANDING BARKING IN DOGS CAUSE AND CREATIVE AND HUMANE TREATMENT

Dogs are cognitive and complex Their signaling behaviors are a reflection of these characteristics Dogs

use signals to convey information and to provoke the social situation to gain information Dogs ask questions

Given their ability to identify specific dogs and contexts from barks we should consider testing whether (and

likely accept that)vocal signaling in dogs has rules (grammar) that is providing more information than is

currently recognized When we evaluate or classify canine behaviors we need to be acutely aware of such

patterns and how inadequate our labels can be for conveying such complexity lsquoBarkingrsquo can be involved in a

number of behavioral conditions and client complaints Addressing the underlying context is going to result in

the most successful outcome

lsquoNuisancersquo barking ndash even if the dog is behaving in a contextually appropriate manner ndash can cause the dogrsquos

death or relinquishment Redress should be appropriate and humane The single most appropriate intervention

strategy is to acknowledge the dog and provide the information requested This is easy to do if the dog is not

distressed and the human is present acknowledge the alert check to see what the dog is barking at and thank

the dog Reward the dog for being quiet Barking in distress requires that the distress be addressed

In neither of these situations are bark collars the best choice Collars that make a spraying sound andor

spray the dog with citronella solution can startle and render more fearful susceptible dogs Dogs can and will

learn to bark below the level necessary to trigger the collar or to quickly empty the collar but they will still not

have their needs met Because electric shock collars actually cause pain they are likely to stop all behaviors

associated with shock including normal social behaviors

If shock and pain are profound it is possible to quickly induce long-term potentiation (LTP) the molecular

changes associated with hippocampal memory which will lead to a strong aversion or phobia The

hippocampus is the primary region where fears and anxieties associated with specific stimuli originate so a

logical sequelae to a stressful painful stimulus may be fear phobia or withdrawal Less painful stimuli over

time because of the nature of repeated reinforcement ensures better more numerous and more efficient

connections between neurons [8] This is how fear and avoidance are learned When stimulation continues we

know that activity dependent plasticity at synapses (eg learning) occurs in the lateral amygdale which is

involved in learning contextual fear [9]

Untoward negative long-term effects of training with shock have been demonstrated for German shepherd

guard dogs [10] Dogs that were shocked in training showed a lower ear posture in free-walking and more

stress-related behaviors than did dogs who had not been shocked in training These differences were also found

when these dogs participated in obedience training and manwork Physiological differences in the HPA axis

were also found and were most profound when the person associated with the shock (the owner or handler) was

present The resulting conclusions were (1) this type of training in general is stressful (2) receiving shocks is

painful for the dogs and (3) the dogs make a context-specific association where the presence of the owner

handler and his her commands provokes a stress response [10] Because the behaviors leading to the

vocalization matter we can expect shocks ndash even those delivered in response to barking - to be perceived by

many dogs to be unpredictable Laboratory research has shown that in normal dogs such interventions cause

stress and help produce pathological behaviors [11]

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

140 2011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

Early intervention appropriate treatment and meeting the dogrsquos needs are more humane solutions for dogs

who are sharing with us information about how they perceive their world and its attendant discomforts

References1 Molnar C Kaplan F Roy P Pachet F Pongracz P Doka A Miklosi A Classification of dog barks a machine

learning approach Anim Cogn 20011389ndash400

2 Farago T Pongracz P Range F Viranyi Z Miklosi A lsquoThe bone is minersquo affective and referential aspects of

dog growls Anim Behav 201079917-925

3 Maros K Pongracz P Bardos G Molnar C Farago T Miklosi A Dogs can discriminate barks from different

situations Appl Anim Behav Sci 2008114159-167

4 Yin S McCowan B Barking in domestic dogs context specificity and individual identification Anim Behav

200468343355

5 Overall KL Agulnick L Kapes M Dunham AE Sonographic analysis of dog vocalization a pilot study

involving distressed and unaffected dogs [poster abstract] American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior

(AVSAB) meeting New Orleans LA July 1999

6 Pongracz P Molnar C Miklosi A Acoustic parameters of dog barks carry emotional information for humans

Appl Anim Behav Sci 2006100228-240

7 Taylor A M Reby D amp McComb K Human listeners attend to size information in domestic dog growls J

Acoust Soc Amer 20081232903ndash2909

8 Wittenberg GM Tsien JZ An emerging molecular and cellular framework for memory processing by the

hippocampus TRENDS Neurosci 200225 501-505

9 Schafe GE Nader K Blair HT LeDoux JE Memory consiliation of Pavlovian fear contditioning a

cellular and molecular perspective TRENDS Neurosci 200124540-546

10 Schilder MBH van der Borg JAM Training dogs with help of the shock collar short and long term

behavioural effects Appl Anim Behav Sci 200485319-334

11 Schalke E Stichnoth J Ott S Jones-Baade R Clinical signs caused by the use of electric training collars

on dogs in everyday life situations Appl Anim Behav Sci 105369-380

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

1352011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

AL_A30

14(Fri) ~ 17(Mon) October 2011

ICC Jeju Korea

2011 WSAVAFASAVA World Congress

wwwwsava2011org

BH-E04

UNDERSTANDING BARKING IN DOGS CAUSE AND CREATIVE AND HUMANE TREATMENT

Karen L Overall MA VMD PhD Diplomate ACVB ABS

Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist

Philadelphia PA USA

Communication involving ritualized displays or graded signals is used to confirm or reject information

received from others Contexts in which this occurs varies considerably general social interactions indications

for species sex and sexual receptivity situations pertaining to relative social status negotiation of social

interactions et cetera Communication can be instantaneous as is the case with tactile behaviors and visual

displays These behaviors are also relatively ldquoshort-distancerdquo signals Vocal communication is instantaneous

but may reach over longer distances Olfactory and pheromonal signals provide information that can be

assessed over distances and across time Dogs use all of these modalities and we can best understand what the

dog is telling us when we have sets of information that are congruent (eg the vocal signal matches the physical

behavior) Extremely important signals are always redundant so that more than one modality is involved in the

signal Such patterns act over evolutionary time to minimize costly errors

To understand canine vocal behavior behaviors it is critical to understand the component signals as they are

used to communicate with conspecifics (see table)

CANINE SIGNALS

Signal Circumstance Information

barkingbull alertingwarning

bull attention-seeking

growlingbull warning

bull distance-increasing

crying

whimpering

whining

bull et-epimeletic

bull paindiscomfort

bull fear

bull solicitation ndash depending on frequencies

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

136 2011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

Signal Circumstance Information

howlingbull elicit social contact

bull anxiety situations (social contact = reassure

moans bull pleasure contentment

tail and ears up forefoot in front of other bull alert ready to participate

direct gaze

bull challenge

bull confident

bull absence of threat and seeking information

bull distance-increasing

averted gaze

bull fear

bull profound avoidance

bull deference

bull absence of challenge (not the same as deference for confident high-ranking dogs)

bull distance-decreasing signal

belly presented

bull deference - if neck back and other solicitation cues given

bull disengagement - if inguinal area and or chest covered may become aggressive if pursued

bull relaxation - if flaccid

tail tucked when belly presentedbull fear

bull uncertainty

tail tucked when belly presented with

urination

bull profound fear and social withdrawal

bull panic

grinbull deference

bull distance-decreasing signal

piloerectionbull arousal associated with anxiety fear aggression

bull distance-increasing

piloerection restricted to neck or tail

regionbull confident dog

rigid stance stiff torso musculaturebull confidence and intent to interact (may not be aggressive)

bull distance-increasing

tail above horizonbull confident

bull assertive but calm

tail below horizon

bull less confident

bull less assertive

bull deference

bull fear

tail wag bull willingness to interact

tail tip wag stiff

bull confident

bull assertive

bull offensively interactive

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

1372011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

UNDERSTANDING BARKING IN DOGS CAUSE AND CREATIVE AND HUMANE TREATMENT

Signal Circumstance Information

neck erect or archedbull confident

bull challenging

ears erectbull alert

bull confident

ears back bull fear

ears vertically dropped

bull deference

bull avoidance

bull withdrawal

bull anxiety

snarlgrowl with only incisors and canines

apparent

bull confident

bull offensively aggressive

bull distance-increasing

snarlgrowl with all teeth and back of

throat apparent

bull defensively aggressive

bull fearful

bull distance-increasing

body lowered

bull defensive

bull distance-decreasing

bull fearful

bull deferential

bull relaxed

licking lips flicking tongue

bull appeasement

bull et-epimeletic

bull distance-decreasing

bull anxious (and solicitation of reassurance derived from et-epimeletic)

raising forepaw

bull distance-decreasing

bull solicitation of attention

bull deference (off balance)

paws out front end down rump up tail

waggingbull body bow invitation to play

perpendicular posturebull challenge

bull confidence

mounting or pressing on back or

shoulders of another dog

bull challenge

bull marking claiming

licking at corner of another dogrsquos (or

personrsquos) mouth

bull et-epimeletic

bull deference

bull solicitation

blowing out lipscheeksbull anticipation (positive or negative)

bull anxiety (if very fast)

popping or snapping of upper and lower

jaws (bill pops)

bull capitulation to a non-preferred request

bull intention to comply as a last resort but without agonistic behavior

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

138 2011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

Vocalizingbarking is an excellent example of a canine behavior that is complex and best interpreted within

the context of the circumstances and the dogs other behaviors Human response to the barking becomes part of

the context

Dogs do not continuously bark in response to every stimulus nor do they use the same bark in all

circumstances We can measure aspects of vocalizations by using sonographs ndash voice spectrographs - of the

vocalizations Analysis of dog barks has revealed that regardless of their experience with dogs the vast

majority of humans would correctly identify a dog who was vocalizing in a fight and one who was vocalizing

when a stranger approached [1] Less agreement was found for dogs who vocalized on walks in play when

alone or for those given a ball While people may be confident that they recognize a frank aggressive or alert

response we should be aware that they may not know that they are not accurately identifying the information

contained in barks in other situations This is important because the information contained in vocalizations

across such situations is different

One study examined growls in 3 contexts (play when guarding a bone and when approached by a

threatening stranger)[2] Play growls differed from growls in the two agonistic contexts with respect to

frequency and formant(spectralamplitude peaks in frequencies) dispersal play growls had higher frequencies

and lower formant dispersal While lower frequency growls usually correlate with larger dogs itrsquos important to

note that growl frequency has a functional component which can be altered by contracting the muscles of the

throat Formants can also be functionally altered when a dog stretches his neck he behaviorally lengthens his

vocal tract and disperses formants making him appear lsquolargerrsquo to someone who has made the general

association between these vocal characteristics and dog size This information content is recognized by and

affects dogs [3] When dogsrsquo heart rates are measured in response to a series of auditory cues they significantly

increase after hearing a recording of a dog barking at a stranger

Classes of barks and other vocalizations are consistent across different dogs given the specific context [4]

When 10 pet dogs were tested in 3 contexts (play isolation and disturbance) the dogs vocalized in ways that

were similar showing that the signature of the bark was associated with the context This pattern indicates that

dogs are communicating useful context-dependent information We should learn from such information

Similar patterns for vocal signatures were found when barks from dogs with separation anxiety were

compared with barks from unaffected dogs [5] The barks used by unaffected dogs in response to outdoor

stimuli indicated an alert similar to the high frequency solitary note shown by dogs in play but the repetitive

atonal complex barks exhibited by dogs with separation anxiety resembled the vocalizations in both the

disturbance and isolation contexts Dogs can clearly recognize the information provided in such signals and for

us to understand dog behavior we must do so also

Humans have been shown to classify the lsquoemotionalityrsquo of canine vocalization with respect to tone pitch

and inter-bark interval [6] If both formant dispersions and fundamental frequencies are manipulated lower

formants and fundamental frequencies are rated as belonging to larger dogs and those doing the rating give

more weight to formants which more accurately reflect vocal tract length because they correlate with the weight

of the dog [7]

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

1392011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

UNDERSTANDING BARKING IN DOGS CAUSE AND CREATIVE AND HUMANE TREATMENT

Dogs are cognitive and complex Their signaling behaviors are a reflection of these characteristics Dogs

use signals to convey information and to provoke the social situation to gain information Dogs ask questions

Given their ability to identify specific dogs and contexts from barks we should consider testing whether (and

likely accept that)vocal signaling in dogs has rules (grammar) that is providing more information than is

currently recognized When we evaluate or classify canine behaviors we need to be acutely aware of such

patterns and how inadequate our labels can be for conveying such complexity lsquoBarkingrsquo can be involved in a

number of behavioral conditions and client complaints Addressing the underlying context is going to result in

the most successful outcome

lsquoNuisancersquo barking ndash even if the dog is behaving in a contextually appropriate manner ndash can cause the dogrsquos

death or relinquishment Redress should be appropriate and humane The single most appropriate intervention

strategy is to acknowledge the dog and provide the information requested This is easy to do if the dog is not

distressed and the human is present acknowledge the alert check to see what the dog is barking at and thank

the dog Reward the dog for being quiet Barking in distress requires that the distress be addressed

In neither of these situations are bark collars the best choice Collars that make a spraying sound andor

spray the dog with citronella solution can startle and render more fearful susceptible dogs Dogs can and will

learn to bark below the level necessary to trigger the collar or to quickly empty the collar but they will still not

have their needs met Because electric shock collars actually cause pain they are likely to stop all behaviors

associated with shock including normal social behaviors

If shock and pain are profound it is possible to quickly induce long-term potentiation (LTP) the molecular

changes associated with hippocampal memory which will lead to a strong aversion or phobia The

hippocampus is the primary region where fears and anxieties associated with specific stimuli originate so a

logical sequelae to a stressful painful stimulus may be fear phobia or withdrawal Less painful stimuli over

time because of the nature of repeated reinforcement ensures better more numerous and more efficient

connections between neurons [8] This is how fear and avoidance are learned When stimulation continues we

know that activity dependent plasticity at synapses (eg learning) occurs in the lateral amygdale which is

involved in learning contextual fear [9]

Untoward negative long-term effects of training with shock have been demonstrated for German shepherd

guard dogs [10] Dogs that were shocked in training showed a lower ear posture in free-walking and more

stress-related behaviors than did dogs who had not been shocked in training These differences were also found

when these dogs participated in obedience training and manwork Physiological differences in the HPA axis

were also found and were most profound when the person associated with the shock (the owner or handler) was

present The resulting conclusions were (1) this type of training in general is stressful (2) receiving shocks is

painful for the dogs and (3) the dogs make a context-specific association where the presence of the owner

handler and his her commands provokes a stress response [10] Because the behaviors leading to the

vocalization matter we can expect shocks ndash even those delivered in response to barking - to be perceived by

many dogs to be unpredictable Laboratory research has shown that in normal dogs such interventions cause

stress and help produce pathological behaviors [11]

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

140 2011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

Early intervention appropriate treatment and meeting the dogrsquos needs are more humane solutions for dogs

who are sharing with us information about how they perceive their world and its attendant discomforts

References1 Molnar C Kaplan F Roy P Pachet F Pongracz P Doka A Miklosi A Classification of dog barks a machine

learning approach Anim Cogn 20011389ndash400

2 Farago T Pongracz P Range F Viranyi Z Miklosi A lsquoThe bone is minersquo affective and referential aspects of

dog growls Anim Behav 201079917-925

3 Maros K Pongracz P Bardos G Molnar C Farago T Miklosi A Dogs can discriminate barks from different

situations Appl Anim Behav Sci 2008114159-167

4 Yin S McCowan B Barking in domestic dogs context specificity and individual identification Anim Behav

200468343355

5 Overall KL Agulnick L Kapes M Dunham AE Sonographic analysis of dog vocalization a pilot study

involving distressed and unaffected dogs [poster abstract] American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior

(AVSAB) meeting New Orleans LA July 1999

6 Pongracz P Molnar C Miklosi A Acoustic parameters of dog barks carry emotional information for humans

Appl Anim Behav Sci 2006100228-240

7 Taylor A M Reby D amp McComb K Human listeners attend to size information in domestic dog growls J

Acoust Soc Amer 20081232903ndash2909

8 Wittenberg GM Tsien JZ An emerging molecular and cellular framework for memory processing by the

hippocampus TRENDS Neurosci 200225 501-505

9 Schafe GE Nader K Blair HT LeDoux JE Memory consiliation of Pavlovian fear contditioning a

cellular and molecular perspective TRENDS Neurosci 200124540-546

10 Schilder MBH van der Borg JAM Training dogs with help of the shock collar short and long term

behavioural effects Appl Anim Behav Sci 200485319-334

11 Schalke E Stichnoth J Ott S Jones-Baade R Clinical signs caused by the use of electric training collars

on dogs in everyday life situations Appl Anim Behav Sci 105369-380

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

136 2011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

Signal Circumstance Information

howlingbull elicit social contact

bull anxiety situations (social contact = reassure

moans bull pleasure contentment

tail and ears up forefoot in front of other bull alert ready to participate

direct gaze

bull challenge

bull confident

bull absence of threat and seeking information

bull distance-increasing

averted gaze

bull fear

bull profound avoidance

bull deference

bull absence of challenge (not the same as deference for confident high-ranking dogs)

bull distance-decreasing signal

belly presented

bull deference - if neck back and other solicitation cues given

bull disengagement - if inguinal area and or chest covered may become aggressive if pursued

bull relaxation - if flaccid

tail tucked when belly presentedbull fear

bull uncertainty

tail tucked when belly presented with

urination

bull profound fear and social withdrawal

bull panic

grinbull deference

bull distance-decreasing signal

piloerectionbull arousal associated with anxiety fear aggression

bull distance-increasing

piloerection restricted to neck or tail

regionbull confident dog

rigid stance stiff torso musculaturebull confidence and intent to interact (may not be aggressive)

bull distance-increasing

tail above horizonbull confident

bull assertive but calm

tail below horizon

bull less confident

bull less assertive

bull deference

bull fear

tail wag bull willingness to interact

tail tip wag stiff

bull confident

bull assertive

bull offensively interactive

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

1372011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

UNDERSTANDING BARKING IN DOGS CAUSE AND CREATIVE AND HUMANE TREATMENT

Signal Circumstance Information

neck erect or archedbull confident

bull challenging

ears erectbull alert

bull confident

ears back bull fear

ears vertically dropped

bull deference

bull avoidance

bull withdrawal

bull anxiety

snarlgrowl with only incisors and canines

apparent

bull confident

bull offensively aggressive

bull distance-increasing

snarlgrowl with all teeth and back of

throat apparent

bull defensively aggressive

bull fearful

bull distance-increasing

body lowered

bull defensive

bull distance-decreasing

bull fearful

bull deferential

bull relaxed

licking lips flicking tongue

bull appeasement

bull et-epimeletic

bull distance-decreasing

bull anxious (and solicitation of reassurance derived from et-epimeletic)

raising forepaw

bull distance-decreasing

bull solicitation of attention

bull deference (off balance)

paws out front end down rump up tail

waggingbull body bow invitation to play

perpendicular posturebull challenge

bull confidence

mounting or pressing on back or

shoulders of another dog

bull challenge

bull marking claiming

licking at corner of another dogrsquos (or

personrsquos) mouth

bull et-epimeletic

bull deference

bull solicitation

blowing out lipscheeksbull anticipation (positive or negative)

bull anxiety (if very fast)

popping or snapping of upper and lower

jaws (bill pops)

bull capitulation to a non-preferred request

bull intention to comply as a last resort but without agonistic behavior

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

138 2011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

Vocalizingbarking is an excellent example of a canine behavior that is complex and best interpreted within

the context of the circumstances and the dogs other behaviors Human response to the barking becomes part of

the context

Dogs do not continuously bark in response to every stimulus nor do they use the same bark in all

circumstances We can measure aspects of vocalizations by using sonographs ndash voice spectrographs - of the

vocalizations Analysis of dog barks has revealed that regardless of their experience with dogs the vast

majority of humans would correctly identify a dog who was vocalizing in a fight and one who was vocalizing

when a stranger approached [1] Less agreement was found for dogs who vocalized on walks in play when

alone or for those given a ball While people may be confident that they recognize a frank aggressive or alert

response we should be aware that they may not know that they are not accurately identifying the information

contained in barks in other situations This is important because the information contained in vocalizations

across such situations is different

One study examined growls in 3 contexts (play when guarding a bone and when approached by a

threatening stranger)[2] Play growls differed from growls in the two agonistic contexts with respect to

frequency and formant(spectralamplitude peaks in frequencies) dispersal play growls had higher frequencies

and lower formant dispersal While lower frequency growls usually correlate with larger dogs itrsquos important to

note that growl frequency has a functional component which can be altered by contracting the muscles of the

throat Formants can also be functionally altered when a dog stretches his neck he behaviorally lengthens his

vocal tract and disperses formants making him appear lsquolargerrsquo to someone who has made the general

association between these vocal characteristics and dog size This information content is recognized by and

affects dogs [3] When dogsrsquo heart rates are measured in response to a series of auditory cues they significantly

increase after hearing a recording of a dog barking at a stranger

Classes of barks and other vocalizations are consistent across different dogs given the specific context [4]

When 10 pet dogs were tested in 3 contexts (play isolation and disturbance) the dogs vocalized in ways that

were similar showing that the signature of the bark was associated with the context This pattern indicates that

dogs are communicating useful context-dependent information We should learn from such information

Similar patterns for vocal signatures were found when barks from dogs with separation anxiety were

compared with barks from unaffected dogs [5] The barks used by unaffected dogs in response to outdoor

stimuli indicated an alert similar to the high frequency solitary note shown by dogs in play but the repetitive

atonal complex barks exhibited by dogs with separation anxiety resembled the vocalizations in both the

disturbance and isolation contexts Dogs can clearly recognize the information provided in such signals and for

us to understand dog behavior we must do so also

Humans have been shown to classify the lsquoemotionalityrsquo of canine vocalization with respect to tone pitch

and inter-bark interval [6] If both formant dispersions and fundamental frequencies are manipulated lower

formants and fundamental frequencies are rated as belonging to larger dogs and those doing the rating give

more weight to formants which more accurately reflect vocal tract length because they correlate with the weight

of the dog [7]

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

1392011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

UNDERSTANDING BARKING IN DOGS CAUSE AND CREATIVE AND HUMANE TREATMENT

Dogs are cognitive and complex Their signaling behaviors are a reflection of these characteristics Dogs

use signals to convey information and to provoke the social situation to gain information Dogs ask questions

Given their ability to identify specific dogs and contexts from barks we should consider testing whether (and

likely accept that)vocal signaling in dogs has rules (grammar) that is providing more information than is

currently recognized When we evaluate or classify canine behaviors we need to be acutely aware of such

patterns and how inadequate our labels can be for conveying such complexity lsquoBarkingrsquo can be involved in a

number of behavioral conditions and client complaints Addressing the underlying context is going to result in

the most successful outcome

lsquoNuisancersquo barking ndash even if the dog is behaving in a contextually appropriate manner ndash can cause the dogrsquos

death or relinquishment Redress should be appropriate and humane The single most appropriate intervention

strategy is to acknowledge the dog and provide the information requested This is easy to do if the dog is not

distressed and the human is present acknowledge the alert check to see what the dog is barking at and thank

the dog Reward the dog for being quiet Barking in distress requires that the distress be addressed

In neither of these situations are bark collars the best choice Collars that make a spraying sound andor

spray the dog with citronella solution can startle and render more fearful susceptible dogs Dogs can and will

learn to bark below the level necessary to trigger the collar or to quickly empty the collar but they will still not

have their needs met Because electric shock collars actually cause pain they are likely to stop all behaviors

associated with shock including normal social behaviors

If shock and pain are profound it is possible to quickly induce long-term potentiation (LTP) the molecular

changes associated with hippocampal memory which will lead to a strong aversion or phobia The

hippocampus is the primary region where fears and anxieties associated with specific stimuli originate so a

logical sequelae to a stressful painful stimulus may be fear phobia or withdrawal Less painful stimuli over

time because of the nature of repeated reinforcement ensures better more numerous and more efficient

connections between neurons [8] This is how fear and avoidance are learned When stimulation continues we

know that activity dependent plasticity at synapses (eg learning) occurs in the lateral amygdale which is

involved in learning contextual fear [9]

Untoward negative long-term effects of training with shock have been demonstrated for German shepherd

guard dogs [10] Dogs that were shocked in training showed a lower ear posture in free-walking and more

stress-related behaviors than did dogs who had not been shocked in training These differences were also found

when these dogs participated in obedience training and manwork Physiological differences in the HPA axis

were also found and were most profound when the person associated with the shock (the owner or handler) was

present The resulting conclusions were (1) this type of training in general is stressful (2) receiving shocks is

painful for the dogs and (3) the dogs make a context-specific association where the presence of the owner

handler and his her commands provokes a stress response [10] Because the behaviors leading to the

vocalization matter we can expect shocks ndash even those delivered in response to barking - to be perceived by

many dogs to be unpredictable Laboratory research has shown that in normal dogs such interventions cause

stress and help produce pathological behaviors [11]

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

140 2011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

Early intervention appropriate treatment and meeting the dogrsquos needs are more humane solutions for dogs

who are sharing with us information about how they perceive their world and its attendant discomforts

References1 Molnar C Kaplan F Roy P Pachet F Pongracz P Doka A Miklosi A Classification of dog barks a machine

learning approach Anim Cogn 20011389ndash400

2 Farago T Pongracz P Range F Viranyi Z Miklosi A lsquoThe bone is minersquo affective and referential aspects of

dog growls Anim Behav 201079917-925

3 Maros K Pongracz P Bardos G Molnar C Farago T Miklosi A Dogs can discriminate barks from different

situations Appl Anim Behav Sci 2008114159-167

4 Yin S McCowan B Barking in domestic dogs context specificity and individual identification Anim Behav

200468343355

5 Overall KL Agulnick L Kapes M Dunham AE Sonographic analysis of dog vocalization a pilot study

involving distressed and unaffected dogs [poster abstract] American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior

(AVSAB) meeting New Orleans LA July 1999

6 Pongracz P Molnar C Miklosi A Acoustic parameters of dog barks carry emotional information for humans

Appl Anim Behav Sci 2006100228-240

7 Taylor A M Reby D amp McComb K Human listeners attend to size information in domestic dog growls J

Acoust Soc Amer 20081232903ndash2909

8 Wittenberg GM Tsien JZ An emerging molecular and cellular framework for memory processing by the

hippocampus TRENDS Neurosci 200225 501-505

9 Schafe GE Nader K Blair HT LeDoux JE Memory consiliation of Pavlovian fear contditioning a

cellular and molecular perspective TRENDS Neurosci 200124540-546

10 Schilder MBH van der Borg JAM Training dogs with help of the shock collar short and long term

behavioural effects Appl Anim Behav Sci 200485319-334

11 Schalke E Stichnoth J Ott S Jones-Baade R Clinical signs caused by the use of electric training collars

on dogs in everyday life situations Appl Anim Behav Sci 105369-380

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

1372011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

UNDERSTANDING BARKING IN DOGS CAUSE AND CREATIVE AND HUMANE TREATMENT

Signal Circumstance Information

neck erect or archedbull confident

bull challenging

ears erectbull alert

bull confident

ears back bull fear

ears vertically dropped

bull deference

bull avoidance

bull withdrawal

bull anxiety

snarlgrowl with only incisors and canines

apparent

bull confident

bull offensively aggressive

bull distance-increasing

snarlgrowl with all teeth and back of

throat apparent

bull defensively aggressive

bull fearful

bull distance-increasing

body lowered

bull defensive

bull distance-decreasing

bull fearful

bull deferential

bull relaxed

licking lips flicking tongue

bull appeasement

bull et-epimeletic

bull distance-decreasing

bull anxious (and solicitation of reassurance derived from et-epimeletic)

raising forepaw

bull distance-decreasing

bull solicitation of attention

bull deference (off balance)

paws out front end down rump up tail

waggingbull body bow invitation to play

perpendicular posturebull challenge

bull confidence

mounting or pressing on back or

shoulders of another dog

bull challenge

bull marking claiming

licking at corner of another dogrsquos (or

personrsquos) mouth

bull et-epimeletic

bull deference

bull solicitation

blowing out lipscheeksbull anticipation (positive or negative)

bull anxiety (if very fast)

popping or snapping of upper and lower

jaws (bill pops)

bull capitulation to a non-preferred request

bull intention to comply as a last resort but without agonistic behavior

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

138 2011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

Vocalizingbarking is an excellent example of a canine behavior that is complex and best interpreted within

the context of the circumstances and the dogs other behaviors Human response to the barking becomes part of

the context

Dogs do not continuously bark in response to every stimulus nor do they use the same bark in all

circumstances We can measure aspects of vocalizations by using sonographs ndash voice spectrographs - of the

vocalizations Analysis of dog barks has revealed that regardless of their experience with dogs the vast

majority of humans would correctly identify a dog who was vocalizing in a fight and one who was vocalizing

when a stranger approached [1] Less agreement was found for dogs who vocalized on walks in play when

alone or for those given a ball While people may be confident that they recognize a frank aggressive or alert

response we should be aware that they may not know that they are not accurately identifying the information

contained in barks in other situations This is important because the information contained in vocalizations

across such situations is different

One study examined growls in 3 contexts (play when guarding a bone and when approached by a

threatening stranger)[2] Play growls differed from growls in the two agonistic contexts with respect to

frequency and formant(spectralamplitude peaks in frequencies) dispersal play growls had higher frequencies

and lower formant dispersal While lower frequency growls usually correlate with larger dogs itrsquos important to

note that growl frequency has a functional component which can be altered by contracting the muscles of the

throat Formants can also be functionally altered when a dog stretches his neck he behaviorally lengthens his

vocal tract and disperses formants making him appear lsquolargerrsquo to someone who has made the general

association between these vocal characteristics and dog size This information content is recognized by and

affects dogs [3] When dogsrsquo heart rates are measured in response to a series of auditory cues they significantly

increase after hearing a recording of a dog barking at a stranger

Classes of barks and other vocalizations are consistent across different dogs given the specific context [4]

When 10 pet dogs were tested in 3 contexts (play isolation and disturbance) the dogs vocalized in ways that

were similar showing that the signature of the bark was associated with the context This pattern indicates that

dogs are communicating useful context-dependent information We should learn from such information

Similar patterns for vocal signatures were found when barks from dogs with separation anxiety were

compared with barks from unaffected dogs [5] The barks used by unaffected dogs in response to outdoor

stimuli indicated an alert similar to the high frequency solitary note shown by dogs in play but the repetitive

atonal complex barks exhibited by dogs with separation anxiety resembled the vocalizations in both the

disturbance and isolation contexts Dogs can clearly recognize the information provided in such signals and for

us to understand dog behavior we must do so also

Humans have been shown to classify the lsquoemotionalityrsquo of canine vocalization with respect to tone pitch

and inter-bark interval [6] If both formant dispersions and fundamental frequencies are manipulated lower

formants and fundamental frequencies are rated as belonging to larger dogs and those doing the rating give

more weight to formants which more accurately reflect vocal tract length because they correlate with the weight

of the dog [7]

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

1392011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

UNDERSTANDING BARKING IN DOGS CAUSE AND CREATIVE AND HUMANE TREATMENT

Dogs are cognitive and complex Their signaling behaviors are a reflection of these characteristics Dogs

use signals to convey information and to provoke the social situation to gain information Dogs ask questions

Given their ability to identify specific dogs and contexts from barks we should consider testing whether (and

likely accept that)vocal signaling in dogs has rules (grammar) that is providing more information than is

currently recognized When we evaluate or classify canine behaviors we need to be acutely aware of such

patterns and how inadequate our labels can be for conveying such complexity lsquoBarkingrsquo can be involved in a

number of behavioral conditions and client complaints Addressing the underlying context is going to result in

the most successful outcome

lsquoNuisancersquo barking ndash even if the dog is behaving in a contextually appropriate manner ndash can cause the dogrsquos

death or relinquishment Redress should be appropriate and humane The single most appropriate intervention

strategy is to acknowledge the dog and provide the information requested This is easy to do if the dog is not

distressed and the human is present acknowledge the alert check to see what the dog is barking at and thank

the dog Reward the dog for being quiet Barking in distress requires that the distress be addressed

In neither of these situations are bark collars the best choice Collars that make a spraying sound andor

spray the dog with citronella solution can startle and render more fearful susceptible dogs Dogs can and will

learn to bark below the level necessary to trigger the collar or to quickly empty the collar but they will still not

have their needs met Because electric shock collars actually cause pain they are likely to stop all behaviors

associated with shock including normal social behaviors

If shock and pain are profound it is possible to quickly induce long-term potentiation (LTP) the molecular

changes associated with hippocampal memory which will lead to a strong aversion or phobia The

hippocampus is the primary region where fears and anxieties associated with specific stimuli originate so a

logical sequelae to a stressful painful stimulus may be fear phobia or withdrawal Less painful stimuli over

time because of the nature of repeated reinforcement ensures better more numerous and more efficient

connections between neurons [8] This is how fear and avoidance are learned When stimulation continues we

know that activity dependent plasticity at synapses (eg learning) occurs in the lateral amygdale which is

involved in learning contextual fear [9]

Untoward negative long-term effects of training with shock have been demonstrated for German shepherd

guard dogs [10] Dogs that were shocked in training showed a lower ear posture in free-walking and more

stress-related behaviors than did dogs who had not been shocked in training These differences were also found

when these dogs participated in obedience training and manwork Physiological differences in the HPA axis

were also found and were most profound when the person associated with the shock (the owner or handler) was

present The resulting conclusions were (1) this type of training in general is stressful (2) receiving shocks is

painful for the dogs and (3) the dogs make a context-specific association where the presence of the owner

handler and his her commands provokes a stress response [10] Because the behaviors leading to the

vocalization matter we can expect shocks ndash even those delivered in response to barking - to be perceived by

many dogs to be unpredictable Laboratory research has shown that in normal dogs such interventions cause

stress and help produce pathological behaviors [11]

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

140 2011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

Early intervention appropriate treatment and meeting the dogrsquos needs are more humane solutions for dogs

who are sharing with us information about how they perceive their world and its attendant discomforts

References1 Molnar C Kaplan F Roy P Pachet F Pongracz P Doka A Miklosi A Classification of dog barks a machine

learning approach Anim Cogn 20011389ndash400

2 Farago T Pongracz P Range F Viranyi Z Miklosi A lsquoThe bone is minersquo affective and referential aspects of

dog growls Anim Behav 201079917-925

3 Maros K Pongracz P Bardos G Molnar C Farago T Miklosi A Dogs can discriminate barks from different

situations Appl Anim Behav Sci 2008114159-167

4 Yin S McCowan B Barking in domestic dogs context specificity and individual identification Anim Behav

200468343355

5 Overall KL Agulnick L Kapes M Dunham AE Sonographic analysis of dog vocalization a pilot study

involving distressed and unaffected dogs [poster abstract] American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior

(AVSAB) meeting New Orleans LA July 1999

6 Pongracz P Molnar C Miklosi A Acoustic parameters of dog barks carry emotional information for humans

Appl Anim Behav Sci 2006100228-240

7 Taylor A M Reby D amp McComb K Human listeners attend to size information in domestic dog growls J

Acoust Soc Amer 20081232903ndash2909

8 Wittenberg GM Tsien JZ An emerging molecular and cellular framework for memory processing by the

hippocampus TRENDS Neurosci 200225 501-505

9 Schafe GE Nader K Blair HT LeDoux JE Memory consiliation of Pavlovian fear contditioning a

cellular and molecular perspective TRENDS Neurosci 200124540-546

10 Schilder MBH van der Borg JAM Training dogs with help of the shock collar short and long term

behavioural effects Appl Anim Behav Sci 200485319-334

11 Schalke E Stichnoth J Ott S Jones-Baade R Clinical signs caused by the use of electric training collars

on dogs in everyday life situations Appl Anim Behav Sci 105369-380

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

138 2011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

Vocalizingbarking is an excellent example of a canine behavior that is complex and best interpreted within

the context of the circumstances and the dogs other behaviors Human response to the barking becomes part of

the context

Dogs do not continuously bark in response to every stimulus nor do they use the same bark in all

circumstances We can measure aspects of vocalizations by using sonographs ndash voice spectrographs - of the

vocalizations Analysis of dog barks has revealed that regardless of their experience with dogs the vast

majority of humans would correctly identify a dog who was vocalizing in a fight and one who was vocalizing

when a stranger approached [1] Less agreement was found for dogs who vocalized on walks in play when

alone or for those given a ball While people may be confident that they recognize a frank aggressive or alert

response we should be aware that they may not know that they are not accurately identifying the information

contained in barks in other situations This is important because the information contained in vocalizations

across such situations is different

One study examined growls in 3 contexts (play when guarding a bone and when approached by a

threatening stranger)[2] Play growls differed from growls in the two agonistic contexts with respect to

frequency and formant(spectralamplitude peaks in frequencies) dispersal play growls had higher frequencies

and lower formant dispersal While lower frequency growls usually correlate with larger dogs itrsquos important to

note that growl frequency has a functional component which can be altered by contracting the muscles of the

throat Formants can also be functionally altered when a dog stretches his neck he behaviorally lengthens his

vocal tract and disperses formants making him appear lsquolargerrsquo to someone who has made the general

association between these vocal characteristics and dog size This information content is recognized by and

affects dogs [3] When dogsrsquo heart rates are measured in response to a series of auditory cues they significantly

increase after hearing a recording of a dog barking at a stranger

Classes of barks and other vocalizations are consistent across different dogs given the specific context [4]

When 10 pet dogs were tested in 3 contexts (play isolation and disturbance) the dogs vocalized in ways that

were similar showing that the signature of the bark was associated with the context This pattern indicates that

dogs are communicating useful context-dependent information We should learn from such information

Similar patterns for vocal signatures were found when barks from dogs with separation anxiety were

compared with barks from unaffected dogs [5] The barks used by unaffected dogs in response to outdoor

stimuli indicated an alert similar to the high frequency solitary note shown by dogs in play but the repetitive

atonal complex barks exhibited by dogs with separation anxiety resembled the vocalizations in both the

disturbance and isolation contexts Dogs can clearly recognize the information provided in such signals and for

us to understand dog behavior we must do so also

Humans have been shown to classify the lsquoemotionalityrsquo of canine vocalization with respect to tone pitch

and inter-bark interval [6] If both formant dispersions and fundamental frequencies are manipulated lower

formants and fundamental frequencies are rated as belonging to larger dogs and those doing the rating give

more weight to formants which more accurately reflect vocal tract length because they correlate with the weight

of the dog [7]

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

1392011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

UNDERSTANDING BARKING IN DOGS CAUSE AND CREATIVE AND HUMANE TREATMENT

Dogs are cognitive and complex Their signaling behaviors are a reflection of these characteristics Dogs

use signals to convey information and to provoke the social situation to gain information Dogs ask questions

Given their ability to identify specific dogs and contexts from barks we should consider testing whether (and

likely accept that)vocal signaling in dogs has rules (grammar) that is providing more information than is

currently recognized When we evaluate or classify canine behaviors we need to be acutely aware of such

patterns and how inadequate our labels can be for conveying such complexity lsquoBarkingrsquo can be involved in a

number of behavioral conditions and client complaints Addressing the underlying context is going to result in

the most successful outcome

lsquoNuisancersquo barking ndash even if the dog is behaving in a contextually appropriate manner ndash can cause the dogrsquos

death or relinquishment Redress should be appropriate and humane The single most appropriate intervention

strategy is to acknowledge the dog and provide the information requested This is easy to do if the dog is not

distressed and the human is present acknowledge the alert check to see what the dog is barking at and thank

the dog Reward the dog for being quiet Barking in distress requires that the distress be addressed

In neither of these situations are bark collars the best choice Collars that make a spraying sound andor

spray the dog with citronella solution can startle and render more fearful susceptible dogs Dogs can and will

learn to bark below the level necessary to trigger the collar or to quickly empty the collar but they will still not

have their needs met Because electric shock collars actually cause pain they are likely to stop all behaviors

associated with shock including normal social behaviors

If shock and pain are profound it is possible to quickly induce long-term potentiation (LTP) the molecular

changes associated with hippocampal memory which will lead to a strong aversion or phobia The

hippocampus is the primary region where fears and anxieties associated with specific stimuli originate so a

logical sequelae to a stressful painful stimulus may be fear phobia or withdrawal Less painful stimuli over

time because of the nature of repeated reinforcement ensures better more numerous and more efficient

connections between neurons [8] This is how fear and avoidance are learned When stimulation continues we

know that activity dependent plasticity at synapses (eg learning) occurs in the lateral amygdale which is

involved in learning contextual fear [9]

Untoward negative long-term effects of training with shock have been demonstrated for German shepherd

guard dogs [10] Dogs that were shocked in training showed a lower ear posture in free-walking and more

stress-related behaviors than did dogs who had not been shocked in training These differences were also found

when these dogs participated in obedience training and manwork Physiological differences in the HPA axis

were also found and were most profound when the person associated with the shock (the owner or handler) was

present The resulting conclusions were (1) this type of training in general is stressful (2) receiving shocks is

painful for the dogs and (3) the dogs make a context-specific association where the presence of the owner

handler and his her commands provokes a stress response [10] Because the behaviors leading to the

vocalization matter we can expect shocks ndash even those delivered in response to barking - to be perceived by

many dogs to be unpredictable Laboratory research has shown that in normal dogs such interventions cause

stress and help produce pathological behaviors [11]

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

140 2011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

Early intervention appropriate treatment and meeting the dogrsquos needs are more humane solutions for dogs

who are sharing with us information about how they perceive their world and its attendant discomforts

References1 Molnar C Kaplan F Roy P Pachet F Pongracz P Doka A Miklosi A Classification of dog barks a machine

learning approach Anim Cogn 20011389ndash400

2 Farago T Pongracz P Range F Viranyi Z Miklosi A lsquoThe bone is minersquo affective and referential aspects of

dog growls Anim Behav 201079917-925

3 Maros K Pongracz P Bardos G Molnar C Farago T Miklosi A Dogs can discriminate barks from different

situations Appl Anim Behav Sci 2008114159-167

4 Yin S McCowan B Barking in domestic dogs context specificity and individual identification Anim Behav

200468343355

5 Overall KL Agulnick L Kapes M Dunham AE Sonographic analysis of dog vocalization a pilot study

involving distressed and unaffected dogs [poster abstract] American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior

(AVSAB) meeting New Orleans LA July 1999

6 Pongracz P Molnar C Miklosi A Acoustic parameters of dog barks carry emotional information for humans

Appl Anim Behav Sci 2006100228-240

7 Taylor A M Reby D amp McComb K Human listeners attend to size information in domestic dog growls J

Acoust Soc Amer 20081232903ndash2909

8 Wittenberg GM Tsien JZ An emerging molecular and cellular framework for memory processing by the

hippocampus TRENDS Neurosci 200225 501-505

9 Schafe GE Nader K Blair HT LeDoux JE Memory consiliation of Pavlovian fear contditioning a

cellular and molecular perspective TRENDS Neurosci 200124540-546

10 Schilder MBH van der Borg JAM Training dogs with help of the shock collar short and long term

behavioural effects Appl Anim Behav Sci 200485319-334

11 Schalke E Stichnoth J Ott S Jones-Baade R Clinical signs caused by the use of electric training collars

on dogs in everyday life situations Appl Anim Behav Sci 105369-380

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

1392011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

UNDERSTANDING BARKING IN DOGS CAUSE AND CREATIVE AND HUMANE TREATMENT

Dogs are cognitive and complex Their signaling behaviors are a reflection of these characteristics Dogs

use signals to convey information and to provoke the social situation to gain information Dogs ask questions

Given their ability to identify specific dogs and contexts from barks we should consider testing whether (and

likely accept that)vocal signaling in dogs has rules (grammar) that is providing more information than is

currently recognized When we evaluate or classify canine behaviors we need to be acutely aware of such

patterns and how inadequate our labels can be for conveying such complexity lsquoBarkingrsquo can be involved in a

number of behavioral conditions and client complaints Addressing the underlying context is going to result in

the most successful outcome

lsquoNuisancersquo barking ndash even if the dog is behaving in a contextually appropriate manner ndash can cause the dogrsquos

death or relinquishment Redress should be appropriate and humane The single most appropriate intervention

strategy is to acknowledge the dog and provide the information requested This is easy to do if the dog is not

distressed and the human is present acknowledge the alert check to see what the dog is barking at and thank

the dog Reward the dog for being quiet Barking in distress requires that the distress be addressed

In neither of these situations are bark collars the best choice Collars that make a spraying sound andor

spray the dog with citronella solution can startle and render more fearful susceptible dogs Dogs can and will

learn to bark below the level necessary to trigger the collar or to quickly empty the collar but they will still not

have their needs met Because electric shock collars actually cause pain they are likely to stop all behaviors

associated with shock including normal social behaviors

If shock and pain are profound it is possible to quickly induce long-term potentiation (LTP) the molecular

changes associated with hippocampal memory which will lead to a strong aversion or phobia The

hippocampus is the primary region where fears and anxieties associated with specific stimuli originate so a

logical sequelae to a stressful painful stimulus may be fear phobia or withdrawal Less painful stimuli over

time because of the nature of repeated reinforcement ensures better more numerous and more efficient

connections between neurons [8] This is how fear and avoidance are learned When stimulation continues we

know that activity dependent plasticity at synapses (eg learning) occurs in the lateral amygdale which is

involved in learning contextual fear [9]

Untoward negative long-term effects of training with shock have been demonstrated for German shepherd

guard dogs [10] Dogs that were shocked in training showed a lower ear posture in free-walking and more

stress-related behaviors than did dogs who had not been shocked in training These differences were also found

when these dogs participated in obedience training and manwork Physiological differences in the HPA axis

were also found and were most profound when the person associated with the shock (the owner or handler) was

present The resulting conclusions were (1) this type of training in general is stressful (2) receiving shocks is

painful for the dogs and (3) the dogs make a context-specific association where the presence of the owner

handler and his her commands provokes a stress response [10] Because the behaviors leading to the

vocalization matter we can expect shocks ndash even those delivered in response to barking - to be perceived by

many dogs to be unpredictable Laboratory research has shown that in normal dogs such interventions cause

stress and help produce pathological behaviors [11]

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

140 2011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

Early intervention appropriate treatment and meeting the dogrsquos needs are more humane solutions for dogs

who are sharing with us information about how they perceive their world and its attendant discomforts

References1 Molnar C Kaplan F Roy P Pachet F Pongracz P Doka A Miklosi A Classification of dog barks a machine

learning approach Anim Cogn 20011389ndash400

2 Farago T Pongracz P Range F Viranyi Z Miklosi A lsquoThe bone is minersquo affective and referential aspects of

dog growls Anim Behav 201079917-925

3 Maros K Pongracz P Bardos G Molnar C Farago T Miklosi A Dogs can discriminate barks from different

situations Appl Anim Behav Sci 2008114159-167

4 Yin S McCowan B Barking in domestic dogs context specificity and individual identification Anim Behav

200468343355

5 Overall KL Agulnick L Kapes M Dunham AE Sonographic analysis of dog vocalization a pilot study

involving distressed and unaffected dogs [poster abstract] American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior

(AVSAB) meeting New Orleans LA July 1999

6 Pongracz P Molnar C Miklosi A Acoustic parameters of dog barks carry emotional information for humans

Appl Anim Behav Sci 2006100228-240

7 Taylor A M Reby D amp McComb K Human listeners attend to size information in domestic dog growls J

Acoust Soc Amer 20081232903ndash2909

8 Wittenberg GM Tsien JZ An emerging molecular and cellular framework for memory processing by the

hippocampus TRENDS Neurosci 200225 501-505

9 Schafe GE Nader K Blair HT LeDoux JE Memory consiliation of Pavlovian fear contditioning a

cellular and molecular perspective TRENDS Neurosci 200124540-546

10 Schilder MBH van der Borg JAM Training dogs with help of the shock collar short and long term

behavioural effects Appl Anim Behav Sci 200485319-334

11 Schalke E Stichnoth J Ott S Jones-Baade R Clinical signs caused by the use of electric training collars

on dogs in everyday life situations Appl Anim Behav Sci 105369-380

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea

140 2011 WSAVAmiddotFASAVA World Congress Proceedings

Early intervention appropriate treatment and meeting the dogrsquos needs are more humane solutions for dogs

who are sharing with us information about how they perceive their world and its attendant discomforts

References1 Molnar C Kaplan F Roy P Pachet F Pongracz P Doka A Miklosi A Classification of dog barks a machine

learning approach Anim Cogn 20011389ndash400

2 Farago T Pongracz P Range F Viranyi Z Miklosi A lsquoThe bone is minersquo affective and referential aspects of

dog growls Anim Behav 201079917-925

3 Maros K Pongracz P Bardos G Molnar C Farago T Miklosi A Dogs can discriminate barks from different

situations Appl Anim Behav Sci 2008114159-167

4 Yin S McCowan B Barking in domestic dogs context specificity and individual identification Anim Behav

200468343355

5 Overall KL Agulnick L Kapes M Dunham AE Sonographic analysis of dog vocalization a pilot study

involving distressed and unaffected dogs [poster abstract] American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior

(AVSAB) meeting New Orleans LA July 1999

6 Pongracz P Molnar C Miklosi A Acoustic parameters of dog barks carry emotional information for humans

Appl Anim Behav Sci 2006100228-240

7 Taylor A M Reby D amp McComb K Human listeners attend to size information in domestic dog growls J

Acoust Soc Amer 20081232903ndash2909

8 Wittenberg GM Tsien JZ An emerging molecular and cellular framework for memory processing by the

hippocampus TRENDS Neurosci 200225 501-505

9 Schafe GE Nader K Blair HT LeDoux JE Memory consiliation of Pavlovian fear contditioning a

cellular and molecular perspective TRENDS Neurosci 200124540-546

10 Schilder MBH van der Borg JAM Training dogs with help of the shock collar short and long term

behavioural effects Appl Anim Behav Sci 200485319-334

11 Schalke E Stichnoth J Ott S Jones-Baade R Clinical signs caused by the use of electric training collars

on dogs in everyday life situations Appl Anim Behav Sci 105369-380

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of WSAVA Close this window to return to IVIS

36th World Small Animal Veterinary Congress 2011 - Jeju Korea