# 100 Chihuahuas in a room **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 12, 2009, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327 "2009-11-12T17:05:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/1 "2009-11-12T17:05:14Z")
Please help settle this dispute. Let’s assume I have 100 hypothetical Chihuahuas that don’t need to eat or sleep, urinate, etc., and that are all about the same age and size. Let’s also assume an even mixture of males and females, and that all have been spayed or neutered. If I put these 100 Chihuahuas in an average-sized room with closed doors, and I “set one off” to start barking, what will be the result? I say that the 100 Chihuahuas will become a chain reaction of barking that will continue indefinitely. My friend says that eventually the barkiness of the Chihuahuas will die out, and reach a kind of entropic silence. I find this very hard to accept. What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/2 "2009-11-12T17:07:23Z")
There’s no reason to think that there’d be an uniformity between instances. What’s the size of the room? What’s the lighting of the room? What’s the temperature? Are they well fed? etc there are too many variables. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/3 "2009-11-12T17:12:49Z")
This raises the question of whether chihuahuas that did not need food, sleep, water, elimination, etc., ever _would_ die. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/4 "2009-11-12T17:16:44Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > This raises the question of whether chihuahuas that did not need food, sleep, water, elimination, etc., ever _would_ die. that sounds like the premise for a bad hortror movie. I think that they would never stpo barking. I have spent two hours in my back yard wit my neighbors 2 labradors barking continuously, so I think a hundred normal chihuahas would never stop. ---
**Author:** ![otternell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecc23a/32.png) [@otternell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/otternell)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/5 "2009-11-12T17:22:59Z")
I think they will never stop barking. I don’t have a chihuahua, but I do have 3 small dogs, and if one starts, they all start. Fortunately with three, eventually they do all STHU, but with 100, the dog next to them could fart and that would start it all over again. There are just too many opportunities for additional “starts”. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/6 "2009-11-12T17:36:09Z")
Is it like nuclear fission, where one chihuahua’s bark starts two others barking, and so on? If that’s the case, you need a moderator. Like doggie treats. ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Joe\_Meager](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bb73d2/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Joe\_Meager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Joe_Meager)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/7 "2009-11-12T17:45:02Z")
Dunno. But if you had 101 _Dalmations_… ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/8 "2009-11-12T17:49:38Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Is it like nuclear fission, where one chihuahua’s bark starts two others barking, and so on? > If that’s the case, you need a moderator. Like doggie treats. How long would it take 100 chihuahuas to eat a moderator? I suspect that you could model the OP’s problem using statistics. Waiting for a barkless period would probably be like trying to make a lefthand turn onto a very busy highway, it takes a long time but eventually there’s a gap. Probably a barkless period would be several standard deviations from the mean, but eventually the law of averages says that you’ll get a time when every single chihuahua is involved in other doggy activities, which would probably involve sniffing each other’s nether regions or licking their own. However this would not be a stable condition and eventually something would set off a new round of barking. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/9 "2009-11-12T17:52:46Z")
Yo quiero details. If the dogs don’t need to eat or sleep, are they still subject to short-term fatigue? In the long run, there will inevitably be a moment when all 100 dogs are tired at the same time and if they need an outside impetus to start them barking again, I guess they’ll remain silent forever. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/10 "2009-11-12T17:59:57Z")
Pack mentality would state that the 99 not barking would eventually do something about the 1 that was. Packs don’t like trouble-makers. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/11 "2009-11-12T18:05:06Z")
They won’t bark indefinitely - just until the poison gas is released. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/12 "2009-11-12T18:59:45Z")
**100 Chihuahuas in a room** If one of the Chihuahuas would happen to fall… When I lived in rural Eastern Kentucky, there were nights when a dog started barking nearby at a fallen leaf or some other menace, our dogs reacted by barking, others a ways down the holler took up the challenge and eventually there’d be dogs barking miles away. I figure that sometimes the chain reaction of barking dogs extended all the way to the Tennessee border, and maybe beyond. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/13 "2009-11-12T20:58:19Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > When I lived in rural Eastern Kentucky, there were nights when a dog started barking nearby at a fallen leaf or some other menace, our dogs reacted by barking, others a ways down the holler took up the challenge and eventually there’d be dogs barking miles away. > > I figure that sometimes the chain reaction of barking dogs extended all the way to the Tennessee border, and maybe beyond. Though I don’t recall where, I have seen this phenomenon described as the **Rovalert**. (Was that a Rich Hall “Sniglet,” maybe?) ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/14 "2009-11-12T21:05:03Z")
Impossible question! I have three dogs in a small apartment. One is a big barker (Shepard mix), one barks hardly at all (Cockapoo), one is in the middle (Tibetan Terrier). All three bark at once only when someone is at the door. The Shepherd barks by himself often. So it depends on the dog, really, even in your situation… ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/15 "2009-11-12T22:17:56Z")
Just give them 100 typewriters. They’ll quiet down and write the entire works of Sue Grafton. ---
**Author:** ![Sanity\_Challenged](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Sanity\_Challenged](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sanity_Challenged)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/16 "2009-11-12T22:23:44Z")
Step into your local animal shelter, and in a short time all of the dogs will be barking. Then walk out of the actual kennel area and spend some time talking to the workers, and eventually the barking will taper off and end. I don’t see what would be any different about the barking Chihuahuas. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/17 "2009-11-12T22:41:54Z")
If the room is located in the woods, would their barking make any noise? You should also consider that in order to detect barking, you must make an observation. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/18 "2009-11-13T01:18:50Z")
And if I open the door, will half of them be dead or alive? In any case, the question at heart is whether barking _in and of itself_ constitutes the core truth condition of being a Chihuahua. That is, once a Chihuahua ceases to bark, does it not also cease to be? Whether it is alive or not? ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/19 "2009-11-13T01:29:29Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > In any case, the question at heart is whether barking _in and of itself_ constitutes the core truth condition of being a Chihuahua. That’s definitely true for Miniature Schnauzers. Barkiest breed I know of, even more so than the traditional small yappers (Yorkshire Terriers, Chihuahuas, Lhasa Apsos, etc). Schnauzers live to bark. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327/20 "2009-11-13T04:15:26Z")
Reminds me of when Tickle Me Elmo was the hot Christmas gift. Me and my uncle used to go into toy stores that had them stacked up in displays and get one going off. The vibrations would set several more off and the self-feeding chain reaction would go on for quite some time. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-chihuahuas-in-a-room/517327.md?page=2)