My Scottish Terrier, Mackie, has been a pretty quiet dog all of her life* but all of a sudden over the past month she has apparently realized that if she wants in (or out) of the house, all she has to do is bark. Or growl. Or a combination of both.
Used to be she would just sit by the door and wait, sometimes for hours on end, but apparently a couple of extra neurons started firing and she has come to realize that if she barks, we’re more likely to get up and let her in/out.
Well… I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.
(Mundane, pointless, but I felt I had to share… so there it is. )
*Except when facing other dogs from the safety of her living room - then she barks and snarls. But get her outside… total creampuff. :rolleyes:
Not hours on letting her out, but letting her back in the house. Sometimes we’re cleaning and it’s easier to do without the dog attacking the vacuum cleaner. Sometimes she got a bath and we don’t want a wet Scotty running everywhere.
Sorry for the confusion… I guess my OP does suggest that we’d make her wait hours just to go to the bathroom, but really, we don’t. But now instead of sitting by the door and waiting patiently, she now sits by the door and starts barking immediately.
Our Boxer has always been a timid, quiet dog as well. The only way I know that he can bark is because he will occasionally emit a soft “woof, woof” when dreaming. He has, though. lately begun ‘talking’ - not a bark and not a growl, it sounds almost exactly like Chewbacca in the Star Wars movies, only softer. He talks mostly to me and the cat, me when he needs to go out or wants to play, the cat when he wants to know why she won’t be his friend (she has always ignored him at best, and swatted his nose at worst). It’s really quite comical.
Had one cat who hardly ever made a sound outside of spitting at other cats in his territory. Until you put him in the carrier to take to the vet, that is. Suddenly it would sound like we had put a kitten in the box. I don’t think he ever learned to meow like an adult cat. Mr. Rough and Tumble, King of the Castle, squeaking like a kitten.
My old cat has become very vocal in the last year. She is at least 15 years old and has always been a quiet cat. Now she meows, screams loudly at various times of the day. She is physically healthy and still quite agile, so I didn’t think it was a pain issue.
The behavior was getting annoying so I did a few test, like talking to her when she was facing away, and she would not respond as she should. Took her to the vet and yup, she is basically deaf. She can hear sharp or loud noises only and has just adapted to life with limited hearing.
If your normally quiet 9 year old dog has become a loud dog, it may be because it can’t hear very well.
Possibly, but Mackie isn’t showing other signs of deafness - she can still hear the fridge open from the other side of the house, has no problem hearing us call for her, hears it when her food bowl rattles, etc. And her barking is largely limited to when she wants in/out of the house.
My current Boxer girl is pretty quiet, but a previous boxer girl was very chatty. She would back talk us when she was told to do something, she kinda grumbled at us, and if really pissed, would bark at us.
An I thought it was weird that it took my chihuahua a few months to find her voice. Too bad she learned from my dachshund who barks every time (including us) walks in the hallway at night.
)