They do if you hit them across your shins really hard.
The basenji is the only one who as a breed does not bark, although they can make some unearthly noises anyway! The others may be more or less prone to barking and also vary upon the individual. I dont recall hearing RR’s being touted as quiet, and the three I have as clients are quite noisy, but I suppose they could be oddballs.
Some years ago we had a wonderful and beautiful Borzoi (Russian wolfhound) bitch. While most of this breed barks properly, poor Natasha never ever barked.
My wife decided to teach her to do so by holding up the food dish and insisting she bark. The most the poor thing ever got out was a loud, whispering sort of “huff” so we gave up the experiment.
I had a basenji when I was a teenager.
It is true they do not bark. They yodel. It is pretty cool and, I am not sure if it is indicative of the breed or my dog’s quirk, he hated the cold weather. The only way we could get him to go outside was by tossing him out by the scruff of his neck and the base of his tail. It was quite comical, really.
Basenji’s are desert dogs. Michigan is not a desert.
You are absolutely right. I don’t walk her - she drags me.
Bench dogs are completely mute. Gear dogs whine a bit and clank.
We’ve had our adopted Lhasa for a couple of months, and I’ve only heard her bark four times. Two of those times were when she was inside and she could see us outside. Being a short-nosed dog, though, she snorts, snores, and sorta purrs.
Schipperkes don’t bark, unless they’re ill-bred. My mom used to always have them. We got one with epilepsy, and she barked at everything, but usually, no they shouldn’t bark.
Shirley Ujest, that matches our experience. Ours does not like cold; does not like snow; does not like rain. She likes hot and dry. Any other weather condition is taken as a sign of poor managment on our part.
Since Saskatchewan’s climate only rarely coincides with that of North Africa, she often has to be “encouraged” to go outside.
There’s a Malamut that lives next door to me, and the bloody thing barks continually, as do the labrador and shiba that it lives with.
I only have to approach that end of the garden to set them off, or get in the car, or any damn thing.
Its bark is incredibly deep, and dare I say it? Husky!
Errrrrrr wha? Does anyone else have a similar experience? One of my friends has a dobernman pinscher, and it’s about as small and yappy as you can get without actually being a Jack Russell. I think it’s about 80% lungs, just so that it can give a bark that’s totally disproportionate to its size, and he sure does like to use that ability often.
Are you sure your friend doesn’t have a MinPin? I’ve never seen a doberman as small as you describe… 
Although malamute and a Siberian Husky are both called “huskies” and are both sled dogs, the breeds are quite dis-similar.
They do dig like crazy, and they love to PULL as The Sausage Creature and wolf_meister have said.
Not an indoor breed. 
Chiuauas were supposedly a mute breed that some fool decided needed to bark.
Funny that. No one told David, the Schipperke living in the apartment below me.
They’re watch dogs. Of course they bark.
I’ve never heard an Akita bark, but it’s possible that is a temperament thing. They are big badass dogs and may only bark when they feel there is truly a threat to life and limb. I heard – but don’t necessarily believe – that an Akita won’t bark at all.
Oh, they bark, all right. At least some of them do. There used to be an Akita living in the house next to my friend’s, and every time I walked past the house, it would raise the most unbelievable racket. Didn’t have to be someone walking by, either. Bicycles, cars going by, the train arriving at the station half a mile away… It barked for them all. One night I was sleeping over at her house and we went into the front yard at 3 am to find the dog still hollering away at seemingly nothing. I don’t know how the owners put up with it…
Very instructive answers, good links.
Thanks everyone.
Apus
Our downstairs neighbors have a shiba inu - sort of a junior Akita. This building has terrible sound insulation between floors, but we <i>never</i> hear their dog. I’ve known a couple of other shibas, too, and all were very quiet. (Although apparently they’re energetic, and generate noise when they’re destroying things because they’re bored.)
Shiba Inus have been described to me as “cat-like”.
Malamutes howl/whine/cry, though, don’t they? I used to know one casually, and this creature broke my heart. No matter what it was ‘saying’ (hi, there, let’s walk, I’m hungry, where’s my ball?) it sounded like its mother was dead, its food was gone, its tail was on fire, the whole world had been rendered desolate and there was no hope. I couldn’t handle that sound for long; it was too, too sad.
Malamutes bark and howl like there is no tomorrow.
Look at any documentary about sled dogs. My Hockeydog is part Malamute (we think) and she barks in her sleep.