Okay, so my dog has started this new vocalization. Instead of a “uff” (that noise they make when they’re thinking about growling or barking) or a “mreowl” (whiny dog noise), she’s now responding to “Hi Sienna” or “Do you want a cookie?” or almost anything with “poof.” The “oo” part is slightly vocalized, which makes it weird, and the “word” doesn’t seem to be connected to any particular behavior. She uses it as a greeting, as a response, she even randomly says “poof” to her toys. It’s a little weird, and we (the fiance and I) haven’t quite figured it out.
I think she says it because you dress her up and pull on her cheeks. She’s saying “poof” and trying to make you disappear. By the way, what were you doing in my kitchen? That’s my kitchen floor in a couple of those pictures.
As for the “dressing up” bit, this was a photo taken from when she’d had a bath. No matter how hard you try (she won’t sit still for a blow-dryer), she’s next to impossible to get dry after a bath. Worse than this is she gets cold. Hence the t-shirt in the one photo. So she looks stupid for an hour.
As for those kitchen tiles, that was at my future MIL’s house. Strangely enough, also in her kitchen. We don’t live in MN.
My Shar-Pei poofs at us, too- He does it because he knows it’s irresistably cute and will result in getting some sort of food that we’re eating. He puffs out his fat Shar-pei cheeks when he does it, too. I’m forever yelling “Stop poofing at me! It’s not working!!!” but he keeps it up.
My dog talks. My dog can actually play a trivia game.
“What’s on top of a house?”
“Roof! Roof!”
“What kind of vegetable is a potato?”
“Root! Root!”
“What’s the name for neckwear of the Elizabethan Era?”
“Ruff! Ruff!”
“What’s another word for ‘tersely-said’?”
“Gruff! Gruff!”
Likely, what has happened is that when your dog made that vocalization at first, it really captured your attention. Somehow, you positively reinforced this behavior and now your dog thinks you want her to vocally respond when you speak to her.
I think your dog has a lisp.
I used to have a Japanese Bobtail cat that meowed “HEe-new”. The first time I heard it was in the box in the car coming home. She was peeking out at me through a hole in the box with her green eye (the other eye was blue). I leaned over and said “Now,. what should we name you?**”. She replied “Heenew, heenew, heenew.”
I laughed and said “Ok. Heenu it is”
She was a funny little cat. Looked just like this one
**She was purebreed and had some dumb purebreed name like Spacemuffin Lou Lou Skittle.
